An Ultimate Guide To Interior Design App Development, Features And Cost

Why Do You Need An App For Your Interior Designing Business?

When it comes to interior design, people consider it a serious business. Individuals are ready to invest a huge amount of money to make sure their project looks the way they want. Therefore, it can be considered as a DIY task and hence, the demand for interior design professionals also increases (physical and virtual).

The new wave of interior designing suggests the usage of interior design apps. The interior design apps now have a virtual assistant (chatbot), AR technology stack, and other elements that help businesses deliver exceptional services to their clients.

Humans may use mobile apps to communicate their design ideas and receive feedback in return. It functions similarly to our experienced interior design, but with the added benefit of being available 24*7. You don’t have to arrange a meeting or take time away from your work to use it.

These apps allow customers and designers to explain their ideas in just a few taps. Hence, an interior design app for your business will prove to be extremely beneficial in working out all the designing processes and serving the clients.

Simple Features For Your Interior Design App

Mobile applications serve their users with the excellent functionalities they include. Before jumping onto the advanced features, one must make sure the basic ones are not forgotten. The basic features that your interior design app must include are:

• Enjoyable Gaming: The app should have a combination of puzzles or games so that the users can have a fun experience. These games/puzzles in your interior design app should be related to home designs to increase the imagination of users.
• Unique Storyline: Your app should allow its users to experience different adventures while using the app. For example, if a client has an ongoing project then the app should show them a virtual designer who would keep them updated on the project.
• Realistic Experience: Users should be offered a real-time experience on their project. This can be achieved by placing 3D furniture items and other elements. 
• Expand Your Space: For the users who are not just satisfied with the design of one house/store, the interior design app shall offer a wide range of designs for them, demonstrated in 3D.
• Play With Friends: Your interior design app should allow its users to play with their friends and visit their houses and suggest ideas about decoration.
• Join Community: Users should be able to join a community created in the app to share their ideas of decoration with other users of the interior design app. This will help you gain an insight into others ideas as well.
• Unlock Rewards: As a user keeps using your interior design app and performing various actions, he may unlock certain rewards. This will increase the user’s interest in the app.
• Shop Decor Items: The items that a user needs for his house decor, the app can also sell those items. Your interior design app can display products related to home decoration that a user can purchase via the app.

Advanced Features For Your Interior Design App

After the basic features are discussed, it’s time to consider the advanced functionalities to be included in your interior design app. Some of the popular ones are:

• Ideas Allocation: The app should allow its users to save their ideas and designs on the app. Users can bring their family and friends to the app and create a community and share ideas among them.
• Find Professional: This functionality should enable its users to find a professional interior designer through the app. The app can display their rating reviews submitted by other users so that it is easy to pick the suitable one.
• Shop Feature: This feature will allow your users to shop for home decor items through the items and keep the favourite ones in the cart.
• Ideabooks: The inspiration for this functionality is taken from Houzz. By integrating this feature into your interior design app, you are allowing the professionals to share stories, solutions, etc. on the app. These stories can be in the form of an image, video or document.
• Login & Registration: This functionality should be effective for both, customers and professionals. The registration process should be simple and basic and users should be able to log in not only using their email or phone number but also their social media accounts.
• Ratings & Reviews: Your interior design app should allow its users to share their feedback about the services delivered to them. These reviews will help the professionals to make changes in their services as per customer’s satisfaction.
• Push Notifications: This is one of the essential features of an interior design app. This will notify the users about any offers, discounts, or special events.

Why Is AR Beneficial For Your Interior Design App?

The technology that has made the usage of interior design apps excellent and attractive is Augmented Reality. This technology offers a virtual representation of home designs and decoration elements. Hence, to make this happen, it is crucial to integrate AR technology into your interior design app.

IKEA, one of the famous furniture brands, has a catalogue app that showcases all its items in 3D. Via the app, users can visualize their idea and see how an item would look at a place. You must connect with the right mobile app developers for integrating AR into your interior design app to deliver the best user experience.

How Can You Develop An Interior Design App?

The strong foundation of your interior design app will determine its place in the marketplace. Hence, you must take care of the development fundamentals of your app. The steps to develop your interior design app are discussed below:

Project Scope Of Your Interior Design App

The first thing to consider while developing an app is defining the project scope. In this, you should keep in mind the integration of AR technology, platforms and the geographical location-targeted while launching the app.

Focus On MVP

MVP stands for Minimal Viable Product. If you directly launch an application with numerous buttons which a user may not use, does not make much sense. You should focus on developing MVP which is the basic version of the app and you can keep updating it from time to time.

Development Approach

You should have an appropriate development approach so that the foundation app is strong. Use SDKs and APIs to introduce the most important functionality. Incorporate IDEs into the programme testing process. For production, the Mobile Backend as a Service Platform is also available.

Choose The Right Mobile Application Development Company 

Hire the best mobile application development company that has experienced project managers, business analysts, QA analysts, UI/UX designers and developers. The company you hire should listen to all of your requirements and it should also suggest better options for your interior design app. 

Interactive UI Design

Your UI team must be capable of creating a user interface that is appealing, simple to use, and highly interactive. Colour schemes that are appropriate, clearly identifiable symbols, and an overall immersive interface will suffice.

Testing & Launching

After the development of your interior design app, it should be given for testing. The quality testers are responsible for ensuring that there are no bugs in the app. If any bugs are found, the app should be given back to the developers for correcting them. After all the issues have been resolved, you can launch the interior design app.

Maintenance

Your responsibility does not end after launching the app. Maintenance is the key to make your interior design app stay in the marketplace. You must make sure that your app is always up to date with the marketplace standards.

What Is The Revenue Model?

To grow your business digitally, you must know the smart ways in which you can earn money from your interior design apps. Below are some monetization strategies that can be implemented in your app:

• Exchange Fee: The owner of the interior design app can charge a commission to the sellers. These sellers are allowed to display their home decor products on the app.
• Membership Revenue: The home décor experts are registered in the app database in this monetization model. Businesses in the interior design industry can opt to sell pre-programs in exchange for an annual membership fee.
• Promoting Revenue: The app owners can opt to charge outsiders in this model. For example, similar companies may pay a premium to get their goods or services advertised on interior design apps.

What Is The Cost Of The Development Of An Interior Design App?

Determining the cost of development of an interior design app can be tricky as various factors affect the cost including features, the technology used, platforms integrated, etc. Some factors are: 

App Development Platform

The cost of developing an app varies depending on whether it is for iOS or Android. Different development teams are expected for each platform, such as iOS app developers for the iOS platform and Android app developers for the Android platform. As a result, the price varies depending on them. 

App Development Team

Two teams are needed for the development of your app – the frontend team and backend team. Therefore, the cost of these teams can be different. Other teams required for the development process include project managers, UI/UX designers, quality analysts, testers, etc.

App Design (UI/UX)

If the design is complex, the cost will be more. Simple designs usually take less cost for integration.

Features & Functionalities

When it comes to the projected production cost of an Interior Design product, it costs around $25000-$35000 when the app is built with minimal features and for a single platform, and around $50000-$70000 when the app is designed for various platforms and with advanced features.

Final Words

Mobile applications have made the lives of people so much easier. People can get the services they require in just a few taps. This has proved to be a big opportunity for business owners. The best example could be an interior design app.

In this article, we’ve assembled a list of all the features that an interior design app should have to stand out in the market. If you need additional information, get in touch with us – the right mobile app development company for you. You will come up with a lot of concept ideas if we work together.