Clé tile: Bringing AR & AI into the Tile Shopping experience to reduce purchase hesitation
Role:
Sole Product Designer
Timeline:
Oct - Dec 2025
Industry/Org:
High-end Tile Retail
Scope of Work
UX research, Usability Testing, and Prototyping
01 project overview
Designed a tile visualization feature for an established high-end tile brand, collaborating closely with stakeholders to bring it from concept to high-fidelity.
Problem Root Cause
User pain points were tied to the dilemma of online purchasing especially when it comes to high-end tile purchase that leads to high-risk outcome. From flat photos, the users can't tell color accuracy, texture and gloss to fit into their own space.
Solution
AR tool that lets users preview the tile designs directly on walls, floors, and counters by using their mobile device or uploaded photos with the help of AI image generation feature built in the website.
02 problem approach
I approached the project by looking into what users care the most, and how the industry is responding to it.
Analogous industry audit research
Since I haven't found a good reference or inspiration on similar tile visualizing tools, I've focused on identifying an effective way to visualize or preview object through AR from different industries.
User interviews with 4 participants
User pain points were tied to the dilemma of online purchasing especially when it comes to high-end tile purchase that leads to high-risk outcome. From flat photos, the users can't tell color accuracy, texture and gloss to fit into their own space.
Interview Insight 1
Users value comparison more than pixel-perfect accuracy.
Interview Insight 3
Floor plans & measurements cause drop-off in onboarding.
Interview Insight 2
Confidence is the final goal, not entertainment
Interview Insight 4
Hard to tell the scale and gloss from flat online photos.
03 user flow concept
Based on user research, I identified the desktop website is the primary choice of device by the users, and prioritized the user flow to be accessible, and fast without heavy seatup.
04 User feedback & iteration
To test the initial prototyping, I interviewed 4 users for usability testing, and reiterated the user flow with stakeholders.
Findings from usability testing:
Feature lacks lighting reflection
Privacy and safeguard issues when accessing mobile camera
Users want to compare 2 or more different tiles when previewing
Onboarding is confusing for first time AR users.
05 final decisions
After 4-5 rounds of design iterations, I implemented AI generation tool on top of the current AR tool by considering the edge cases.
Flow 2: AI generation from uploaded media
