A Smarter Visual Experience for a Personalization-Driven Brand

Project Overview

Scandic Sofa is a fast-growing direct-to-consumer furniture brand known for clean designs, fast delivery, and deep personalization. In 2022, we helped them solve a key conversion bottleneck: customers couldn't visualize products in their chosen fabrics, which delayed purchase decisions and lowered confidence.

Our goal was to create a scalable, photorealistic configurator that turned personalization into a visual advantage - without slowing down the experience or overwhelming casual browsers.

What We Built

The result was a 2D fabric visualizer fully integrated into the e-commerce flow. It featured:

• Over 60,000 high-quality renders of sofas in every fabric/leg combination
  
• A two-step UX: simplified entry point with curated options, and an advanced view for full customization
  
• Augmented Reality support to visualize sofas in real space
  
• High-consistency visuals: all variants rendered under the same lighting and angles
  

This solution significantly improved engagement, conversion rates, and trust - helping Scandic Sofa scale into new markets without a physical showroom.

What We’d Do Differently Today

Three years later, the fundamentals still hold. But the tech and our thinking has evolved. Here's how we'd build it smarter now:

1. Don’t Render Everything. Render Smart.

In 2022, we pre-rendered every possible variant. That made sense for ~60k images. Today, many of our clients face variant sets in the millions.

With current rendering tech and server-side automation, we’d now:

• Split visuals into composable assets (e.g. base sofa + overlayed legs + texture layer)
  
• Use render-on-demand or lazy generation strategies
  
• Embrace cloud-based render farms that scale instantly
  

💡 You don’t need to show everything upfront. You need to show what matters when it matters.

2. Visuals Are Great. Context Is Better.

Back then, we focused on letting users explore every fabric. What we’d add now:

• Per-variant delivery time: Help customers choose fabrics not only by color, but by how fast they can get them.
  
• Comparison view: Side-by-side fabric or product comparisons, with details like price, delivery, care instructions.
  
• Filters that speak human: Instead of filtering by “collection,” let customers filter by needs: “pet friendly,” “soft touch”, “cool neutrals.”
  

💡 It's not just about more options - it's about smarter guidance.

3. Start Narrow. Learn Fast. Then Scale.

In hindsight, launching the configurator across the entire product range on Day 1 was risky. If we were to do it again:

• We’d start with 3–5 bestsellers
  
• Observe behavior, optimize UX, test assumptions
  
• Only then scale across the full catalog
  

💡 Go wide after you win narrow.

4. Think in Layers, Not Flat Renders

Today, we’d use layered rendering (like in automotive configurators). For example:

• Render headboards, legs, textures separately
  
• Recombine on the fly depending on user choices
  
• Result: more flexibility, less storage, shorter production time
  

Especially useful for beds, sectionals, wardrobes - anything modular.

5. Integrate Visuals with Real-Time Data

Imagine this: a customer picks a fabric and sees:

• Estimated delivery window based on stock
  
• Number of people who chose it this week
  
• Whether it's eligible for AR view or showroom preview
  

This kind of real-time intelligence layer is where configurators are heading now.

6. Don’t Show Everything the Same Way

Not all variants should look identical. Using AI, we can now:

• Auto-generate custom backdrops for each fabric tone
  
• Place products in virtual interior mockups based on customer taste or context
  
• Use mood-based previews to help users feel the product
  

💡 Texture is important. So is emotion.

Final Thoughts

The original Scandic Sofa configurator was a success: it brought personalization to life and helped the brand grow beyond borders. But today, we know how to go further - faster renders, smarter UX, richer context, and deeper emotional resonance.

Because buying a sofa isn’t just about options. It’s about making a confident, inspired decision with visuals that guide, not overwhelm.