The

I wanted to design a new interior design app to help improve a user’s experience while shopping for furniture through the integration of an AR feature.

Problem

The

I started the project with thorough brand discovery calls. After determining its best to research a little more about the furniture industry, I put together market research trends. After doing so, I brainstormed detailed brand values, mission, and voice which would guide both the content writing and visual design.

Process

The

The first steps were to define a unique brand identity that reflects Homely’s attributes. This wasn't easy since colors, typography, icons, and logos all had to be done from the ground up. Another step involved designing a new app that focuses on users to be able to browse a furniture catalog and view products in their homes using AR functionality.

Solution

Project Details & Process

Role

UX/UI Designer

Task

Design a new interior AR app

Tools

Figma, Sketch, Adobe Photoshop

Time

4 Weeks

Research

Since I'm unfamiliar with the furniture retail industry, I began with some secondary research to gain a better understanding of the market trends and demographics. I then conducted interviews to learn more about people's different experiences with furniture shopping.

Research Goals

Through my research, I wanted to:

Market Research

To learn more about the market trends and demographics of the furniture industry, I started with market research with the help of Google. Through market research, I was able to gain a more thorough understanding and fill in the gaps in my knowledge about the industry to better inform my design decisions moving forward. Here are a few of the key insights that I discovered:

Provisional Personas

To start getting an idea of who the users are of my app, I wanted to use everything that I have learned so far from my secondary research to create provisional personas. This helped me to determine the criteria for participants I would recruit for my user interviews and start understanding what their needs might be based on their goals and pains.

User Interviews & Key Findings

In order to learn about the real experiences people have had while furniture shopping, I recruited 4 participants (fitting within the criteria of the provisional personas) for user interviews. Here, I focused on asking open-ended questions about their experiences to learn as much as possible about our users and validate my understanding of them from my provisional personas.

Ideation

Concept & Strategy

Using an AR-based engine, customers can select a piece they love, then scan a room to bring their desired furniture to life. Search products by name, product types, or browse by categories.

Site Map & User Flows

To communicate the concept and information architecture, I generated a site map, user flows, and worked together with the team to nail down product frameworks.

Lo-Fi Sketches

I sketched multiple options for each screen, continually referencing the target audience, company mission and objectives to share successful stories with customers.

Prototype

Hi-Fi Prototype

During this phase, I created the design based on Lo-Fi validation findings. I learned that there was still some confusion around how to search for other user-made designs in the app. Therefore, I focused on improving the above while finalizing our UI design.