An online monument designer that turns late-night research into consultations

Why families needed a better first step

Most families shopping for a monument have never done it before, and they’re doing it while grieving. They want to understand the options and roughly what it will cost before they walk into a showroom or pick up the phone.

For the owner, every conversation used to start from zero. Brochures and photos can’t show a family what their own name, dates and chosen artwork will look like on a specific stone.

The owner wanted families to arrive at the consultation with a design already in hand, and to keep full control of prices, shapes and artwork without calling a developer.

How we approached it

1. Design it at the kitchen table. Seven calm, guided steps, drawn to real proportions, that work on a phone as well as a computer.
2. Show a real starting price. The estimate comes from the same stone size the canvas is drawing, priced from the owner’s own list, with clear notes that final pricing is set in consultation.
3. Let the owner run it. Prices, shapes, granite colors, clip art, fonts and stone images are all managed in a self-service admin, with changes live immediately.

We built it with the owner round by round. Five rounds of testing shaped the step order, the true-to-scale canvas and front-and-back engraving.

How the designer works

The designer runs entirely in the browser. A family enters an email to start, with no password, and can come back to saved designs later.

What’s inside

• Seven steps: size, shape, granite color, artwork, text, an optional photo, and submit.
• A true-to-scale canvas drawn from the supplier’s real stone dimensions, with front and back faces for uprights and slants.
• Automatic engraving contrast, so lettering stays readable on light and dark granite.
• Three ways to finish: download the design as an image, save it to My Designs, or send it to the company for a free consultation.
• An owner’s admin for submissions, inquiries, the gallery, pricing (with spreadsheet import and export), clip art, stone images, fonts, shapes and colors.
• Spam protection and privacy: App Check with reCAPTCHA, accessibility and privacy pages, and cookie choices.

Built with

• React 19, TypeScript, Vite and Tailwind CSS: the website and designer.
• Konva: the interactive monument canvas.
• Firebase: sign-in, saved designs, pricing and content managed by the owner, with live updates.
• PHP email on the existing web host: notifications without a paid email service.

What changed for the company

The designer is live on the company’s website.

• Families arrive prepared. Designs come in with the shape, granite, artwork and inscription already chosen.
• Pricing expectations are set early. A starting price appears while families design, with clear notes about what the consultation finalizes.
• The owner stays in control. New prices, artwork or stone options go live from the admin, with no developer needed.
• Low running costs. Email goes through the company’s existing host, with no separate paid email service.

Could your customers design it themselves first?

If your sales conversations start with “what would it look like?”, an interactive designer can let customers answer that on their own time and arrive ready to buy.

Your Software Department™ builds tools like this on a flat monthly subscription: unlimited software requests, daily progress updates, and most requests shipped in 3–7 days. For a new site, Website By Friday™ gets you live fast. See how Your Software Department works →

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