For some, the term ‘metaverse’ brings to mind images of people wearing virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) glasses, using their avatars to explore a cartoonish 3D world. For innovators, it signals something far more practical and transformative: the rise of immersive product design, digital twins, and virtual prototyping, which will redefine how products are made. Instead of being an abstract concept, product development in the metaverse will be a powerful tool for businesses eager to accelerate innovation.

For entrepreneurs and business leaders, metaverse technology offers the opportunity to design, test, and refine products in entirely new ways. In this post, we’ll explore why the metaverse matters for innovation, how it’s transforming product design and rapid prototyping, and highlight industries already leading the way. Book a free discovery call with one of our experts if you’re ready to explore how these technologies will impact or optimise your product development strategy.

What is the metaverse?

Not to be confused with Facebook’s rebrand as Meta in 2021, the metaverse refers to a vast, interconnected network of 3-D-enabled virtual spaces where users can interact with each other and digital environments in real time. While users, each with their own avatars, can use the metaverse in different ways (e.g., shop, socialise, learn), core features remain the same: A sense of immersion, real-time interactivity, and user agency.

Unlike static web pages, the metaverse is an ‘evolution of the internet’ that uses tools to create a persistent virtual reality that continues to exist and evolve even when a user isn’t online – creating a continuous digital universe. Extended reality (XR) technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) tools, such as VR headsets and smart glasses, are critical components and function as the gateway to experiencing the immersive 3D worlds of the metaverse.

Top 10 technologies powering product development in the metaverse

1. 3D Modelling and Reconstruction

The foundation of product development in the metaverse, 3D modelling enables the creation of highly accurate digital prototypes. It allows teams to design, refine, and test products virtually before physical production begins. From furniture to wearables, 3D reconstruction accelerates iteration while reducing costs.

2. Virtual Reality (VR)

VR immerses teams in fully digital environments, making it possible to experience and evaluate products as though they already exist. This supports immersive product design, usability testing, and collaborative reviews in 3D. For example, automotive designers can “sit inside” a concept car long before a physical prototype is built.

3. Digital Twins

Digital twins are dynamic virtual replicas of physical products, systems, or environments. In product development, they provide a risk-free space for testing, simulation, and predictive analysis. Manufacturers use them to model performance under real-world conditions, reducing trial-and-error in physical production.

4. Augmented Reality (AR)

AR overlays digital prototypes onto real-world settings, allowing businesses to test functionality and aesthetics in context. It’s especially powerful for customer co-creation and field testing, where real-world feedback can be captured instantly. For example, AR apps let consumers visualise furniture in their home before purchase.

5. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI enhances product development in the metaverse through predictive insights, generative design, and adaptive environments. It can create virtual assistants, simulate user behaviour, and generate multiple design variations instantly. By learning from user data, AI shortens development cycles and improves product-market fit.

6. Spatial Computing

Spatial computing enables the metaverse to understand and interact with 3D environments, creating more natural and intuitive product interactions. It’s essential for gesture-based design manipulation, spatial prototyping, and collaborative immersive workspaces. For instance, engineers can walk around a virtual machine to evaluate ergonomics and safety.

7. Cloud & Edge Computing

Metaverse product development demands vast amounts of processing power. Cloud and edge computing deliver the real-time rendering, scalability, and global accessibility needed for distributed teams to collaborate on complex 3D models. This ensures seamless virtual prototyping and simulation at scale.

8. Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT brings real-world data into the metaverse, enriching digital twins with live sensor information. This allows for hyper-realistic simulations and performance monitoring of products in development. For example, IoT-fed data can help model a smart home device’s performance under different environmental conditions.

9. Blockchain

Blockchain provides a decentralised and transparent solution for digital proof of ownership, transfer of value, governance and accessibility. For product developers, it ensures security, ownership, and traceability – from protecting intellectual property to managing digital assets

10. Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrencies enable users to transfer value while working, socialising, or learn in the metaverse, and play a crucial role in enabling secure transactions within virtual marketplaces. Together with blockchain, this technology safeguards innovation while opening new revenue channels through tokenised products or virtual prototypes.

Tech companies opening new opportunities in virtual worlds

While many might think that the metaverse’s primary function is socialising, gaming, or shopping, tech companies are opening up new opportunities in virtual worlds with commercial value in the real world. 

Nvidia Omniverse is an open platform to connect 3D spaces into a shared universe to facilitate virtual collaboration between engineers, designers, and creators. It’s currently being used across different industries:

• The BMW Group uses the Omniverse to reduce production time and improve product quality in their smart manufacturing processes. 
• Unilever uses digital twins to streamline and optimise marketing content for its products. 
• Siemens integrates 3D modelling and visualisation technologies into their software automation solutions to accelerate product development and optimise manufacturing. 

Microsoft has integrated metaverse concepts into its enterprise solution, Microsoft Mesh, to enable collaborative experiences in mixed reality. 

• Accenture uses it to expand its digital campus, One Accenture Park, to elevate onboarding and train new employees worldwide. 
• Takeda, a global biopharmaceutical company, created the Hirameki Garden. It’s a visual representation of the company’s corporate philosophy that immerses employees in its culture and business priorities, facilitates onboarding, and promotes belonging. 
• PwC brings employees together to strengthen the company culture with immersive wellness experiences, including guided and self-led tours and orientations. 

