Redefining and crafting an organic beauty experience

Oway ✴︎ UX/UI Designer ✴︎ 2019

The context

OWAY is a cosmetics company specializing in high-quality, sustainable treatments for hair, face, and body. Rooted in biodynamic agriculture, the brand cultivates its own organic ingredients and follows circular design principles in packaging and furniture production. With sustainability at its core, OWAY wanted to redesign its e-commerce platform to better communicate its values while enhancing the online shopping experience.

The goal was to create a digital space where users could immerse themselves in OWAY’s philosophy while navigating an intuitive and seamless purchasing journey. The platform had to function as both a brand showcase and a fully optimized e-commerce store, serving both individual consumers (B2C) and professional partners (B2B). Additionally, OWAY required a dedicated space for educational content, training programs, and industry events, reinforcing its position as a leader in sustainable beauty.

User analysis and business needs

To inform the redesign, OWAY provided extensive research combining quantitative data analysis and qualitative insights. The findings highlighted several key needs. First, the brand’s sustainability-driven identity had to be clearly communicated through storytelling, ensuring users could understand and connect with OWAY’s philosophy. At the same time, the shopping experience had to be optimized to maintain a premium, effortless flow.

The website also needed to accommodate multiple user segments, balancing the needs of individual customers looking for high-quality sustainable products with those of businesses interested in partnerships. Lastly, OWAY’s strong educational focus required dedicated sections for events, courses, and professional training, ensuring visibility and accessibility for all users.

By aligning business goals with user expectations, we defined a design strategy that prioritized both brand immersion and usability.

Benchmark

Before initiating the design phase, I conducted a competitive analysis of luxury, organic, and sustainable beauty brands. The goal was to understand how other industry leaders balanced branding and usability, ensuring we positioned OWAY uniquely.

Through this research, I examined how other brands structured their navigation, presented sustainability narratives, and integrated B2B functionalities. The findings helped refine OWAY’s digital positioning, ensuring the redesign remained both innovative and aligned with best practices in premium e-commerce.

Design Actions

The project followed a structured iterative design process, ensuring that every decision was validated and refined.

The first phase focused on information architecture and wireframing, establishing a solid foundation for navigation and content hierarchy. It was essential to seamlessly integrate the brand storytelling with the e-commerce journey, making sure that each section of the site flowed naturally into the next.

Once the structure was defined, I developed high-fidelity prototypes, incorporating a sophisticated visual language that reflected OWAY’s premium and sustainable identity. Particular attention was given to the emotional impact of the user experience, using refined layouts, engaging imagery, and smooth micro-interactions to elevate the brand’s online presence.

To further enhance the experience through animations and transitions, I focused on implementing micro-interactions that reinforced OWAY’s brand identity. Since animations played a crucial role in improving usability and engagement, I learned Axure RP to create highly detailed interactive prototypes. This allowed me to precisely replicate real-world animations using Axure's dynamic panel system and interaction scripting, ensuring a smooth and realistic preview of motion behaviors before development.

The visual and interaction design phase also involved an in-depth study of typography, color palettes, and motion design, ensuring that every detail reinforced OWAY’s artisanal and organic essence. By integrating subtle animations and fluid transitions, the browsing experience became more immersive while maintaining high usability.

Collaboration was a key part of the process. Throughout the project, I worked closely with OWAY’s stakeholders, presenting iterations and refining details to ensure alignment with the brand’s vision. This allowed us to create a design that was both aesthetically compelling and strategically effective.

Impact and key takeaways

This project was a balance between visual storytelling and functional excellence, ensuring that OWAY’s core values were reflected in every aspect of the user experience. By merging brand identity, usability, and a seamless shopping flow, the redesign successfully positioned OWAY as a leader in sustainable beauty, offering a digital experience that was both engaging and commercially effective.