As crowdsourcing was one of the recent topics in our course, I realised how important social media can be, not only in everyday social activities, but also in professional and business fields.
Houzz is one the platforms that also create opportunities for professionals. The website allows house owners to get inspiration for their households by sharing pictures, articles and ideas. Moreover, the website is a place for architects, designers and furniture manufacturers who can directly communicate with clients and be able to see what they expect and what they need and what their taste is. A project of a house is created together with a designer and a client. It is also based on other users’ ideas and designs. The platform simply links professionals with customers who can find unique products or interior designers who will understand their vision.
The professionals say that it makes their job much easier after seeing what their customers like. Additionally, they can directly communicate with them and share potential inspiration for their new homes.
However the main advantage of the platform is the ability for designers and creators to have a great reach for free. With more than 25 million entries per day, Houzz creates a chance for small entrepreneurs to be noticed by many potential clients. They are able to establish contracts online in various locations. The platform was a great change for many smaller businesses and their operations thanks to online facilities.
Do you think communication on the platform between designers and their clients can be effective? Do you like the idea of hiring an architect whose works you are able to look up? Is it possible that in the future we will not have architect offices because projects will be entirely run online?
References:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2014/10/16/for-2-7-million-home-designers-houzz-is-a-mighty-door-opener/
I think Houzz is an interesting platform because it generates benefit for a large variety of people. As mentioned, it does not only benefit individual home owners who would like to gain inspiration from other home designs offered by people on the site, it could also enable interior designing and architectural businesses to identify potential candidates for their job openings and also to connect freelance designers to customers. You could also directly purchase furniture and displays you like on the website, which makes the website content much richer.
I think platforms such as Houzz can be effective to a certain extent. It is beneficial because people could save time on browsing for companies and housing ideas and just ‘do everything’ and ‘find everything’ they need within one single platform. As many people contribute their ideas on Houzz, a wide variety of designs, representing different themes and styles could be found, therefore increases the chance of seeing a design ‘perfect’ for you. However, not all designs are professional and it might be overwhelming to have to browse through so many places and to identify designers who are trustworthy for ‘real use’ of your new home decorations.
Nevertheless, I do like the idea of hiring an architect whom we can look up on their work beforehand. But this is not special because it is normal for designing companies and interior designers to display their work to you and show you their style before you decide to hire them. But, it is easier and more convenient to find the most designer’s portfolio on the Houzz platform at one go. Lastly, I think there is a potential for the concept of Houzz to grow larger and result in design projects to run online completely in the future. As people are moving towards the internet trend and looking up on online review sites as part of their decision-making process, it is possible that physical companies are no longer needed.
However, I am uncertain about whether Houzz is considered as a ‘crowdsourcing platform’. As it seems to be that it is a normal social sites whereby you can view different designs, but not necessarily contribute to a certain design. Hence I looked up on whether there any other platforms that are within this field, and I’ve came across a crowdsourcing platform named ‘Space Sculpt’. This crowdsourcing platform is designed to connect property owners with interior designers all over the world. Space Sculpt’s goal is to save property owners time, money and guesswork, and to give budding designers an opportunity to work on projects that were previously inaccessible to them. Customers can launch a design project at spacesculpt.com and different designers can contribute into the project. As highlighted, Houzz provides inspiration for customers, and they help you find a local designer who can help you with your project but Space Sculpt allows home users to work directly with designers right there on the site. Therefore Houzz is limiting in that it really just helps you pick from a list of local options.
Hence I feel that Space Sculpt will be a better example of a crowdsourcing platform in terms of the home designing field. What do you guys think? Would you agree with me?
Source
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/blog/BizNext/2014/03/st-louis-startup-space-sculpt.html?page=all