ARitize Decorator
Innovating Online Furniture Shopping with Immersive Visualization
Nextech AR
2022
Overview
Online furniture shopping traditionally presented a significant challenge: customers struggled to visualize how pieces would truly look and fit in their homes. Limited product images and descriptions often led to purchase hesitation, low conversion rates, and high return rates. As Design Director, I led the product design strategy and execution, guiding a team of designers and UX professionals through the entire product lifecycle. This case study highlights my leadership in defining the product vision, driving the design process, and delivering an immersive visualization solution to empower confident furniture purchases.
Project Duration
February 2023
3 weeks
Platform
Responsive Web
Role
Design Director
End to End UX Research & Strategy
IA & Wireframing
The Challenge
The core challenge was bridging the gap between the convenience of online shopping and the confidence of in-store visualization. I recognized that customers needed a way to accurately assess furniture style, scale, and compatibility with their existing décor. ARitize Decorator aimed to overcome these limitations by providing immersive visualization tools that enabled confident purchasing decisions.
Understanding Our Users
ARitize Decorator targeted three key user groups, all sharing the need for enhanced visualization. My understanding of these distinct needs informed the strategic decision to prioritize a flexible and scalable visualization platform.
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Furniture Retailers with E-commerce Platforms
These businesses require solutions to enhance the shopping experience, boost sales, and reduce costly returns. ARitize Decorator provides them with a tool to increase customer confidence and engagement, ultimately driving higher conversion rates and revenue.
Interior Designers and Decorators
Needed accurate visualization to bring design concepts to life and communicate effectively with clients. ARitize Decorator streamlined their workflow with realistic virtual mock-ups.
Homeowners and DIY Enthusiasts
Sought accessible tools to experiment with styles and personalize their spaces. ARitize Decorator empowered them to visualize ideas and make informed decisions.
The Existing Landscape
To inform our design, we conducted thorough market research and competitive analysis of existing online furniture visualization solutions.
Competitive Analysis Summary:
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Roomvo: Showcased product categories well and allowed users to upload room images. However, it lacked intuitive controls for adjusting furniture (relying on cumbersome keyboard shortcuts) and had a small workspace. This highlighted the critical need for ARitize Decorator to prioritize intuitive, direct manipulation of furniture, a key differentiator I strategically focused on in our design to provide a pleasing user experience.
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Room Planner: Offered effective product scaling and robust room customization tools, including AR viewing on mobile. Yet, it required significant manual effort from users to recreate their rooms, and the visual representation wasn't always accurate.
Key Differentiators:
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ARitize Decorator prioritized a user-centric and accurate visualization experience.
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It allowed users to upload a photo of their own room as the visual foundation.
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It used AI to ensure accurate real-world scaling and positioning of furniture.
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It provided an intuitive interface with direct controls for manipulating furniture.
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These differentiators addressed the shortcomings of competitors by providing a more personalized, accurate, and user-friendly experience.
In essence, ARitize Decorator bridges the gap between online convenience and in-store confidence by providing a personalized and empowering visualization experience. This approach was strategically designed to reduce purchase hesitation and increase sales for furniture retailers
Defining Product Requirements
Market research revealed key trends and pain points, informing the product requirements. Users needed a seamless and intuitive experience, accurate scaling, and accessibility across devices.
Based on these needs, we defined the following feature requirements:
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Automated Scaling Technology: We developed advanced scaling algorithms to accurately size and position furniture models within uploaded room images, eliminating the need for manual input.
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Responsive Design: I directed the team to design the platform with a responsive approach. Designing the platform to be responsive and accessible across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices, ensuring a consistent user experience regardless of screen size or device type.
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Intuitive User Interface: Creating an intuitive user interface that streamlines the furniture visualization process, making it easy for users to explore and customize products within their own living spaces.
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Robust Editing Tools: Providing users with robust editing tools to customize room images, including features such as image cropping, rotation, and color adjustment.
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Seamless Integration: Facilitating seamless integration with furniture retailers' e-commerce platforms, allowing users to seamlessly transition from visualization to purchase.
These requirements were aligned with technical constraints to ensure feasibility.
The Design Process
To translate the defined requirements into a user-friendly and effective solution, I implemented a user-centered design process, emphasizing iterative development and data-driven decision-making. This involved carefully mapping the user journey, creating detailed wireframes, and iteratively refining the design based on feedback and usability considerations. The goal was to create a seamless and intuitive experience that empowered users to visualize furniture in their own spaces with confidence.
