Brief: GROHE SPA is a high-end sub brand of German fixtures manufacturer GROHE. The brand’s products have been present on the central product platform grohe.com; however, the platform lacked an experience that reflected GROHE SPA’s brand values and that was precisely targeted to the distinct requirements of the target groups of architects, investors and project planners.
To increase the SPA brand’s general brand recognition and to meet the requirements of the brand’s primary target gorups, GROHE decided to launch a dedicated experience platform for its luxury high-end brand.
Approach: Keeping in line with the other sub-branded platforms IBMix had previously built, we designed the SPA platform to also use the IBM Carbon Design System as a foundation to increase time to market, allow for faster maintenance and connected experience patterns. The aim was to make the SPA online experience feel exclusive and premium while using already developed components and patterns defined by IBM’s Carbon Design System. The new platform also had to be connected to the other platforms, services and a shared product catalogue. The Challenge: The Design and final prototype had to be completed in 4 weeks.
01. Benchmarking & Information Architecture
Working closely with the UX Design Team and the Stakeholders at GROHE we started our Design phase by collecting Benchmark websites, Design inspiration and interaction patterns. We also created IA flows which helped us organise the templates we had to create and define the user flows which we would build in our final Prototype. For the User Journeys, we focused on 2 Persona mindsets: The Browser who is exploring the brand and the Searcher, who is looking for something specific. By keeping it simple and focusing only on the User most basic needs, we were able to create an experience that appeals to a wide range of users.
02. Creating a Foundation
With the help and creative direction from the Designers at GROHE, we then developed a UI kit that would help us bring the Brand identify to life in a digital setting.
03. Designing an Experience
The final experience design is bespoke and follows an experiential design strategy that has been developed to relaunch the brand based on the idea of the healing forces of water and its perception of the five senses. We wanted to curate the journey a user would take by making every interaction slow and smooth - much like the flow of water. We also intentionally interrupted the user flow by placing large videos of rippling water throughout the website to slow the user down and create a feeling of mindfulness and calm.
Selected Works
Waterberg Guest FarmBranding & Digital Design
FestoUI / UX DESIGN
PanamUX DESIGN & RESEARCH
Meysan PartnersBranding & Digital Design
Die AOKInteraction Design
MigustoDesign System
Berlin, Germany
Email: ilenaclara@gmail.com
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© Clara Schneider-Waterberg 2022