Movehome Design Studio 2.0 – the forefront of real-time technology

Movehome, an innovative brand within the family of Trivselhus, stands out in the Swedish housing market by combining exciting technology with traditional home production. Through Swedish Husproduktion AB, they offer a unique buying experience that enables customers to customize their future home directly on the web through a configurator developed by Softhouse’s office in Luleå.

Since 2020, we have worked closely with Movehome to develop and improve their home configurator, Design Studio 2.0. This tool has simplified and improved the purchasing experience for potential home buyers designing their homes by moving from static, image-based configurators to a dynamic, real-time 3D environment, says Johan Hedlund, head of Softhouse in Luleå.

From image-based configurator to real-time rendered 3D configurator

The mission involved transforming Movehome’s existing image-based configurator into a platform where users can visualize and customize their homes in real-time. Traditional configurators require a tremendous amount of time and costly rendering processes for each possible combination. Softhouse’s solution? A custom, real-time rendered 3D configurator developed with the Unity game engine, which enabled instant visualization of customer choices directly in the browser.

Our technical solution relies on an architecture with Unity for real-time visualization, a backend in C#, and a frontend developed with Angular and TypeScript, says Sanna Swén, Product Owner, Softhouse.

She continuous: 

We also integrated Blender to create realistic 3D models and have used Adobe XD and Figma to ensure an intuitive and user-friendly UX/UI design.

Correct color rendering & performance challenges with real-time rendering

One of the most significant challenges in this project has been ensuring that the colors customers see on their screens match reality as closely as possible. Differences in screen calibration can lead to significant variations in how colors are displayed, which can affect customer choices and final satisfaction. To tackle this, Softhouse used the same computer for color adjustments to have the same starting point when comparing supplier colors and the colors they developed.

Through this approach, we were able to create a standardized color experience that was as close to the supplier’s intent as possible. Close collaboration with the customer was crucial to fine-tune the color rendering and ensure that it matched reality as closely as possible, says Veronika Eriksson, Graphic Designer / UX Designer, Softhouse.

The other major challenge was ensuring that the system could render 3D images in high resolution quickly enough to keep pace with the user’s real-time interactions. Given the high quality of the house models, including a large number of polygons to achieve as realistic a representation as possible. It was incredibly challenging to create realistic outdoor environments, like lawns, where the polygon count could quickly escalate and create a heavy load on the system.

To handle this, we optimized our code and our rendering processes to balance between image quality and system performance. This involved careful adjustments to minimize the load without compromising visual quality, ensuring a smooth and responsive user experience, says Sanna Swén, Product Owner at Softhouse.

Design Studio that changes the game for home buying

The project is driven by a dedicated team consisting of product owners, system developers, UX designers, and 3D experts in close cooperation with Movehome. Weekly check-ins were set up to ensure the project ran smoothly and that the solution could be continuously adjusted according to customer wishes and feedback.

Design Studio 2.0 has truly changed the game for home buying. Not only does it offer an unmatched level of customization and interactivity, but it also provides our customers with an accurate preview of their future home, down to the specific kitchen layout and material choices selected. This level of detail and realism has never before been possible with traditional configurators, says Mikael R Olsson, business manager at Movehome.

He continues:

We see significant coordination benefits and have simplified our processes both towards the customer and internally with this tool. The experience for our customers has improved significantly, as they can walk around the house in 360 degrees.

New standards for customer experience in the housing industry

With constant updates and additions of new materials and geometries, Softhouse continues to develop and improve Design Studio 2.0.

Our goal is to continue to create new standards for customer experience in the housing industry, among others, by using the latest technologies and innovative solutions, says Johan Hedlund, head of Softhouse in Luleå.

A configurator can be used in many different areas, and Softhouse Design Studio, Arvue, is for more than just home manufacturers; it’s a platform for visualizing various types of businesses.

Right now, we are working on long-term renderings in different ways and plan to tackle new market areas; furniture, doors/gates, digital showrooms – yes, anything that can be configured, concludes Sanna Swén.