7 Tide Showroom

Showroom Installation
Product Visualization
Software Ecosystem

Marvin Windows & Doors

7 Tide Showroom

Solution

A suit of digital tools artfully integrated into the physical showroom allowing customers unprecedented control—any option, finish, hardware, size, or combination demonstrated instantly before them.

Insight

Customers need to be able to contextualize these products; feel the materials, stand in front of custom window—see the impact of Marvin’s bespoke products with their own eyes.

Challenge

Windows and doors are often only considered at the tail end of a project, but Marvin wants to demonstrate their ability to define a space, shape a room, and become a centerpiece for a structure.

My Role

Marvin’s showroom at Seven Tide was a watershed project—our first permanent showroom installation. I was heavily involved with conceptualization and ideation as we set out to blend creative technology and whimsical interactions into useful tools, designing systems to integrate into the showroom environment while elevating it. Among the several individual activations we would eventually build for Seven Tide was one which I thought was particularly clever, involving the use of the physical material samples littered around as tokens to set the finish and product options of a fully customizable product visualizer. After the multifaceted set of installations were designed, I helped develop the software which would drive the interactive displays, touch table configurator, and full-scale product projection room, as well as designing back-end data architecture.

After the initial launch I continued to be involved, helping to shape the roadmap and evolution of the space and its technology. Over the next several years we would work with Marvin to continuously improve the groundbreaking tools and experience of their flagship marketing center.

Reception

The award-winning experience guides users through the complexity of window and door construction and empowers them to design and communicate their vision. A major step for an industry whose products literally impact the view and feel of every room in the house, this project evolved into a multi-year engagement encompassing not only ongoing support, but several rounds of evolution and iteration since its launch.

Development

We were involved with the construction of Seven Tide from the beginning, taking a 360° approach that included storytelling, UX, visual design, front and back end development, 3D animation, projection mapping and physical installation. The experience featured an interactive touch table using physical material samples as interactive elements; adjustable, true-to-scale projection mapping of infinitely-variable bespoke products; and a custom CMS to serve 10,000 different renderings and mockups to visitors, all digitally crafted with 360° animations. And with all the users' designs and notes stored for them, a custom micro-site was created for them to peruse at their leisure after leaving the showroom.

Background

Today’s design environment is increasingly accessible as users turn to online tools and social media to envision their dream projects, but the process of home building is highly technical and typically reserved for professionals. At the Seven Tide Brand Experience Center, helping consumers visualize the end process using interactions they’ve come to expect from today’s modern shopping experiences could evolve their journey and elevate the result.