Lessons In Sophistication
Creating exuberant user experiences
Role
Research,
UI/UX
Task
Re-imagine,
Redesign,
Print,
Space Design,
Social Media
Goal
Modernise,
User friendly,
Timeframe
June 2019 –
December 2019
What do you get when you put some of the finest Italian living solutions under one roof? Paradise. RISE Group set out to do just that and we helped create their brand.
Creating A Compelling Identity
For A Young Luxury Brand
How we helped a multi-brand luxury retailer make its entry with a loud and prominent bang.
RISE Group was founded in 2014 and is a part of VRR Ventures. The Bangalore-based retailer has partnered with iconic Italian lifestyle brands to offer an exquisite catalogue full of luxury living solutions. The brand believed that opulence and quality came second to none. Behind RISE Group is a team of passionate individuals with a penchant for great, timeless design.
In the last five years, luxury spending has seen a rise in India. According to one report, India’s luxury market is expected to touch $30 billion next year. However, the most surprising fact is that luxury spending in tier-2 cities has increased 30x more than the last decade. At the fore of this spree is the millennial generation who have a proclivity for choosing only the best of the best. Simply put, this is the perfect time to be a luxury retailer.
Sukkrish Aadds was briefed to redefine their brand experience and communication, website, social media marketing, publications and more. Our months-long exercise led to the creation of some of the finest work we’ve done as we quickly became attuned to the brand’s dedication and goal.
How Do You Brand Your Luxury Brand? Let Us Tell You How.
/ Website
Our research revealed that RISE Group had to have a website that contained above all, an impeccable responsive design, the latest technology and an elegant colour pattern.
Comprehensive customer and peer research helped us understand the kind of place RISE Group’s website should be. We brought the brand’s id onto the digital space, creating a rich and elegant website that followed the brand’s new thought process and was peppered with exquisite product images and invigorating copy.
In terms of visuals, we decided to use a subdued palette that would keep in tradition with the brand’s original intention as an uber-luxury brand while also keeping it in sync with contemporary aesthetic practices.
We explored user-flow issues through user interviews to create a more user-friendly website, one that meets all of the blindspots and improves on what the users like about a luxury website.
RISE Group was driven by an ambition to bring the finest Italian lifestyle products to the customer. We concluded that the website must offer not just a good user experience, but a better and memorable one. The user interface was designed with the different target groups in mind. To make that happen, we created a sophisticated digital experience that is true to the brand’s core idea of offering products that pamper the customer.
/ Publication Design
Style and vibrancy was injected into the publication to give it a personality of its own.
We were tasked with creating a product catalogue for RISE Group. We tapped into the design language to create the publication which was styled as a coffee table book. We explored design themes that could break the monotony and set a tone for the reader.
Brimming with imagery, typography, colours, layout styles and crisp copy, the coffee table catalogue book added a new dimension to our work as we explored more ways to create an edge for the brand through design.
Why And How Fame Makes Your Brand Unbeatable. Discover.
/ Social Media
Bringing the voice of RISE Group to the digital masses and engaging with them through extensively planned communication.
In RISE Group’s segment, amplification matters. Our painstaking efforts to show the brand as a successful and prestigious one didn’t stop with just the website. We also implemented the design language onto their social media communications as well. Concise writing paired with great-looking product images made every post, a work of art.
/ Space Graphics
RISE Group was the result of passion and perfection. Our space graphics bring their testament to life.
We worked with the architects at RISE Group to understand their conceptual interiors and create space graphics that were in tune with the rest of their showroom. The brand was creating unique spaces to showcase the products of their brand partners.
01 /
A Higher Living
RISE Group is a part of VRR Ventures founded in 2014. An upmarket brand offering fine Italian living solutions, their flagship store was officially launched in late 2019. The company was looking to make a splash, a rather luxurious splash, in Bangalore.
Their belief that opulence and quality come second to none was evident in their passion, vision and clientele which includes leading Italian names such as Valcucine, Rimadesio, Paola Lenti and Henge to name a few.
02 /
Requirements
Sukkrish Aadds was brought onboard to redefine their brand experience and communication, website, social media marketing, publications and more. Our months-long exercise led to the creation of some of the finest work we’ve done. We quickly became attuned to the brand’s dedication and goal.
Website
Transport the ID of the brand onto the digital space, creating a rich and elegant website that followed the brand’s new thought process and was peppered with exquisite product images and invigorating copy.
03 /
Research
With the country’s luxury market set to grow by 15% year-on-year and international brands gaining better exposure amongst Indian youths, the luxury lifestyle segment was no stranger. We looked at industry peers – brands and stores that have been offering similarly priced products from brands of Italian or other nationalities. To achieve the brand’s look and feel, we also looked into the brands that RISE Group has partnered with.
Competitor Review
Explore peers and competitors in the niche and understand their content strategies, media, and decide on what would work best for RISE Group.
