The beauty lies in the design

The rebranding of the Douglas brand began in 2018 with an extensive CI update. The focus was on the redesign of the sensational 50-year-old logo, updating it with new, modern imagery significantly influenced by campaign images by star photographer Peter Lindbergh.

As part of this rebranding, DEPT® came into play for the first time. Since the CI update was primarily implemented for print in the first step, Douglas needed a competent partner agency to adapt the new CI from print to digital. Within this digital branding, we primarily translated colours, fonts and Peter Lindbergh’s photography into digital context. In addition, our UX and UI experts developed a completely new icon set.

The next step was to make the newly developed CI visible. It became clear that the relaunch of the Douglas online shops would take some time, but that the rebranding had to be made digitally tangible as quickly as possible to maintain a brand presence, DEPT® implemented a facelift.
The new fonts, colours, stylistic elements and icons that were developed as part of the rebranding and translated into a digital guideline were used throughout the online shop. Distances have been recalculated and headers and footers have been revised. With these adjustments, the DEPT® UX and UI team was able to help the Douglas online shop achieve a measurable uptake in user experience. 2018 was the year the Douglas-wide rebranding went live.

Parallel to the facelift, DEPT® started with the redevelopment of the new shop. While netconomy was responsible for the technical implementation of the Douglas relaunch, DEPT® developed the UX and UI design. As part of the relaunch, DEPT® utilised animated micro-interactions to uplift ​​the joy of use. Until the beginning of 2020, the DEPT® team worked with the tools Sketch, Abstract and Invision, at the beginning of 2020 the Douglas Sketch file was migrated to the Figma tool.

The first go-lives were already celebrated in 2019 – with the relaunch of the Douglas online shops in Switzerland, Austria and Poland. Based on these comparatively small markets, the upcoming German launch could be optimised thanks to generated learnings. DEPT® remain involved in the constant future development of the Douglas online shops.

In contrast to a pattern library or a style guide, a design system not only contains reusable interface components but is a comprehensive description of a brand’s cross-channel design language. With the help of a design system, a wide variety of digital products, websites and apps can be designed uniformly.

At the end of 2019, Douglas decided to implement a digital design system that we proposed as the future “single source of truth”. All creative elements are created within the design system, described in detail and made accessible to employees. It can be used internationally for the design of various components of the Douglas online shop. The in-house design system leads to a sustainable design process, which is constantly documented using the zeroheight and Figma tools.

The demand for comprehensive online advice is increasing, and the closures caused by the pandemic have accelerated this trend. In March 2020, Douglas successfully launched the live shopping channel Douglas LIVE. After the summer break, the beauty retailer took the format to the next level with Douglas LIVE – THE LIVE CHANNEL FOR BEAUTY using the new Livebuy technology and a completely new look.

For the launch and the daily shows, we have the new digital branding including logo and style elements and content assets. The videos for Douglas LIVE are provided by DEPT®. To date, DEPT® has created content assets for almost 350 shows and accompanies Douglas on its way to becoming a one-stop inspiration platform for beauty & healthcare.

• Development of a scalable, reliable e-commerce platform – multilingual, multi-currency, cross-location
• Fully integrated loyalty program serving more than 44 million loyalty cardholders
• Implementation of a transnational usable design system
• increased conversion rate