Consumerization of interior design software - New revolution or just another app?

Abstract

One of the digitalization's sub-phenomena is consumerization, which can be either defined narrowly as employees bringing their own devices to work place, or more broadly saying that it is the phenomenon of companies being forced to implement consumer-oriented technologies as otherwise they will lack behind in the technology development. Consumerization is usually tied to IT context and has not been approached from a knowledge-intensive environment. In this research, I have approached consumerization within the context of interior design. Interior design industry is welcoming new interior design software that function on the technologies that have been used in the gaming already for decades. These technologies are 3D, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. If the professional interior designers start using these consumer-oriented new software, consumerization can be claimed to have happened in this knowledge-intensive industry.

I approached this research with the elements from the Grounded Theory, as it allowed me to gather empirical findings, sensitize them with the literature, pull the information together into an existing framework, and build my own analysis on top of that. In this case, I used Porter's (1980) Five Forces competitive analysis framework to visualize interior design as an industry today and in the future. My empirical findings consisted of semi-structured in-depth interviews with the top tier Finnish experienced interior designers and the new interior design software providers. These were supplemented with mini-interviews from the Slush conference.

In my findings, I was able to explicitly state how consumerization is affecting business today, and how does it affect within the interior design industry, specifically. I found out that the interior de- sign industry is somewhat technology-resistant, and that might be the main reason why there is no consumerization in the Finnish interior design industry today, as the interior designers are not willing to implement new technological tools. I also claimed that consumerization as such needs a better definition, as most of my interviewees would link it to the consumer empowerment, which is a separate phenomenon but which actually might have a link to the consumerization. This would need further research.

Overall, the interior design industry requires a disruptive technological change. As people become wealthier, they have more money to spend. The wealth combined with the consumer empowerment and the increasingly intelligent technologies create a perfect momentum for the interior design industry to adapt to the technologies of 2015 and to the renewed consumer behaviour.