Where technology meets interior design. What happens when these two worlds collide?

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that technology has drastically affected the way in which we live in many ways. It would be challenging to try and list all the ways that this is true. But one thing we can be sure of is that it when technology meets interior design our homes and lifestyles change significantly.

For interior designers like me, responding to the ever-changing cultural landscape is an integral part of the design process. This must inevitably include paying respect to the developments in technology along the way. As it happens, there are many times when technology meets interior design and this will become more relevant over time.

The question we are faced with here is: how does technology impact interior design? And once we understand the various ways in which it does, how can we use that knowledge to improve and modernise our own interior design efforts?

In this post, I am going to answer both questions, so that your own interior design can begin to keep up with the changing times.

technology meets interior design

Personalisation As A Standard

Something we can certainly expect to see is the overflow of the hyper-personalization of technology into the realms of interior design. We are now so used to being given many choices with regards home technology we become quite spoiled.

Experts predict that this ability to always pick and choose precisely what we want is bound to become an integral part of our interior design. Before long, rooms are going to be able to know what colour and brightness it should have in the same way that search engines can reliably begin to predict your search queries.

If this example of when technology meets interior design sounds a bit far-fetched, it might actually be a lot closer to reality than you think. Most of the necessary technology is already in existence for this to happen, and it’s only a matter of time until it does come together in such a way as to change the face of interior design forever.

technology meets interior design

No matter what, we can absolutely expect to see more tailored spaces in people’s homes, achieved increasingly more efficiently and smoothly. What this will mean for the way that interior designers work is quite another matter.

Perhaps with our hands freed of many of these essential aspects of design, we will be able to pay more attention to being even more creative in other, fascinating ways. Only time will tell, but it will be interesting to watch it all unfold.

Search & Discovery

One of the significant elements in the design of any interior space is unmistakably that of finding and using the ideal factors for that home. Acquiring specific items for your home is essential so this is something else massively changed by technology over the past few years alone.

Now, 40% of customer search online first for new products for their home. Increasingly, their favourite items are being found more on social platforms than the official websites of designers or outlets. Of course, such search and discovery patterns means that interior design related businesses have a new opportunity to begin to sell in an entirely new way.

technology meets interior design

It will be interesting to note how businesses will continue to shift with these changes in the landscape, but one thing is for sure: interior design is much more about the items in question than ever before. Technology has made it significantly easier for individuals to pick and choose precisely what they want, and this again seems likely to lead to a much more personalised and individualised kind of interior design.

For the designers out there, this might sometimes feel as though you are even in competition with your clients, but don’t worry – it is still true that you will know more than them about the process of which items to buy and where to put them.

However, it will undoubtedly be important for designers to become thoroughly acquainted with the many different social platforms, given their central importance to where  technology meets interior design in the choices of individuals.

technology meets interior design

Technology In The Home

There is another side to all this which we haven’t touched upon yet. While it is undoubtedly true that the evolution of technology has meant some radical shifts in how spaces are designed, it is just as valid that those areas are likely to change to include more and more technological items within them.

This is a reflection that most modern homes contain a fair amount of technology – but it is the kind of simple thing that you can’t easily overlook if you want to stay on top of the interior design game.

It is hard to predict precisely the types of technology that will continue to be used in the home. But we can expect one thing: when technology meets interior design there’s no going back. Once a household is used to having smart home technology they are not likely to revert to ‘the old days’. Even if you didn’t even know you needed an automatically flushing toilet or windows that close when it rains, you’ll soon wonder how you did without them.

technology meets interior design

Image courtesy of Taubmans.com.au

Knowing this means that we can approach interior design in a much more hands-on, real and sensible manner. However, it’s still a good idea to look at what kind of technology we can expect to become integrated with design in the near future.

To do that, we only have to look at what is already happening now. If you even compare the average 2017 home to the average 2007 home, already there has been an enormous shift in how much technology there is in each room of the house.

Designers appreciate that most places will now have a computer, mobile devices, smart home devices, internet refrigerators, temeprature controlled tapware, and much more. There is a range of other considerations which might be relevant here too, such as finding the right IT services for home, as ensuring that technology works becomes more and more a part of designing any interior space.

technology meets interior design

It’s not just the computers either – television sets are gradually becoming more substantial as computers become smaller. They are also conversely taking up less actual space in the home. This is thanks, in large part, to being installed on the wall in most cases or a similar kind of setup.

Still, it is all worth considering, especially if you want your own interior design to keep up with the standards of today. It seems likely that how technology meets interior design will always be a part of the home now. So the more creatively we can make it work the better off we will be on the whole.

technology meets interior design

The Shopping Experience

There is plenty of research which suggests that the better a shopping experience is, the more likely it is that the customer will walk away having bought something. This is no surprise, but it is interesting to note how technology might change the way that people shop for their interior design items – or even entire rooms.

Something in the realm of the Ikea experience is already much more likely to produce converted sales, and recent technological trends could improve this even more.

Now, you can have a virtual home tour of what your new kitchen would look like using the smart technology of augmented reality. It is not yet entirely sure how this will develop, but it does seem as though it will likely produce more reliable sales pretty swiftly.

People are much more likely to buy if they are able to experience it in this way, so more interior design firms will take on the use of this technology in the near future. Again, it will be best to be on the right side of this kind of development.

technology meets interior design

As well as improving the shopping experience itself, this will also likely make the process of designing rooms easier to do. Design does not need to be carried out in the actual space, and this allows for a greater convenience and also much more room for creative license.

Given that you can easily daub a virtual wall with paint and then take it off again a moment later, you will never need to worry about time management again. It looks as though the process of interior design itself will soon become much faster and more enjoyable, and will probably result in many happier people in far more successfully designed homes.

As we have seen, there are a variety of ways in which technology will probably continue to affect the world of interior design. Understanding these changes as they occur, and working in line with them, will ensure that you can much more easily make the most of what you are doing, and better bring about the designs that you are looking for.