The XR designer’s essential toolkit in 2025: your starter guide

Hello to everyone curious about the world of XR! 👋

Today I am offering you a complete stack of tools for design, prototyping and implementation in XR design!

🎨 DESIGN & PROTOTYPING: your first steps

Figma - your number one ally (in XR too)

You already know Figma? Perfect! You can keep using it to design XR interfaces. Yes, really.

Why it works so well:

• You keep your habits as a 2D designer
• You share your mockups with your team exactly as before
• You export easily to Unity when you are ready

Miro - for thinking "big" (literally)

Picture a whiteboard… but endless. That is Miro. Perfect for organising your ideas before you start.

What you can do with it:

• Map out the user journey of your VR experience
• Build storyboards for your AR scenes
• Brainstorm together in real time
• Connect Miro with Figma, Notion, Slack and the rest

🎯 A practical case: want to build an AR app for previewing furniture? Use Miro to map every interaction: scanning the room, placing the item, rotating it, changing its colour…

ShapesXR - designing INSIDE VR (the game-changer)

Here is where it gets genuinely exciting: you put on a VR headset and draw your interfaces… in 3D, with your hands.

It is powerful because:

• You see straight away whether your button is too far, too small…
• You work with your team in VR
• You export to Figma or Unity once it is ready

⚡ A tip: no headset yet? Use ShapesXR in its web version!

Spatial.io - present your designs immersively

Turn your Zoom design reviews into VR experiences people remember.

Picture it:

• Your client puts on a Quest and finds themselves in a 3D gallery with your work all around them
• You comment together, pointing at elements in space
• Accessible from a computer, a phone or a VR headset

💼 Perfect for: client presentations, 3D portfolios, virtual exhibitions

🎮 3D ENGINES: from the idea to the real experience

Unity - the essential one

60% of XR applications are built in Unity. It is THE industry standard.

Why you should learn it:

• Compatible with EVERY headset (Quest, Vision Pro, HoloLens and others)
• Thousands of free tutorials on YouTube
• An enormous community to help you along

🌱 Easing in: start with the "XR Interaction Toolkit" tutorials on YouTube. Two weeks of regular practice is enough to build your first interactive VR scene.

Unreal Engine - for spectacular visuals

Aiming for photorealism? AAA video game graphics? Unreal is made for you.

The big plus for designers:

• Blueprints = visual programming (you connect blocks, no code)
• MetaHumans for creating hyper-realistic people
• Breathtaking real-time rendering

Wonderland Engine - WebXR made simple

The idea: build VR/AR experiences reachable… through a plain link. No app to download.

It changes things because:

• You share a link and anyone can open it on their Quest
• 10x lighter than a Unity application
• A simple visual interface (drag & drop)

🎯 Perfect for:

• Quick prototypes to show clients
• VR product showrooms
• Lightweight WebXR games
• Immersive training you can share by email

🌐 XR SOCIAL PLATFORMS: creating without code

Horizon Worlds - the metaverse that already exists

This is the YouTube of VR: 300,000 worlds created, millions of users.

What is impressive about it:

• You build DIRECTLY inside your Quest headset
• A system of logic blocks (no code)
• Publish your world in one click, reachable by everyone

💡 Concrete examples:

• An escape game built in a week
• A virtual art gallery
• A coworking space for your remote team
• An interactive classroom

👉 Start here if: you have a Quest and no technical experience at all. Horizon Worlds is the best playground for learning.

📱 AUGMENTED REALITY: within reach, no headset needed

Adobe Aero - AR for creatives

Do you use Photoshop or Illustrator? Aero lets you turn your work into AR experiences, without code.

🎨 Use cases:

• An augmented creative portfolio (your business card comes to life)
• Interactive product packaging
• Furniture previews for e-commerce
• Spatial storytelling

Lens Studio - create your own Snapchat/TikTok filters

300 million people use Snapchat filters every day. You can create your own.

Opportunities:

• Virtual try-on (glasses, make-up)
• Branded filters for marketing campaigns
• Location-based AR games
• Educational effects

🚀 The advantage: instant distribution to 750M+ Snapchat users. Since 2024, your creations also work on TikTok!

ZapWorks - professional AR without an app

Build AR experiences reachable by scanning a QR code. Nothing to install.

Use cases:

• The customer scans the poster → the product appears in 3D in front of them
• Scan a cereal box → an AR mini-game
• A business card → an animated 3D portfolio
• An assembly manual → interactive AR instructions

Reality Composer - the Apple way in

If you live in the Apple ecosystem (iPhone/iPad/Vision Pro), Reality Composer is free.

Its strengths:

• Drag & drop, no code required
• Instant preview on your Apple devices
• Seamless integration with Vision Pro

💡 Ideal for: first steps in AR, quick iOS prototypes

🤖 CREATING 3D ASSETS: from concept to model

Spline - the "Figma of 3D"

You love Figma? Spline will give you the same feeling… in 3D.

Why it works so well:

• A familiar interface for 2D designers
• Interactions without code
• Real-time collaboration (like Figma)
• Direct export to the web (React, HTML)
• Vision Pro export (USDZ)

🎯 Use cases:

• Prototypes of spatial interfaces
• Interactive 3D landing pages
• 3D product configurators
• Photorealistic mockups

Tvori - VR sculpting & animation

Imagine drawing in 3D with your hands, in VR. That is Tvori.

What you can do with it:

• Sculpt characters intuitively
• Animate them directly in VR
• Work with up to 8 people at once
• Build storyboards immersively

🎨 Perfect for: 3D artists, animators, concept artists

Blender - the Swiss army knife (free)

The professional 3D tool… entirely free and open source.

Everything you can do with it:

• Full modelling
• Sculpting
• Character animation
• Photorealistic rendering
• XR-optimised export

📚 Resources: thousands of free YouTube tutorials. The learning curve is steeper, but the community is remarkable.

Meshy.ai - the AI that creates your 3D models

Type "medieval wooden chair" → get a textured 3D model in 2 minutes.

It works wonders for:

• Extremely fast prototyping
• Filling out VR environments
• Creating product variations
• Visual concepts for clients

💡 Upload a photo → get the 3D model. Perfect for AR in e-commerce.

Luma AI - 3D scanning with your phone

Film an object with your iPhone → get a usable 3D model.

Concrete use cases:

• Digitising real objects for your AR application
• Creating digital twins
• Scanning a physical prototype → a 3D model
• Capturing real environments

✨ Your next step: choose ONE experience to build

Do not spread yourself thin. Pick ONE simple project and see it through:

• 🎴 An animated AR business card
• 📸 A Snapchat filter for trying on glasses
• 🏠 A WebAR product showroom
• 🌍 A mini-game in Horizon Worlds
• 🎨 An interactive 3D gallery

💌 Stay in touch!

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