New opportunities exist in areas such as virtual real estate, digital assets (NFTs), virtual tourism, and immersive commerce. This will enable brands to create new marketing, customer engagement, and collaboration experiences to drive business innovation, new product development, and user engagement:

• Create digital twins of physical assets to monitor performance and simulate improvements virtually.
• Establish innovation labs for cross-functional teams to collaborate virtually on ideation and product design in a simulated environment. 
• Provide new IT support capabilities where service desk agents visually guide end-users through troubleshooting steps or system configurations. 
• Interactive virtual showrooms and demos for customers to explore products and customisations
• Build virtual communities for customers to connect, share experiences, and provide feedback. 

Designing products in the metaverse: Challenges and solutions

While there are common challenges that all connected products face, such as data privacy and security, cost and scalability, these challenges are compounded in the metaverse.

1. Data Privacy and Security

• Challenge: The metaverse generates and processes vast amounts of sensitive data, from user behaviour to proprietary product designs. This creates heightened risks of data breaches, IP theft, and unauthorised access.
• Solution: To protect data, implement blockchain-based verification, end-to-end encryption, and robust access controls. Businesses should also adopt privacy-by-design principles and conduct regular security audits to safeguard digital assets.

2. Cost of Development

• Challenge: Building 3D models, simulations, and immersive environments requires specialised tools, skilled talent, and significant computing resources, all of which increase costs.
• Solution: Start small with phased adoption (e.g., pilot projects for specific use cases). Leverage cloud computing to reduce upfront infrastructure costs, and explore partnerships with metaverse platforms or technology providers to share investment.

3. Scalability

• Challenge: Scaling from a prototype to a fully functional metaverse ecosystem is complex. Performance bottlenecks, server demands, and limited platform interoperability can slow growth.
• Solution: Use edge computing to distribute processing power closer to users, ensuring smoother real-time experiences. Adopt open standards and modular architectures that allow gradual scaling without rebuilding systems.

4. Interoperability Between Platforms

• Challenge: Different metaverse platforms often operate in silos, making it hard for products, assets, or avatars to move seamlessly across them. This limits collaboration and reach.
• Solution: Support cross-platform standards (e.g., USD for 3D assets, blockchain for digital ownership). Businesses can also design with API-first principles, ensuring their products adapt to multiple metaverse environments.

5. User Experience (UX) and Accessibility

• Challenge: Immersive environments can be overwhelming, and not all users can access expensive VR/AR headsets. Poorly designed UX risks alienating potential customers.
• Solution: Prioritise user-centred design by testing prototypes with diverse user groups. Offer multi-device accessibility (desktop, mobile, smart glasses, VR/AR) so users can engage without needing premium hardware.

6. Talent and Skills Gap

• Challenge: The metaverse requires expertise in 3D design, AI, blockchain, and spatial computing, but skilled professionals are in short supply.
• Solution: Invest in upskilling current teams through training programs and certifications. Where gaps remain, form strategic partnerships with tech consultancies or universities to access specialised expertise.

7. Ethical and Regulatory Uncertainty

• Challenge: The metaverse is evolving faster than regulation, raising concerns about intellectual property rights, digital ownership, and ethical use of user data.
• Solution: Stay ahead by monitoring regulatory developments and building flexible compliance frameworks. Establish internal ethical guidelines around product testing, user consent, and data handling to mitigate risks.

Collaborative and strategic partnerships are powerful solutions to overcoming hurdles, from developing technologies for regenerative tourism to neurodivergent users or medical sensors. Leveraging the expertise and in-house facilities of established product design consultancies, such as Ignitec, helps to fill skills gaps, mitigate risk, and reduce development costs. To learn more, please schedule a free and confidential consultation with one of our experts.

Emerging Metaverse Technologies to watch

1. Wearable Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs)

BCIs create a direct communication pathway between the human brain and digital systems. Georgia Tech, for example, has designed almost imperceptible microstructure brain sensors to be inserted into the minuscule spaces between the hair follicles and slightly under the skin. In the metaverse, this application could allow designers to manipulate 3D models or navigate virtual environments using only thought, eliminating the need for physical controllers. While still experimental, BCIs have the potential to make product development more intuitive and accessible. 

2. Haptic Technology

Haptic devices simulate touch, texture, and force feedback within virtual environments. For product development, this means teams could “feel” a prototype’s weight, resistance, or surface quality before manufacturing. Industries like fashion, healthcare, and automotive are already exploring haptics to make digital prototyping more realistic. One example is a skin-integration solution in the form of the WeTac glove, designed by Fluid Reality to be thin and wireless – integrating directly with the skin for more precise and realistic sensations. 

3. Quantum Computing

Quantum computing can supercharge the metaverse by handling the immense data and computational challenges of scaling virtual environments. This could allow businesses to simultaneously test countless design variations, material properties, or environmental scenarios. Although not mainstream, quantum capabilities could revolutionise how quickly and accurately products are developed.

Final Thoughts

The convergence of connected products, digital innovation, and the metaverse unlocks powerful new possibilities for businesses, consumers, educators, and innovators alike. The metaverse offers product developers a unique opportunity to design, test, and deliver hyper-personalised, secure and efficient virtual experiences with real-world commercial value. 

If you’re exploring product development in the metaverse and want a trusted tech partner to guide the way, we’re here to help. Our multidisciplinary team builds flexible, scalable, cost-effective solutions that reduce risks and accelerate innovation. Book a free discovery call today and take the first step toward turning your ideas into reality.