360 Product View of Apple Watch
Its always great to see companies, both small and large, implement 360 product views into their websites. Two weeks ago, when the Apple Watch went on sale, Apple was sure to include many high quality images to better visually communicate their watches. It was no surprise to see the main product image being used above the fold was an interactive 360 product view composed of 90 individual frames. Apple has long been a front runner in their digital marketing efforts and we have seen them employ 360 product views in many of their product launches. When you consider the benefits of 360 product views in the online space, it’s no wonder Apple keeps on track with their 360 product photography efforts.
Now, we are seeing many large companies implementing 360 product views into their website to better visually communicate products. This has offered a bridge that breaks down resistance to purchase and is a proven tool to increase conversion rates while also decreasing product returns. Here at Iconasys we have set out to deliver not only the best available 360 product photography solutions, but also the most affordable. We have complete and affordable 360 solutions that provides users the ability to shoot, edit and compose a web-ready 360 product view in under 5 minutes per product. Please see additional information on our 360 Product Photography Equipment & Software.
We decided to take the Apple Watch 360 view one step further using our Shutter Stream 360 Product Photography Software Image Editing Tools and 360 View Creator Software to add some more interactive elements that further enhance the customer experience and usability. Should you be an online retailer OR product review website who is interested in using this 360 view in your site, please contact us and we will be happy to provide the embed code.
Click and drag to move view left and right. Clicking the Apple logo hotspots will pop up additional product images we have added to the 360 view. The Apple Watch logo in the top right has been linked to the Apple Watch Buy Now page.
Our workflow is as follows:
1. Replace Background with Pure White: Since all Apple’s images were on a grey background, we decided to import the set of 90 JPG images into the Shutter Stream 360 Product Photography Software and remove the backgrounds (and replace with white) using the Automated Background Removal tool. This was a 45 second process – all of which image editing / background removal was done in a batch process. Learn more about Automated Product Photography Background Removal Tools
2. Add Canvas – Apple had cropped these images pretty close to the product. We decided we would like to add some more white space around the subject. We were able to do so in a batch process in the Editing tools of Shutter Stream 360 Product Photography Software. We simply added cavas – 40 pixels to each edge using a single click in the software – the canvas was then applied to every single frames in the set of images.
3. Add a Watermark – We decided to brand this output with our own company logo. In a one click batch process, we were able to stamp our own company logo onto every single frame.
4. Renaming / Resizing / Output– Inside the Shutter Stream 360 software we were able to choose to resize all frames to a specific size and rename accordingly. This is a batch process and we were able to rename so that sequential images were named numerically. For ex. Apple-Watch-360-View-01.jpg, Apple-Watch-360-View-02.jpg, Apple-Watch-360-View-03.jpg… Apple-Watch-360-View-90.jpg
5. Importing – Our last step was to import the set of images into the 360 View Creator Software (included in the Shutter Stream 360 Product Photography Software) to create our 360 View Output. It was in this step we were able to define the spin direction & duration (how fast it rotates), define to include interactivity (click and drag mouse control, deep zoom) and also add interactive hotspots. We choose to add image hotspots using the Apple logo – that could move around with the watch as it spun 360. The two types of hotspots we added were:
- URL HotSpot: This is included in the top right corner of the 360 view and links directly to the Apple Watch Buy Now Page.
- Image Hotspots: These provide users the ability to add additional frames to even further enhance visual communication on the 360 view.
After which, the process is complete. The output file was an interactive 360 view of the apple watch in HTML5+JavaScript which is compatible with all web and mobile browsers. To implement into this page, we simply hosted the output folder on our server, copied the link to the iframe.html file and embedded this directly into our website.
Iconasys is a Developer of digital imaging software and Designer/Integrator of still & 360 photography. We launched in 2013 with the intent to deliver studio/product photography solutions that would enable users to easily and efficiently create high quality images. We primarily operate in the eCommerce space with about 90% of our customers shooting still and 360 product images for their websites however our solutions are perfect for any high volume imaging applications.
Learn more about Iconasys 360 Product Photography Software
