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Sterling Homes
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Embark on an immersive journey with our Virtual Reality App Development project. Sterling Homes, renowned as one of South Australia’s premier builders with a remarkable 40-year legacy and over 45 accolades from the Housing Industry Association and Master Builders Associations, sought innovative ways to engage their customers. They turned to Appliquette for digital solutions, and we delivered a cutting-edge Virtual Tour app.
Our Virtual Tour app invites users to embark on captivating 3D journeys through a curated selection of Sterling Homes’ distinctive designs. From charming courtyard homes to grand two-story residences, you can now explore Sterling Homes’ creations room by room, all from the convenience of your phone or tablet. Immerse yourself in the award-winning designs, experiencing their ambiance and aesthetics.
Whether you’re discovering these designs for the first time or revisiting a cherished display home, Sterling Homes’ Virtual Tours offer unrestricted access to every room, from every angle, at any time of day.
Experience the future of home exploration with Sterling Homes’ Virtual Tour app.
Design
The development of our Virtual Tour app presented us with three significant challenges, each carefully addressed to deliver an exceptional user experience.
Content Creation: Crafting a Virtual Tour necessitated the creation of high-quality 360 Panoramic images for every room in each of the houses. With the Show Homes already constructed, we embarked on a journey of capturing our own photography to generate the content. This undertaking was particularly daunting, given that each home featured an average of 12 rooms, some spanning multiple floors.
Content Integration: We faced the challenge of devising an efficient content integration strategy for the app. Recognizing that we would continuously introduce new tour content over time, we aimed to avoid the need for frequent app updates, which could lead to elongated timelines and increased costs.
Interactive Catalog Integration: Our client’s brief also stipulated the necessity of interaction between users and the existing printed Catalogues. This required a seamless way to engage users with the brochure material typically distributed at Show Homes and sales floors.
Overcoming these challenges, we developed a Virtual Tour app that offers an immersive and dynamic experience, delivering high-quality visuals and user engagement.
Development
Our journey began by establishing a flexible framework within the app, ensuring seamless integration of Tour content. This crucial step laid the foundation for cost-efficient content updates and additions throughout the app’s long-term lifespan.
To handle real-time content delivery, we harnessed the power of cloud-based technology. This innovative approach allowed us to upload new home content to the cloud at any time. The app, upon loading, automatically checked for content updates and seamlessly downloaded any newly added materials.
In the absence of room renders, our team embarked on a meticulous process. Armed with tripods and DSLR cameras, we meticulously captured a minimum of 80 images for each room, expertly stitching them together to create full 360-degree panoramic views.
To elevate the interactive element, we seamlessly integrated device cameras with cloud-based image recognition. Users simply identified the home they wished to explore within the catalogue, opened the app, and pointed their camera at the display photo. Cloud-based image recognition swiftly identified the image, enabling the app to display content specific to that home. This approach perfectly complemented our content delivery strategy, allowing us to update or modify image recognition content via the cloud at any time.
The Sterling Homes Virtual Tours app has revolutionized customer engagement, providing an entirely new and interactive dimension to the Sterling Homes experience. Users now have the privilege of delving deep into the homes, gaining an immersive sense of space, light, and ambiance that traditional printed photos cannot replicate.
Moreover, the virtual content empowers Sterling Homes to showcase their complete catalogue to customers, freeing them from the limitations of physical show homes. Now, even decommissioned or older show homes remain accessible to their valued customers.
