Heem
Heem is a new app for interior design and they have partnerships with a number of top 10 furniture stores in the U.S. Heem is currently scanning all the catalog items featured by these stores, as well as setting up processes to keep their catalogs updated. It’s time now time to develop their app.
Role
UI/UX Designer
Type
Mobile
Year
2019
Heem
Heem is a new app for interior design and they have partnerships with a number of top 10 furniture stores in the U.S. Heem is currently scanning all the catalog items featured by these stores, as well as setting up processes to keep their catalogs updated. It’s time now time to develop their app.
Role
UI/UX Designer
Type
Mobile
Year
2019
Heem
Heem is a new app for interior design and they have partnerships with a number of top 10 furniture stores in the U.S. Heem is currently scanning all the catalog items featured by these stores, as well as setting up processes to keep their catalogs updated. It’s time now time to develop their app.
Role
UI/UX Designer
Type
Mobile
Year
2019
Overview
The Project
To build an end-to-end solution that brings AR interior design experience to another level.
My Role
I’m the product designer for the app, my main roles in the project are 1) discover users needs when using AR interior design apps, 2) develop a delightful solution that will satisfy user needs and wants.
Research
Market Trends Research
In order to target the right group of potential users, I need to understand the housing condition in the US. So I collected the official data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The homeownershp is declining since 2005
The percentage of condominium number is flat since 2010 while the rental apartment rate keeps rising
Most Americans are used to live in single-family houses, however, more and more people tend to choose unfurnished rental apartments than owning their own properties in recent years. There’s also a trend that more and more people are willing to sacrifice space for the convenience of city infrastructures.
Next, Let’s try some AR apps…
We researched the AR technology and available AR apps on the market. Then we invited 5 participants to try Wayfair and Ikea Place, the two most popular AR interior apps on the market, to have a deeper understanding of the advantages and the pain points of the current AR interior apps.
We asked them to finish the take “add a piece of furniture to your living room”.
This was 4/5 participants’ first time trying on an AR application. All of the participants managed to finish tasks but their process is quite bumpy and the results are not ideal.
The main pain points are
It took to long to scan the ground
Items out of scale
Poor material rendering
No search function
Space boundary not defined well
Interview
Then we interviewed 5 participants about their furniture and home decoration shopping experience.
From the interview, participants are from different background but they provided some common patterns that we can trace and grasp insights.
Females (including couples) tend to spend more money on home design and more easy to go over budget
People lives in a rental building usually control their home design budget to a lower level compared to people who buy their house/apartment.
People at 25-35 are more used to shop for furniture online
People sometimes have no idea
Colour is the most common element people use to design their space
Many people at 25-35 have some move with furniture, but they also have the needs to buy new furniture
We used the interview method focused on building empathy with people about their home design experience. We have uncovered the needs, and desires of our target customers. We have also addressed several areas for improvement.
Needs
Have a clear picture of the material, color, and size of the furniture.
Clear IA and navigation to browse through.
Search functions and filters to help them find the right piece of furniture.
Add home decorations (usually, they do this after laying out the furniture)
Find new furniture that can pair their old furniture.
Wants
Save money
A more way professional way to design their home by themselves.
Ideas and inspirations for designing their home.
Find the item or similar items they’ve seen in real life pictures.
Have a clear idea if the item is available or back in stock time.
Opportunity for improvement
Improve the VR experience: scanning, scale, and location precisive.
Provide design solutions for customer’s space based on color and style.
*Provide a way that helps customers to create their own space and design it.
Persona
With everything we learned from market research and interview in mind, we start to build our persona.
Let’s meet Ariel…
Now we know the questions, HMW…
Market Trends Research
In order to target the right group of potential users, I need to understand the housing condition in the US. So I collected the official data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The homeownershp is declining since 2005
The percentage of condominium number is flat since 2010 while the rental apartment rate keeps rising
Most Americans are used to live in single-family houses, however, more and more people tend to choose unfurnished rental apartments than owning their own properties in recent years. There’s also a trend that more and more people are willing to sacrifice space for the convenience of city infrastructures.
Next, Let’s try some AR apps…
We researched the AR technology and available AR apps on the market. Then we invited 5 participants to try Wayfair and Ikea Place, the two most popular AR interior apps on the market, to have a deeper understanding of the advantages and the pain points of the current AR interior apps.
We asked them to finish the take “add a piece of furniture to your living room”.
This was 4/5 participants’ first time trying on an AR application. All of the participants managed to finish tasks but their process is quite bumpy and the results are not ideal.
The main pain points are
It took to long to scan the ground
Items out of scale
Poor material rendering
No search function
Space boundary not defined well
Interview
Then we interviewed 5 participants about their furniture and home decoration shopping experience.
