YEAR
2019 - 2021
COUNTRY
Latam
ROLE
Digital Design Manager:
Brand Identity, UX, Experience Design, Bussines Strategy
BSOUL
Research project aimed at implementing a brand identity change and enhancing the shopping experience for users of a women's sportswear brand.
- OVERVIEW & CHALLENGE -
BSOUL is a retail sportswear brand born in 2016 in Chile. It was positioned as sportswear for young, sporty and fit women. In 2019, the company needed to rethink the future of the brand to reach new segments and improve the shopping experience in online channels.
I was in charge of a design research that resulted in quantitative and qualitative analysis through strategic methodologies. Thanks to this investigation the web was just launched when the pandemic hit. We were one of the pioneer brands in having an attractive, easy to use and complete women's sportswear website.
- DESIGN PROCESS -
Discover & Empathize
Surveys + Interviews
Experts Meetings
Competitive Analysis
Focus Groups
Define & Synthesis
Personas Development
Problem Statement
Affinity Map
Ideation & Sketching
Idea integration methodologies
Low-fidelity Prototype
Prototype & Testing
High fidelity Prototype
Interaction Prototype
Prototype Testing
- RESEARCH -
64% of girls will have quit sports by the age of finishing puberty.
Many studies have found that ongoing participation in sports is a high contributor to confidence in woman, at any level, and provides valuable skills to help them stay confident to do any and every thing later in life. In fact, a recent 2015 U.S. consumer data study, showed that women ages 18 to 24 are twice as likely to be confident if they play sports regularly, compared to those who do not play at all1. Additionally, the recent Always survey found that girls reported that three of the top benefits of staying in sports are increased confidence, teamwork, and leadership skills. However, despite the known benefits, girls still report that they don’t feel like they belong in sports. Further, 67 percent of girls feel that society does not encourage them to play sports.
Although women understand the benefits of sports, many do not engage in it regularly and feel excluded from this world. Millions of women face this challenge every day. Therefore, I conducted research to transform our brand into a support system that encourages movement in women's lives.
- OBJECTIVES -
How to build a brand experience to encourage women to bring more movement and sports activities to their life?
What are the key factors that support a woman's interest in life with movement and sports?
- ACTIVITIES & DELIVERABLES -
Online Surveys
+50 participants
A short survey of different types of women to understand what feelings and behaviors they have about sports and how they try to include it in their routine.
Experts Meeting
5 participants
We invited people working in the world of sport: brand managers, personal trainers and health coaches to understand how to empower from the world of sportswear.
Interviews
+15 participants
The interviews were intended to delve into the concerns of different women and lifestyles. Priorities, time management, self-image, and self-esteem.
Focus Group
30 participants
The idea was to generate a space for conversation about sport and community, how to reinforce habits and generate positivity.
Branding Workshops
Bussines managers & stakeholders
The commercial department and a portion of the board of directors participated in workshops and design sprint sessions to enhance the business area.
- KEY INSIGHTS -
Focus in Movement
Changing the focus of the approach.
A brand that encourages movement as part of wellness needs to show that spirit in all its communication.
Woman-centered interactions
This is not a sports brand with a a woman's section. It starts from woman's lifestyle and all the desisions are made by studying their behaivours.
Preferred Online Shopping
In order to achieve successfull online interaction we have to show the products in their best version and communication strategy.
- PERSONAS -
Most of the women had certain factors in common.
They found themselves very busy taking care of their homes and families, which made it difficult to find time for self-care. Despite this, many of them were quite active and enjoyed participating in sports. They valued comfort and sought support from their loved ones, especially from each other.
- COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS -
Bearing user insights in mind, I conducted a competitive analysis of existing most relevant competitors in the online market, in hopes that I could find an opportunity gap. By going through the e-commerce of each brand, reading their reviews and analyzing their features, I was able to identify web features that were essential to include in my own design. On the contrary, this exercise also served to identify features which I felt were unnecessary, or not implemented, to provide a better shopping experience.
