HELLO RAYE
Better Spaces for All
B2B and B2C platform for discovering commercial furniture
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Architecture and Interior Design professionals do not have a single repository to search for and download 3D models of real furniture for commercial projects.
Our B2B and B2C platform created a place for professionals to search across multiple brands and find pieces that fit their project needs while giving brand partners a place to showcase their products and manage leads. -
Interior Design & Architecture Professionals
Commercial Furniture Brands
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Create a suite of tools for furniture brands
Design a discovery based platform for professionals to find new brands
Consistent and reliable 3D models of real furntiure
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Lead Designer (me)
Jr. Designer
Engineering Team
Sales Lead
Partnerships Lead -
8 months
Discovery Research, Design & build from 0 to 1. Launched 2019.
Brand profile pages use flexible grouping systems to allow brands to showcase the inventory they have uploaded to Hello Raye.
The portal is the control center for our brand partners where they manage their inventory, assign user permissions, and create sales territories and relationships to filter incoming leads.
In the Partner Portal brands have robust features like a swatch panel where they can create, manage, and use swatches across multiple products.
Discover & Product Pages
The core of our experience for designers was the Discover page where they could browse multiple brands at once. Through research we learned how important it was for users to filter and refine from this marketplace experience when they had specific parameters in mind.
After browsing the Discover page our designers would land on individual product pages where we offered standardized specs, downloadable 3D models, and other information so they could always find exactly what they were looking easily.
Challenges
Underestimating the Needs of Brand Partners
When we first conceptualized the product and roadmap we underestimated the tooling brand partners would want and need to buy into using the platform.
What I Did:
Collaborated with our Sales and Parnterships leads to understand the needs of brands.
Designed a partner-facing portal experience and white-glove services at a tiered pricing model to ease common pain points
Standardizing Specifications
At the center of the platform was the idea of discovery and browsing furniture from multiple brands in one place, in order to help users find what they were looking for we needed to give them the ability to find things easily instead of endlessly scrolling.
What I Did:
Conducted research with target users to understand how they were browsing products and information was important to them
Collaborated with engineering to create a robust filtering system and ML model to suggest similar products based on product specs and favorites by other users
Process
Research: Defining User Types
We spoke with with designers and brand partners to understand both sides of our user base and make sure our product created value for each.
Interior Design & Architecture Professionals
I am looking for real products to use in 3D modeling software so that I can get client buy-in on furnishings.
Brand Partners
I am want to reach new customers so that my products can be considered for projects they are working on.
Research: Finding Product Market Fit
Without Hello Raye
Designers were using 3D models that may not represent real products so the client may fall in love with a piece of furniture that doesn’t fit their timeline or budget causing the design of their space to change.
With Hello Raye
Designers use 3D models that represent real products and can find options that fit budget and timeline so the client falls in love with an achievable design from day 1. Design firms save time and resources finding alternative options and value engineering designs.
