The process of design is the cornerstone of architecture and interior design. When getting a degree, students in this realm must develop creative and alternative ways to approach a space, which typically involves a set of different and sometimes variable limitations. This is problem-solving on another level, as designers must consider everything from the budget, the size of the building, the style of the client, all the way to the type of weather conditions the space will be subject to.
Bringing a building to life used to take months to even years before building in the physical world ever began. What was once a series of complex scale mathematics by hand and tedious paper or clay modeling for proportionality and composition has now been transformed thanks to technological advancements. Digital capabilities have opened up a world of possibilities, with things such as graphic design applications, coding, algorithms, and Artificial Intelligence (AI), to name a few. With these capacities, architectural and interior design has taken on a whole new meaning.
Gamification of design is one technological avenue, in particular, that is changing the way we build up the environment around us. In fact, gamification can trigger real, powerful emotions in users across a variety of industries, and in apps, it has actually been proven to increase user engagement—making design no longer just for the interior designer or architect.
One company, Decor Matters, has been tapping into the potential of gamification through augmented reality (AR) and AI technologies. Their proprietary innovation is helping to redefine the retail industry through interior design you can experience. Let’s take a look at how this company is blueprinting a whole new world of design.
The Importance of The Indoor Environment
On average, humans spend 90% of their time indoors—a figure that really illustrates the importance of interior design. Your home is your inner world, an extension of you that brings to life your personality, style, and ideas. It is also where you share a lot of your memories, where you make a safe haven, as well as where you find comfort at the end of the day.
But here’s the caveat, no matter how talented or intune an architect or interior designer is, they will never fully see all of these things or the vision of the person whose space it is. That is starting to change with technology, however, putting the homeowner in the driver’s seat of designing their space, and showing the designer the picture that the client is trying to paint.
User-facing applications allow clients to upload images of their actual home, which allows them to overcome communication hurdles when it comes to translating their vision. For designers or architects, this can also help to visualize their design options in real time with the click of a button. Opening up the opportunity to design spaces that actually resonate with the owner, technology is helping to create ways to translate how users want to use, feel, and live in their space.
With over 6 million users, Decore Matters is building the first collaborative ecosystem for design. In their creative community, both clients and stakeholders in interior design can exchange ideas, which helps to make home renovation easier and more affordable for clients. Meanwhile, it creates a highly efficient channel for retailers to acquire, collaborate with, and retain customers at scale.
On the easy-to-use app, AR technology allows users to visualize the entire design virtually in their real home, with accurate measuring thanks to an AR ruler and an AR “tool kit”, that implements room dimensions. This is a game-changer for clients, as they are able to literally try on furniture and decor items the way that they would try on clothes in a department store. The company also takes it a step further by directly connecting users to both retailers and designers that make their dream space possible.
Empowered by an AI algorithm that utilizes millions of rich data points, the app also provides design automation and product recommendation to users. Features such as these save users time and energy by efficiently offering the most relevant content based on their preferences, which also helps clients to pick the perfect furniture and decor items before even having to make a purchase.
Gamification: The Future of The Creative Industry
As an industry, gamification is expected to be worth $40 billion by 2024, making it an essential feature for modern business applications—especially those within creative industries. AR and VR allow anybody from anywhere to simulate the real world without physical restrictions. In design, this opens up a confluence for mass collaboration between architects, real estate developers, interior designers, and clients.
When it comes to decorating a home, many people are shocked at just how complicated, time-consuming, and costly the process can be. These challenges are mitigated in this virtual common space, where all players can come together to collaborate without restrictions and with more ways to share visual ideas.
Decore Matters is just one conduit that is taking the user experience to the next level in the world of design. As technology develops in the future, more and more ways for professionals to immerse themselves in the creative process will be generated, one emerging example being the Metaverse. Advancements such as these are allowing every niche within the architectural ecosystem the opportunity to collaborate and compose each individual’s dreamscape.
Disclosure: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company.
