The Body Shop
Merging the offline and online retail experience
Mobile Design | Strategy | Digital Design | Packaging Design
Adobe Illustrator | Adobe Photoshop | Adobe Dimension
THE CHALLENGE
In a brief set by The Body Shop and Mother Agency we were tasked to create a radical, provocative activism campaign for The Body Shop that feels culturally relevant, authentic and distinctive.
THE OUTCOME
Introducing Skin Print, a campaign that utilises data visualisation to document a user’s skin data. We do so by providing a way for people to document the natural progression of their skin. By merging the physical and virtual retail experience, users can have their skin scans engraved on their reusable containers or track them on a mobile app. We wanted to use data and information as a means to empower women.
ROLE
User Research, Interaction, Visual Design, Prototyping
In collaboration with Michelle Lee and Stacey Yu
BACKGROUND
How can The Body Shop redefine the role beauty brands play in the relationship that women and girls have with their body?
Beauty brands have made youth into a cult and an ideal – meaning people (especially women) over a certain age feel that they have no social value or worth. What can The Body Shop do as a brand in this category to change the messages we send to women about what is socially valuable, and how they should look? How can we reframe age in a different light to make people feel proud, rather than past their sell-by date? Can we harness the power of data and information to empower women?
DISCOVERY
User Insights
To begin our research, we visited and studied the layout of The Body Shop’s store and spoke to customers to better understand what users need and want. Here is what we found:
In stores, customers expect to receive an experience that an e-Commerce offering alone cannot provide — the ability to touch, feel and test out different products before purchase, as well as discover new products and use cases.
28% of women under 25 admit that they “regularly” worry about their signs of aging, and this number increases to 42% for those aged 25-34.
The demand for sustainable and natural products continues to rise, as young consumers, especially millennials and Generation Z, whom have grown up knowing the human impact on the environment.
DEFINE
Goals and Intentions
Why are we doing this
Beauty brands have often put out the message that ageing, imperfections and blemishes need to be eradicated. We want to normalise textured skin and show that imperfections can be made to look beautiful.
How will we achieve this
Utilising data visualisation to empower women with information on their skin.
What are we doing?
Giving user’s a way to capture and track their skin’s data. Thereby, giving them relevant insights into their skin health.
FEELINGS TO INVOKE
DEVELOP
Sketches & Concepts
Taking inspiration from nature, we based our visual design off of Dendrochronology — the dating and study of the annual growth increments, or tree rings, in woody trees and shrubs. Each ring engraved will be based on an image captured of the user’s skin. As the user follows along with the program, the ring gets bigger and grows with them.
In line with sustainability, we want users to be able to reuse their containers. This is a concept art of how the store might look like with the refill station and scanning-engraving station.
DELIVER
Final Outcome
The physical and virtual documentation of a user’s skin data goes hand in hand with one another. The customised engraving acts as a long term reward for customers who keep coming back to use and refill their Body Shop products. While the mobile application provides immediate insights into their daily skin health. The merge of the physical and virtual gives a unique customer experience that is not only visually appealing but empowers the user with insightful information on their skin health.
Mobile Application
One area that we discovered was untapped is the sale follow-up. We conceptualised an application that will allow the user to track and log their skin condition while using the products.
Key Takeaways & Reflections
As an individual who experiences firsthand, the effects of exclusive and unrealistic beauty standards, I really enjoyed being able to challenge those notions through this project.
The design process was particularly engaging, given that I had the opportunity to merge two topics that I was deeply familiar with together. Through this design process, I was able to examine a pervasive social problem in greater detail, and to more importantly, make use of design and technology to create unique solutions.
This project inspired the hope that my future works too, can be used for social good and to empower communities who are in need of a voice.
This experience has been deeply enriching and meaningful, and if given the chance, I would like to supplement this project by exploring user flow and developing the mobile application further.