MAcarbon Interior Configurator - First Up 458!

Back in 2010, MAcarbon launched our on-line wheel configurator. MAcarbon Steering Wheel Configurator This software tool allowed customers to design a wheel for their car, visualize all the options and be told the cost of such. This made the order and production processes much easier for both the customer and us. We feel no other company has anything like it - then or now.

Seeing the benefit the configurator made with steering wheels, in 2011 we launched a project to apply the concept and technology to the entire interior. Little did we know how much more difficult this would be! Now almost three years later, we've finally launched the MAcarbon Interior Configurator. The first car is the 458.

Goals for the project were the following:
• Easy to Use - We hope the process of creating and saving a config is obvious. But in case it's not, we have a built in tutorial.
• Carbon Visualization - Allow the customer to visualize what their car would look like as carbon is added. It's also key to allow the user to add the factory carbon their car already has.
• Clear Pricing - On some cars we offer discounts based on the total size of the order and this needed to be reflected in the cost numbers shown.
• Saving the Configuration - An email is sent to the customer from which they can access their config at any time.
• Inventory Status Display - This hits against our main website. So now we have to keep that accurate!
• Real Product Photos - Nothing helps the customer visualize like a good photo. So for each product, the user can see a high-res photo of it.
• Multi-platform - The Wheel Configurator was written in Flash so it doesn't work on many Apple products. The Interior Configurator is in HTML and works in all browsers and platforms.

I think we fulfilled all of these goals pretty well. I'm very proud of our (very small) team who was able to pull this off. Farooqi, Lane and myself have put in a lot of effort into it. I think it shows - if I do say so myself!

We plan to add more cars in the coming weeks. Starting with the Aventador.

Besides cars, the one feature we know are missing is the ability to have relationships between the items. So we do not keep the user from selecting an item that might not work with another.

The only other problem (that we know of!) at the moment is that we've been staring at it for three years! So we'd love to hear some feedback from the Fchat community. Please give it a try and if you do have some comments, please let us know. Either through saving a config, posting to this thread, a PM etc. At the end of the week (June 28th) we'll pick two responses randomly and send them either an installation toolkit or a MAcarbon t-shirt.

So please take a look!
Configurator: MA Carbon | Loading....
MAcarbon's 458 Products: http://www.macarbon.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=197&Itemid=57&lang=en


Here is the IC when you first open it.
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To add parts, you simply click on the radio button control next to them. The image will then flash white where that part is, then the carbon will show.

To remove the part, click the radio button again.

We have a section called 'OEM Installed'. This allows you to add the factory CF that your car came with. These are added at 'no cost'.
Then you can add other products from the other sections.

This second image shows the interior after we added the 'Factory Replica Package' - which simply adds the CF the factory does.

We added some arrows to show how the CF has now appeared on the dash and console. Contrast that with the previous screen shot of the IC.

Note also the 'In Stock' column. This column is drawn from our website. Now we just have to be sure to keep the website up to date!
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After you have built the configuration you like, you need to save it.

To do that, you click the 'Save Configuration' button. A dialog window will open to prompt you to enter your contact information.

An email will then be sent to you that contains the URL to get back to IC with your config.

MAcarbon also gets an email as well. We (almost) always send an email back to someone who saves a config. The small checkbox should be termed 'Please Call Me' rather than 'Please Contact Me'. I'll need to change that tomorrow.
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One more cool feature of the Interior configurator is its ability to display a nice picture of the part in question. Simply by clicking on the 'Photo' button , the best pic we have of that part will be shown. A picture is worth a thousand words! At least when carbon is involved.

Thanks everyone for viewing our latest configurator!

If you have any feedback for us, please let us know. Don't forget we'll be picking two feedback submitters to receive a prize.
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Thanks Pride!

 

Thanks guys. We had our first saved config last night. It was a customer with an OEM interior thinking about adding door handles.