Inside our IKEA Interactive 3D Wallspace Planner
After winning the FWA Of The Day at March, 28th for our IKEA Interactive 3D Wallspace Planner FWA asked us to share some insights with their audience about it and this we could not decline. You always wanted to know why the cat in the video is wearing VR glasses? Read the interview then.
What did you want to accomplish with the project?
We wanted to make home furnishing “great again” — Sorry in advance. IKEA.de offers diverse planner and configurator tools varying in UX and GUI. It was time to bring all the inspiration and expertise into one solution and enable the most juicy interior design experience possible.
What technical challenges did you encounter and how did you solve them?
In order to future proof the WebGL tool we needed to develop a strong foundation that can support rollout into future product departments over time through its innovative modularity, while optimising the current 3D pipeline. The next milestone was to be mobile-first for a fully responsive solution that integrates seamlessly with IKEA’s most recent web frontend release.
What did winning the FWA award mean to you?
To avoid being overly repetitive (community, love, inspiration, it’s all true) — It meant that we are one step closer to the FWA 100. We’ve almost reached one quarter of 100 FWAs, which is almost one-half-of-one-half of 100.
Tools used:
We developed with Vue.js and Three.js (WebGL) to combine the 3D environment with the user interface in HTML; this hybrid approach allows intuitive drop-and-drag of 3D products from the side panel to the wall. By using Popmotion we were able to put love into micro-interactions and the surreal physics of moving around wall deco. And finally, we are ready for WebAR deployment when Google Chrome enables the WebXR Hit Test feature… “Okay Google, please make WebAR (publicly) available” … “beep-beep”.
Three hot facts:
- No cats were actually wearing VR Glasses in the making of the case film
- We’re not even sure why the VR Glasses were relevant
- Did you notice the cat wearing VR Glasses in the case film?!