New Technologies
Discover what technology stack will suit the present website by comparing with peer websites and other benchmarks.
UX Research
Explore user-flow issues through interviews, contextual inquiries, diary studies, personas, card sorting and usability testing.
A/B Testing
Create different variations of the website and test them for usability, performance, conversion and UX problems.
Analytics
Use existing analytics from the previous website to make concise decisions on content and structure.
Usability Testing
Test the website using real world customers to help improve its accessibility and desirability.
#RISEToOpulence
04 /
User Interviews
The part of the process involves asking a set of users on a topic of interest with the goal of learning more about it. For this project, we asked them about kitchens, kitchen maintenance and brand uniqueness. The questionnaire is structured as a simple online form where the user inputs their choices in less than 5 minutes or so. The process involved about 50 to 80 people from various professional and cultural backgrounds being interviewed about kitchens and premium luxury living products.
Style
Online Form
Duration
10 mins
Numbers
50
Interview Type
Questionnaire
Questions
How often do you buy furniture online?
Do you browse interior products online and offline?
What’s missing in the exisiting website?
Can you locate information easily in the exisiting website?
Is your shopping experience seemless?
Is the customer support feature helpful ?
05 /
Interviewees
When you want to create a product or sell a service, the first thing that comes to mind is “who’s the target customer?" The process doesn’t stop there. Once, you know who your audience is, you want to know more about them. User interviews are more than just a series of questions that require answers. A popular Pete Drucker quote goes “the purpose of business is to create and keep a customer." If we were to expand on this thought, we can see that the customer for any brand can be created by understanding the current thought processes of the target demographic.
For RISE Group, we chose today’s biggest spenders, could-be brand enthusiasts, industry professionals and the millennial generation who constantly ride the FOMO wave. Each of these demographics can possibly become loyal to RISE Group. The mission was to find out how.
IT Professionals
These brand-conscious individuals are always on the lookout for sustainable, functional and aesthetically pleasing products but are never able to find them all.
Architects
They want to create new experiences for their clients but are constrained with the existing market offerings.
Property Owners
Property owners who have the purchasing power but aren’t aware of high-end brands and mostly relied on lower-tier offerings were also a part of the interview.
Millennials
In a lot of ways, millennials are similar to IT professionals and are extremely brand-conscious and earth-conscious too. However, while the price may itch an IT professional, millennials are ready to pay extra for a better product.
Realty Investors
Citizens from various countries who have made India their home as a result of extended periods; expats were also a part of the interview. Their early experiences in other countries would have created a perception that the Indian market lacks brands that do not offer highly qualitative products.
Expats
Corporates always have kept up with times in terms of sourcing products that are contemporary. So this segment should be bread and butter for them.
Governments
Historically, governments do prefer in-country brands but with the constant global circulation of cultures governments are willing to go that extra mile.
The accumulation of data from our interviews, coupled with data from competitor analyses and data analytics helped us understand where the existing brand website really was and also provided a yardstick to measure it with other brand websites. A vision for the newer website was formed and this process began with taking another closer look at the current website.
06 /
Insights
Based on our interviews, analyses and reports, the following observations were made about the existing website.
Not looking premium
Current website is well below par for what a high-end furniture reseller’s website should look like.
No clear direction
Not clear if they’re selling or showcasing their products.
No modern tech usage
The existing tech stack was old and insecure. The website required modern technologies to boost the performance, responsiveness and accessibility.
#RISEToBetterLiving
Our research and expertise told us that RISE Group had to have a website that contained impeccable responsive design, the latest tech, clear and concise copy, an elegant colour pattern and vibrant product images. Thus, we set about creating the website.
07 /
Wireframes
Before going into product development’s design phase most of the UX, usability issues can be addressed with the use of wireframes. These wireframes enable lower turnaround times and also to make UX decisions where multiple iterations are required for each individual page or element.
08 /
Information Architecture
In this step, we created the structure of search, navigation and labelling systems and the overall content structure. So, it is vital that we know where and how these individual elements will interact with the content with the help of wireframes.
/ typography
Typeface
Font Weight & Sizes
09 /
Visuals
In terms of visuals, we decided to use a subdued palette that would keep in tradition with the brand’s original intention as an uber-luxury brand while also keeping it in sync with contemporary aesthetic practices.
#imagery
10 /
Screens
After the final wireframing of the website, the design process moves on to the UI phase. Here we work to bring the screens to life. Generally, this stage also involves multiple to-and-fros after which the designs are handed off to the developers to execute. UI and UX work doesn’t stop once the website has been designed as we continue refining the final product.
homepage /
homepage /
brands /
products /
about us /
Conclusion
Ever since we positioned RISE Group as a high-end brand, our vision never changed and this helped us create the kind of website we’d be proud of. The website and branding activities have received praise from RISE Group’s team and their clientele. Our idea of putting style as a companion to their substance helped form a novel approach to the website and aligned to the core needs and expectations of their customers.