Task Flow & User Journey
Crafting a seamless user journey and task flow was paramount in ensuring that ARitize Decorator provided users with an intuitive and engaging experience from start to finish. I strategically designed a user journey to ensure an intuitive and engaging experience. The key steps were:
High Fidelity Wireframes
In the development of ARitize Decorator, high-fidelity wireframes were instrumental in translating the user journey and task flow into tangible visual designs. Leveraging the Nextech design system, we crafted wireframes that reflected the user experience and adhered to established design principles.
Utilizing the Nextech Design System:
The Nextech design system provided a comprehensive foundation of UI components, styles, and guidelines. This ensured consistency and coherence across the entire ARitize Decorator platform, from the dashboard to the Decorator Studio.
Dashboard
The dashboard served as the central point of entry, providing users with a clear overview of the platform's features. My design strategy for the dashboard centered on a clean, uncluttered layout with prominent calls to action. This approach aimed to minimize initial user confusion and effectively guide them towards project creation, a key engagement metric.
Create a New Project & Room Gallery
To facilitate seamless project initiation, the 'Create a New Project & Room Gallery' interface was designed to provide clear pathways for users to begin new projects, efficiently access existing ones, and explore the platform's capabilities. I focused on creating a simple and intuitive experience to lower the barrier to entry and encourage active user participation.
Image Editor
Recognizing the importance of personalization, the image editor offered users a robust suite of tools to customize their room images. I guided the design of this feature to prioritize ease of use and precision, enabling users to enhance their photos through cropping, wall color adjustments, and a magic eraser tool. This functionality was crucial for empowering users to accurately represent their spaces.
Decorator Studio
As the core of ARitize Decorator, the Decorator Studio empowered users to visualize their design aspirations. I directed the creation of an intuitive and immersive experience, enabling users to seamlessly add furniture from an extensive catalog and manipulate it within their room images using controls for arranging, scaling, and rotating. This design was instrumental in fostering user engagement and driving product exploration.
Favourites
To streamline the user's product selection journey, a 'Favorites' feature was integrated, allowing users to curate a personalized collection of desired furniture items. My design emphasis was on ease of access and organization, enabling users to efficiently save, view, and manage their favorite products for a more focused purchasing process.
Snapshots
Understanding the value of visual comparison, a 'Snapshots' tool was developed to enable users to capture and save specific configurations of furniture within their room visualizations. I focused on providing a dynamic and interactive way for users to compare different arrangements side-by-side, facilitating confident decision-making as they evaluated furniture options.
Filtering and Sorting
To enhance product discoverability and streamline the selection process, robust filtering and sorting capabilities were designed. I prioritized intuitive filtering and sorting options, allowing users to efficiently narrow down the product catalog based on criteria such as category, price, color, and material. This approach empowered users to quickly find and visualize their desired furniture items.
Mobile Portrait and Landscape Design Challenges
Adapting the ARitize Decorator platform for both portrait and landscape mobile orientations presented a significant design challenge. To address this, I led the team in conducting extensive research, drawing inspiration from leading e-commerce platforms to identify best practices for mobile interaction and layout. My design strategy centered on creating a seamless and intuitive mobile experience across different orientations.
Watch ARitize Decorator in Action
Project Outcomes and Learnings
The design for ARitize Decorator was met with enthusiasm, particularly from the sales team, who recognized its potential to enhance the user experience and drive conversions. The user-centered design and intuitive interface effectively addressed the challenges of online furniture visualization. However, the project encountered significant hurdles due to a misalignment between the product vision and the technical feasibility of its implementation.
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Positive Feedback: The sales team strongly endorsed the design's user-friendliness and its potential impact on sales.
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Misalignment Challenges: Discrepancies arose between the product vision and the development team's capacity to deliver certain technical requirements, impacting project implementation.
Due to a combination of ongoing technical complexities and shifting business priorities, the decision was made to re-evaluate the project's scope and future development. While ARitize Decorator did not proceed to full-scale implementation in its initial form, the project yielded valuable insights and learnings that have informed subsequent design and development processes.
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Project Re-evaluation: The project's scope and future development were re-evaluated due to technical complexities and evolving business priorities.
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Key Learning: This project emphasized the importance of balancing technical ambition with feasibility and the need for adaptability in the face of evolving project constraints.
Lessons Learned
This project yielded several important lessons:
Effective communication and collaboration between product, design, and engineering teams are paramount to ensure a shared understanding of technical feasibility and to mitigate potential misalignments between product vision and implementation.
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The successful development of the mobile landscape version highlighted the importance of design adaptability in navigating project constraints and exploring alternative solutions.
The project reinforced the value of user-centred design principles, as the initial design was well-received for its focus on addressing user needs.