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Modular product configurators open up a world of possibilities
NaughtOne's product offerings include several modular furniture collections for large spaces, such as airports, hotel lobbies, and offices. However, it was difficult for customers to visualize the endless options without visual aid.
We developed four modular product configurators simultaneously, all built on the same foundational framework. This approach allows us to easily create additional configurators whenever NaughtOne launches new modular collections. When it came time to design a configurator for a new modular sofa, this method proved to be "as smooth as you could possibly imagine."
Company: NaughtOne
Segment: Furniture
Country: United Kingdom
Website: Visit NaughtOne's website
NaughtOne, part of the MillerKnoll collective of brands, designs and manufactures furniture for commercial spaces. The company is all about good design and enabling specifiers to express their creativity with tailored products that perfectly match the client, setting, and use.
Difficult to imagine the possibilities with modular furniture
NaughtOne designs and manufactures furniture for commercial spaces. Their core beliefs are that designs should be simple, purposeful, and useful, and that the choice of color, fabric, and finish should come as standard. This belief means that nothing from NaughtOne is "off the rack."
To top it off, NaughOne also offers different modular sofas and work desks. These furniture collections don't have a fixed shape or size, and it's up to the specifier—architects, designers, dealers, etc.—to create the unique solution that perfectly matches their client's needs.
"We've had these modular pieces of furniture for years, but we realized that the specifiers often had difficulty understanding and imagining the endless possibilities.
People are becoming used to working with modular sofas for their homes, but when we start talking about how a sofa can work as an architectural piece covering airport terminals, hotel lobbies, or large reception areas—creating spaces within spaces—it becomes challenging to visualize without aid," says Dan Jeffrey, the Marketing & Communications Director at NaughtOne, and continues:
"It was especially challenging for specifiers to imagine the possibilities with our modular table system, Morse, which we released in 2023. A modular table system is a slightly more unusual proposition and much more complex than a modular sofa. Therefore, our global sales team agreed that digital product configurators for four of our furniture collections were required to give the best possible customer experience."
"Brilliant to work with"
From the beginning, NaughtOne knew what they wanted in their product configurators: They had to be simple, intuitive, and feel highly professional. And they chose us to develop them.
"Cadesign was always my preferred partner. I liked the team. I liked the range of the experts that was available. It just felt like these were people we could trust. And it was the right choice," says Dan Jeffrey, and continues:
"Kim from Cadesign was part of the project and was brilliant to work with. He was doing so much thinking on our behalf. While he applied his expertise in interactive solutions to the project, he also became an expert in our modular furniture. I don't think many outside our organization understand Morse as well as Kim does. He knows that product inside out. And so, he was able to anticipate some of the challenges we could face and the questions we would ask and have answers and solutions ready at hand."

A scalable product configurator
NaughtOne wanted four product configurators at the same time, with the Morse product configurator needing to be ready for an important tradeshow.
But instead of simply developing four different product configurators, Kim set out to understand NaughtOne's modular furniture in detail. This in-depth understanding made it possible to create a foundation for the configurators that could be universally applied to any of NaughtOne's modular products. And because of this, it would be much easier to scale in the future.
It took a lot of hard work and thinking ahead, but all four product configurators were ready on time, and NaughtOne got to showcase the new Morse configurator at their tradeshow.
Luckily, NaughtOne quickly discovered how all the hard work paid off when they launched a new modular furniture collection shortly after and got to test the scalability of the configurators.
"At the beginning of 2025, we launched Mimo, which should also have a configurator. And if the build for the other four configurators was complicated, this was as smooth as you could possibly imagine. Because we had already done all the hard work, it was mostly a question of providing Kim with the files and rule sets and then leaving him to it. And it came together beautifully. It's a very comforting thought to know exactly what the process will look like and what to expect of the next project," Dan Jeffrey says.

The product configurators are used internally and by customers
The initial motivation for developing the product configurators was to make it much easier for specifiers to imagine and visualize all the different options of the modular products. And that works exactly as intended.
However, that's not all.
"Our customers are really satisfied with the configurators, which is what we hoped for. But the tools are also immensely popular internally. Everyone from dealers, the sales teams, and the customer service teams uses them to build familiarity with the products and provide our customers and clients with the best experience possible. They started playing around with the configurators right from the start, and the value is beyond even what we initially scoped for them," says Dan Jeffrey.
For NaughtOne, the product configurators are more than just a tool for visualizing endless customization options. They are also a means of supporting the product storytelling.
"Storytelling is an absolutely critical part of how we operate and work with our customers. It's not just about the design story of the products and what the designer intended. Storytelling is also about form, function, and possibility. And the configurators have improved our ability to tell stories about our products. We're not looking for a more efficient use of our time. We're aiming at more effective, active, and compelling storytelling. And there's no question that we succeed with this now that we have the configurators," Dan Jeffrey finishes.

Examples from your industry
Go to our industry-specific pages where we've collected all the best images, films, and product configuration examples from four different industries: Furniture, Kitchen & Bath, Building Materials, and Industrial.
