Core Values for a Mixed Reality Software Development Kit: A Qualitative Study Among Main SDK Tools for XR Development

In early 2022, the UX Research team from Sidia’s Research and Development Institute, located at Manaus/Brazil, received a requirement from one of its projects to conduct a comparative study on the usage of different Software Development Kits (SDKs) for Mixed Reality (XR) applications. The study aims to compile developer’s necessities and difficulties while using common available SDKs in the market. This qualitative study is about the core SDK values pointed out by participants related to the development of XR applications. We have selected developers based on availability to conduct a study for a month. With the help of Microsoft Office Forms, we have structured a series of surveys about the main usage activities of five important SDK tools to develop XR experiences. The selected SDKs were: ARCore, AR Foundation, Vuforia, Spark AR (Scripting API), and A-Frame. The surveys have been structured obeying the flow of activities of an XR application development. The defined flow, based on interview with the candidates, consisted of main phases: Installation e Update, Development, Tests and Deploy. The survey, compiled in a detailed report, exposes the collected data and share some of the participant’s opinion to provide context and exemplify the exposed use cases. In this report, we observe that the characteristics and needs of the participants varies according to which phase of the activity flow they are executing. For some stages, users demanded agility and frictionless processes. At other times, the flexibility and customization of the SDK behaviors were widely punctuated by participants.