IKEA assembly.

overview

experience

how it works

all work

overview:

IKEA Assembly is an experimental interactive 3D alternative to traditional furniture manuals, allowing users to watch and explore the assembly process step by step, from any angle.

IKEA assembly

experience:

My goal was to make IKEA Assembly feel indistinguishable from an official IKEA application, down to the smallest design details. I closely followed IKEA's established visual identity, from its typography and iconic color palette to its layouts, navigation, and interface elements. Part of the fun was seeing if I could convince my friends it was real.

The experience is designed to be as intuitive as the instructions themselves. Users can search for furniture, watch each component come together in 3D, control playback, and freely explore the model from different perspectives. Everything is designed to feel familiar, approachable, and authentically IKEA.

how it works:

I built IKEA Assembly using ChatGPT and Three.js, a lightweight JavaScript library for rendering interactive 3D experiences directly in the browser.

The system automatically retrieves IKEA's published assembly manuals and translates their instructions into animated 3D scenes. Each product goes through a series of automated checks and validations to ensure its components, movements, and assembly sequences follow predefined layout and animation rules. This allows new products to be added without hard-coding every scene, while preserving consistency and quality across the experience.

All finished models and animation data are stored directly within the application, eliminating the need for external API calls during use and keeping the experience fast and free.

I had a visually polished, functioning prototype within just a few hours. Since then, I've been refining the underlying system and gradually expanding the catalog, working through IKEA's best-selling products. There are currently 20 available assembly guides, with plenty more planned.

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