refined creation – scan it. know it. source it.

This idea didn't start on a whiteboard.
It started in a showroom.

From 2017 to 2019 I was a junior designer at Ciao Berto, a furniture company. One day I was photographing new products in the showroom when a client stopped at one of the pieces. What material was it? Could the same product come in a different texture? Could she see samples?

It was a ritual I'd seen many times: binders of physical swatches carried from room to room, promises to follow up with suppliers. Essential — and deeply limiting. You could only show what you carried, and any question beyond the binder meant phone calls and days of waiting for information that should take seconds.

Standing there with a camera in my hands, the irony struck me: I was already photographing these materials. What if a photo could do more than show a material — what if it could identify it?

That moment became Refined Creation — an app that turns every material in the world into a sample you already have with you.

RESEARCH

Two years inside a furniture showroom was my field research.

My time at Ciao Berto gave me something most concept projects lack: sustained, firsthand observation of the exact moment this product is designed for. Between 2017 and 2019 I regularly watched interior designers, salespeople, and clients negotiate materials in the showroom — and the same pain points surfaced again and again:

1. You can only show what you carry. Designers worked from binders and sample bags. The moment a client asked about a texture or finish that wasn't physically present, the conversation stalled.

2. Material questions rarely got same-day answers. "What is this made of?", "Can it come in a different texture?", "Where can I get a sample?" — each one typically meant supplier calls and days of follow-up, while the client's enthusiasm cooled.

3. Material knowledge lived in people, not in a system. Experienced salespeople could identify materials on sight; newer staff couldn't. The information existed, but it wasn't accessible at the point of need.

When I developed the concept for this project, I complemented that experience with a review of adjacent apps — plant identifiers, Google Lens, paint-matching tools. These proved users already trust the "point camera, get answer" pattern, but none serve materials with professional-grade data like recyclability, emissions class, or life duration. I also researched the material landscape itself (concrete, wood, steel, glass, textiles, bamboo, carbon fiber, organic materials) to understand which properties matter most at selection time.

TARGET USERS

Primary — the Interior Designer. Works with clients who point at materials they can't name. Needs fast identification, technical specs, and sourcing options to keep projects moving.

Secondary — the Architect / Renovator. Needs to match or document existing materials in restoration work and verify the right materials are used on site.

Tertiary — the Curious Homeowner. Renovating or decorating; wants to know what something is and where to buy it, without professional vocabulary.

DESIGN PROCESS

1. Defining the flow. I mapped the complete journey before designing a single screen: from login and account creation into the dashboard, then through the core loop — identifying a material, viewing suggested alternatives, browsing your image database, finding shop stores, and saving favourites. Prioritizing this flow made one thing clear early: the scan is the heart of the app, and everything else exists to support what happens after it.

2. Structuring the data. Researching the material landscape (concrete, wood, steel, glass, textiles, bamboo, carbon fiber, organic materials…) informed a classification model of four user-facing attributes: texture, colour, recyclability, and life duration — detailed enough for professionals, readable for everyone else.

3. From low fidelity to high fidelity. Testing the low-fidelity flow confirmed the structure — the path from scan to saved library didn't need to change. So the high-fidelity work focused on hierarchy and context:

4. Visual language. A light, near-white interface keeps focus on material photography — the materials are the interface. Soft cards, rounded corners, and a restrained type system give it a calm, professional feel.

IMPACT & USE CASES

Beyond interior design, the same engine serves architecture, construction, renovation and restoration, supply chain management, education and research, art and decor, fashion and textiles, and environmental sustainability — including recycling suggestions based on identified material composition.

For the core use case, Refined Creation turns a multi-day identify-and-source process into a single scan: efficiency and accuracy, material consistency, time savings, and room for more creativity.

LEARNINGS

• Data design is UX design. The hardest problem wasn't the interface — it was deciding which four material attributes matter most at the moment of scanning.

• Trust the familiar pattern. Borrowing the mental model of visual-search apps made a technically complex product feel instantly understandable.

Refined Creation · Visual & Experience Design · Data & Society SW23,
UE Germany Majlindë Hoxha