From the interview, participants are from different background but they provided some common patterns that we can trace and grasp insights.
Females (including couples) tend to spend more money on home design and more easy to go over budget
People lives in a rental building usually control their home design budget to a lower level compared to people who buy their house/apartment.
People at 25-35 are more used to shop for furniture online
People sometimes have no idea
Colour is the most common element people use to design their space
Many people at 25-35 have some move with furniture, but they also have the needs to buy new furniture
We used the interview method focused on building empathy with people about their home design experience. We have uncovered the needs, and desires of our target customers. We have also addressed several areas for improvement.
Needs
Have a clear picture of the material, color, and size of the furniture.
Clear IA and navigation to browse through.
Search functions and filters to help them find the right piece of furniture.
Add home decorations (usually, they do this after laying out the furniture)
Find new furniture that can pair their old furniture.
Wants
Save money
A more way professional way to design their home by themselves.
Ideas and inspirations for designing their home.
Find the item or similar items they’ve seen in real life pictures.
Have a clear idea if the item is available or back in stock time.
Opportunity for improvement
Improve the VR experience: scanning, scale, and location precisive.
Provide design solutions for customer’s space based on color and style.
*Provide a way that helps customers to create their own space and design it.
Persona
With everything we learned from market research and interview in mind, we start to build our persona.
Let’s meet Ariel…
Now we know the questions, HMW…
Market Trends Research
In order to target the right group of potential users, I need to understand the housing condition in the US. So I collected the official data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The homeownershp is declining since 2005
The percentage of condominium number is flat since 2010 while the rental apartment rate keeps rising
Most Americans are used to live in single-family houses, however, more and more people tend to choose unfurnished rental apartments than owning their own properties in recent years. There’s also a trend that more and more people are willing to sacrifice space for the convenience of city infrastructures.
Next, Let’s try some AR apps…
We researched the AR technology and available AR apps on the market. Then we invited 5 participants to try Wayfair and Ikea Place, the two most popular AR interior apps on the market, to have a deeper understanding of the advantages and the pain points of the current AR interior apps.
We asked them to finish the take “add a piece of furniture to your living room”.
This was 4/5 participants’ first time trying on an AR application. All of the participants managed to finish tasks but their process is quite bumpy and the results are not ideal.
The main pain points are
It took to long to scan the ground
Items out of scale
Poor material rendering
No search function
Space boundary not defined well
Interview
Then we interviewed 5 participants about their furniture and home decoration shopping experience.
From the interview, participants are from different background but they provided some common patterns that we can trace and grasp insights.
Females (including couples) tend to spend more money on home design and more easy to go over budget
People lives in a rental building usually control their home design budget to a lower level compared to people who buy their house/apartment.
People at 25-35 are more used to shop for furniture online
People sometimes have no idea
Colour is the most common element people use to design their space
Many people at 25-35 have some move with furniture, but they also have the needs to buy new furniture
We used the interview method focused on building empathy with people about their home design experience. We have uncovered the needs, and desires of our target customers. We have also addressed several areas for improvement.
Needs
Have a clear picture of the material, color, and size of the furniture.
Clear IA and navigation to browse through.
Search functions and filters to help them find the right piece of furniture.
Add home decorations (usually, they do this after laying out the furniture)
Find new furniture that can pair their old furniture.
Wants
Save money
A more way professional way to design their home by themselves.
Ideas and inspirations for designing their home.
Find the item or similar items they’ve seen in real life pictures.
Have a clear idea if the item is available or back in stock time.
Opportunity for improvement
Improve the VR experience: scanning, scale, and location precisive.
Provide design solutions for customer’s space based on color and style.
*Provide a way that helps customers to create their own space and design it.
Persona
With everything we learned from market research and interview in mind, we start to build our persona.
Let’s meet Ariel…
Now we know the questions, HMW…
Design Goals
Design Process
Brainstorming
Base on the interview, the most common scenario that people purchase I came up with several ideas to answer the HMW questions. Then I selected the most approachable and competitive idea. The goal is to design an AR app to help users find the right product that fits their rooms best. It should be able to evaluate the current environment and provide design solutions to users.
Storyboard
User Flow
With the goals set, I started to struct the user flow. At this point, I’m mostly focused on the legibility of the main functions and left more detail parts to the next step.
Information Architecture
Having the user flow developed, my next step was the IA of the site. Based on my market research and the structure of the user flow, I created a site map as a guide for the design.
Sketches
I skethed out the main screens.