- DESIGN CHALLENGES -
Based on the data from the interviews and the analysis of competing products, I came up with three key design challenges:
1. Increase users' interest in a healthy lifestyle.
2. To provide a space of acceptance, support and security designed by women.
3. Create a brand where all women feel welcome, even if they don't play sport.
Vision Board for the Workshops - January 2019
- EMOTIONAL JOURNEY & PAIN POINTS -
After brainstorming, the decision was to expand the target audience to reach new opportunities for the usability of the garments. We decide to build a brand created for the well- being of women. Looking to encourage a healthy lifestyle and living through movement.
Entering the design phase, I kept in mind everything I had collected so far - personas, their pain points, and the new ideas. I started visualizing stuff by roughly sketching out concepts.
- BRAND & EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS -
Be playful
The brand experience has to be a moment of relaxation, not more demanding with women. Friendly language, joy and freedom.
100% woman space
A brand designed for and by women.
A place where you can find a variety of products and proposals.
Be convenient
A site that makes it easy to shop, find your size and return products in an efficient, safe and secure way.
- WIREFRAMES & SKETCHES -
Upon defining the product photos and considering the user's pain points when accessing our platform, I began designing the interaction flow for the website.
The homepage needed to be visually appealing and feature shortcuts to the most frequently searched products.
The product page was designed to showcase multiple photos, featuring various body types, details, and poses.
The support chat would always be accessible to address any queries and provide quick answers to the most commonly asked questions.
- STYLE & LAYOUT -
The photos, styling, and models that comprise the collection proposal are essential components of selling the product. We sought inspiration that aligned with the new identity we aimed to convey - one of constant movement, femininity, acceptance, and enjoyment. Consequently, the focus of our photo shoots shifted, leading to a change in production.
The primary modifications included the use of moving images, featuring the same garment on models of diverse body types, employing colored backgrounds to emphasize details, and suggesting product combinations to inspire ideas.
Web catalog 2018.
Web catalog after the implementation.
- ECOMMERCE & UX -
In order to reach our new consumers we change the product's layout through photos with faces and different body types. After the validation, we realize that to improve the online user journey, we also needed size guides enhancing the experience.
After testing the new product catalogue it was found that it was necessary to include at least 2 models per product so that customers could identify themselves more quickly. We also found that there were frequent pre and post sales questions while browsing, so we implemented an online support chat.
The home page should give us the mood and spirit of the brand. Very visual and with shortcuts that are easy to identify.
Social media is a way to connect with the audience so we invite them to discover more by joining the community.
When entering the product catalogue you can filter by price, relevance, and age.
To improve navigation we have placed a button on the products that indicates discounts and new launches.
When entering the product page, photos of different women wearing the same product are displayed. This makes it easier for the user to identify the fit and support of the products on different bodies.
You can zoom in to see details of fit and design. Combinations with other products are also suggested to create complete outfits.
If we continue exploring the product we find the details of composition, fit and description.
There is also the option to read the reviews and leave a comment once you have used the product.
Throughout the user journey the chat is present for any questions related to pre and post sales with quick responses.
RESULTS
- After its implementation, the chat was used by 1 out of 10 users who logged on to the site, successfully concluding the sale.
- Thanks to the addition of the size guide and photos with models of various body types, during covid, online sales could be 100% realized, reaching thousands of women during almost 1 year of closed shops.
- For the future, the next step for testing would be to include TrueFit: an online size recommender and videos to better show the fit and details of each garment.
What I've learned
Bsoul's new identity was a job that took time and taught me how to lead a project from start to finish. The most challenging part was using the data I collected from my users and communicating it consistently and convincingly to the people who approved the budgets to implement the changes.
Besides being an intense project, I am very proud to have taken a sports brand to a place of woman self love, 100% focused on its users and designed from their needs and lifestyle.
Improving the user experience is always a work in progress, and to get different results you have to dare to try and change. Always returning to the core values that define your identity. Finally, working with a multidisciplinary team from early phases is key to develop a simple, useful and feasible solution.