About

It’s been available in an online format for some time, but not quite like this. From a user perspective, the IKEA 2017 and 2018 digital catalogue offers a much more inspiring and intense feeling of content. The app isn’t just a digital copy of the printed catalog. It’s a digital native enhancement of the catalogue.

Screenshots of the IKEA Digital Catalogue experience

System

We needed to make the digitalisation possible without interfering with the existing production pipeline and the catalogue was to be delivered in over 60 languages. To help with efficiency, a system was built to parse all the analogue layouts and contents as they were created. By gradually teaching the system the core design and layout of the printed catalogue, we were able to create an extremely efficient digitalisation process in terms of content management. Below is a screenshot from the tool used to inspect the systems interpretation of layouts and to teach it new ways of reading them.

Screenshot of IKEA parsing system UI
Credits: Acne, IKEA