Low Fi prototype
I used Invision freehand to study the UI patterns for each screen. After I sketched out all the screens I turned them into a prototype in Invision and launched a simple usability test with 3 participants to check it there is any critical flaw in the design.
The result turned out quite well. The flow is clear to all the participants. We are excited and ready to move to the next step.
Branding & UI Kit
When it comes to UI, on one hand, we would like to keep the brand style simple in order to fit the wide range of items to be displayed. On the other hand, we would like to add some accents to distinguish our brand from competitors. We started with creating a mood board by collecting reference images.
Then we traced the patterns behind the mood board and discovered our preference. It turned out to be a grey tone with a high light color.
For the logo, we tried different scale and font of “H”, the first letter “Heem”. We were trying to use 3D figure as the main function of the apps will be operated in 3D space.
Iterations
Brainstorming
Base on the interview, the most common scenario that people purchase I came up with several ideas to answer the HMW questions. Then I selected the most approachable and competitive idea. The goal is to design an AR app to help users find the right product that fits their rooms best. It should be able to evaluate the current environment and provide design solutions to users.
Storyboard
User Flow
With the goals set, I started to struct the user flow. At this point, I’m mostly focused on the legibility of the main functions and left more detail parts to the next step.
Information Architecture
Having the user flow developed, my next step was the IA of the site. Based on my market research and the structure of the user flow, I created a site map as a guide for the design.
Sketches
I skethed out the main screens.
Low Fi prototype
I used Invision freehand to study the UI patterns for each screen. After I sketched out all the screens I turned them into a prototype in Invision and launched a simple usability test with 3 participants to check it there is any critical flaw in the design.
The result turned out quite well. The flow is clear to all the participants. We are excited and ready to move to the next step.
Branding & UI Kit
When it comes to UI, on one hand, we would like to keep the brand style simple in order to fit the wide range of items to be displayed. On the other hand, we would like to add some accents to distinguish our brand from competitors. We started with creating a mood board by collecting reference images.
Then we traced the patterns behind the mood board and discovered our preference. It turned out to be a grey tone with a high light color.
For the logo, we tried different scale and font of “H”, the first letter “Heem”. We were trying to use 3D figure as the main function of the apps will be operated in 3D space.
Iterations
Brainstorming
Base on the interview, the most common scenario that people purchase I came up with several ideas to answer the HMW questions. Then I selected the most approachable and competitive idea. The goal is to design an AR app to help users find the right product that fits their rooms best. It should be able to evaluate the current environment and provide design solutions to users.
Storyboard
User Flow
With the goals set, I started to struct the user flow. At this point, I’m mostly focused on the legibility of the main functions and left more detail parts to the next step.
Information Architecture
Having the user flow developed, my next step was the IA of the site. Based on my market research and the structure of the user flow, I created a site map as a guide for the design.
Sketches
I skethed out the main screens.
Low Fi prototype
I used Invision freehand to study the UI patterns for each screen. After I sketched out all the screens I turned them into a prototype in Invision and launched a simple usability test with 3 participants to check it there is any critical flaw in the design.
The result turned out quite well. The flow is clear to all the participants. We are excited and ready to move to the next step.
Branding & UI Kit
When it comes to UI, on one hand, we would like to keep the brand style simple in order to fit the wide range of items to be displayed. On the other hand, we would like to add some accents to distinguish our brand from competitors. We started with creating a mood board by collecting reference images.
Then we traced the patterns behind the mood board and discovered our preference. It turned out to be a grey tone with a high light color.
For the logo, we tried different scale and font of “H”, the first letter “Heem”. We were trying to use 3D figure as the main function of the apps will be operated in 3D space.
Iterations
Deliverable
Heem is a AR home design solution for urban urban dwellers. It targets to help people make wiser purchasing decisions base on the analysis of the environment.
Heem is a AR home design solution for urban urban dwellers. It targets to help people make wiser purchasing decisions base on the analysis of the environment.
Heem is a AR home design solution for urban urban dwellers. It targets to help people make wiser purchasing decisions base on the analysis of the environment.
Versatile E-store and AR design options
Users have the freedom to expore the e-store or use heem AR to improve their home design
Environment based recommendation
Heem will scan the current settings in the room and generate options based on the analysis.
Style your Space
With products presented in your room, you can easily understand and compare different products.
Thank you for stopping by
·
Thank you for stopping by
·
Thank you for stopping by
·
Thank you for stopping by
·
Thank you for stopping by
·
Thank you for stopping by
·
Thank you for stopping by
·
Thank you for stopping by
·
Thank you for stopping by
·
Thank you for stopping by
·
Thank you for stopping by
·
Thank you for stopping by
·
Open to
Open to
Open to
work
work
work
Let's Chat!