Designing a Platform for Creating 3D Product Configurators : A Design Science Study

Abstract: In the rapidly evolving world of e-commerce, businesses are increasingly adopting the idea of providing customers with the ability to visualise and customise products in 3D through a 3D product configurator. However, the creation of 3D configurators is a complex and time-consuming process, requiring technical expertise and extensive communication between businesses and solution providers. This thesis aims to address these challenges by proposing a design for a user-focused approach to streamline the process of creating 3D product configurators. The study undertakes a thorough examination of existing platforms' 3D configurator creation processes to inform the design of an improved solution.To assess the effectiveness of our proposed design, we identified some key requirements and proceeded to develop a prototype. Testing was conducted, involving the attempt to recreate benchmark configurators with different levels of complexity. Through this process, we assessed the quality and efficiency of our platform in comparison to solutions developed partially or from scratch. Our results demonstrated that a user-focused platform for creating 3D product configurators, can offer extensive time and resource-saving. However, further research and development are necessary to fully explore the scalability, integration possibilities, industry-specific effectiveness, and customer impact of such platforms.