55°N 12°E

client

Carl Hansen & Søn

deliverables

Strategy, Design, UX, User Insights

Furniture in the heart of the user experience

Can you blend timeless beauty and historic furniture craftsmanship with new digital technologies? By designing a user-centric product experience, sales representatives and customers now have the power to co-craft the perfect piece of furniture in the new product configurator from Carl Hansen & Søn.

CHS CH24 Chair

Carl Hansen & Søn's main goal is to gather the most iconic modern furniture designs under one roof. Photo: carlhansen.com

the new royal CHS logo

Iconic design for more than 100 years

Carl Hansen & Søn is a family-owned Danish design company, now in its third generation, who skillfully balances preserving Danish design classics with modern collaborations. As the world's largest manufacturer of Hans J. Wegner's designs, they also craft works by iconic designers like Arne Jacobsen, Børge Mogensen, and others.

upholstery carl hansen
CHS store drawing
Product Configurator Entrance Animation
Coffee table setup

Designing the perfect piece of furniture, together

The customer user journey for buying a piece of furniture from Carl Hansen & Søn is long and well-researched, often spanning 3-12 months from initial consideration to purchase. These products are lifetime investments, meant to be owned for generations rather than resold. Physical stores play a vital role in this journey, with most customers visiting a store before buying.

Given the complexity of material choices, the guidance of a sales representative is crucial. To enhance this process, we have designed a product configurator for Flagship Store Managers. This tool will aid their customer interactions and streamline the buying decision, making it seamless.

chair selection
wood details chs

The color palette is inspired by nature and adds to the creation of a living, sophisticated identity. Photo: carlhansen.com

selecting colors
chairs in greek setting

Co-crafted timeless design

Outstanding craftsmanship and timeless design serves as the cornerstones of Carl Hansen & Søn’s legacy. That’s been our guiding light in the design of the digital product configurator, which offers a seamless interactive experience that empowers both sales managers and customers to co-craft the perfect piece of furniture.

In the configurator, guidance is honest and functionality aesthetically pleasing and easy accessible, keeping the furniture at the heart of the user experience. The customers’ personal needs are alpha omega and the configurator lets them customise their desired piece of furniture exactly to them.

dark red wishbone chair

New navigation and guidance UI components have been added to ensure functionality and driving user action forward. Photo: carlhansen.com

components chs design
iconic table

Tablet-first approach

Sales representatives explained that they move around in the store when advising the customer. Typically, the conversation happens next to the piece of furniture in question. They go to the register only when it’s time to fill out the order.

Several customers explained how they preferred to be next to the actual piece of furniture during the process of deciding. Therefore, our design is matched to tablets by default, as sales representatives can move around with it.

selecting wood

It can be a maze selecting materials for a piece of furniture. The product configurator eases and simplifies that making choice manageable. Photo: carlhansen.com

chair arrangement inside a house

New components

The design is created to highlight the craftsmanship and details for the furniture with easy and accessible navigation, guidance and comparison enablement. UI components in the product configurator are primarily based on carlhansen.com ensuring a consistent experience across platforms

However, new navigation and guidance components have been added to ensure users are able to perform their desired task: customising and selecting different materials for their favourite furniture.

ch008 chair in setting

The impact of an enhanced customer journey

For now, the product configurator has been put to use by in-store Flagship Sales Managers. However, Carl Hansen & Søn are planning to integrate it into their commerce platform on their website, allowing users to start their customer user journey on their own.

Leather upholstery

Get in touch

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Hey, i'm KC and let's talk digital

Niels Kristian Christensen

Business Development Director