House Configurator Interface : User Experience Design for the Interface of a House Configurator

Abstract: Building a house is a demanding process with a lot to learn, and many expensive decisions that have to be made. One of them is to choose which house to buy and what it should look like. Many house companies offer via the website a house configurator where the house buyer can test different combinations of choices and see what it would look like. Neava Studios is a company that offers such a tool, Design Studio, which they sell to house companies. The unique thing about this house configurator is that instead of showing fixed example views for each configurable part of the house, it presents photorealistic 360-degree renderings from several different positions in the house. When the house configurator Design Studio is sold to a house company, it is presented through a demo version of the product. The user interface that belongs to the demo was created temporarily and needs to be redesigned with a focus on the end-user experience. In this master thesis, the aim has been to create a better experience for house buyers in the situation of building a house. With the goal of developing a concept for a user interface that is visualized and tested through an interactive prototype. The work has followed an iterative user-centered Design thinking process with five different phases: empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test. In the first phase, empathy was created with house buyers through interviews and surveys and by analysing that information. In the second phase, the primary needs were defined to be used as a basis in the third phase, where ideas for solutions were developed. Two prototypes were created and tested to result in a winning concept that was improved and visualized in an interactive prototype. The final result is a standard user interface for the demo version of Design Studio where the house buyers’ experience has been in focus. This has been done by working with the house buyers’ needs combined with research on user experience and user interface, among other things. The features in the product are combined and clustered to a few, placed in intuitive locations, resulting in an intuitive layout where the user has a good overview. The same applies with the menu that is given a large space for the user to have an overview of the choices, without taking up too much space on the screen. The explorer mode is integrated into the configurating mode for the user to access it, creating control and freedom while making choices. The price is extended to present the price for every room, giving the user more control to stick to their budget.