LUXITA

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J-Cast JoliArts were opening their fourth nail salon in Tokyo and first in the Shangri-La Tokyo Hotel. For this reason, I created a website for the brand in time for the launch.

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I was brought in from America to Japan to brand the LUXITA online presence and launch a multi-lingual website.

With separate sub-domains for each language, the decision was made to go towards a more western aesthetics. The idea stemmed from the owner's desire to avoid having a cluttered site commonly seen on Asian websites. I set to design something minimalistic while incorporating flat design.

The distinctive difference between this salon and the previous was that it was set to be branded as a luxury brand. It needed to appeal to both foreign tourists and Japanese natives.

Problem Statement

International tourists with no to limited Japanese language skills aiming to visit the nail salon need a quick, convenient solution for booking appointments, and locating the salon. Luxury brand enthusiasts seeking an experience, need easy to see nail options. Both Western and Eastern users should be able to navigate the website easily.

Branded design of luxury nail salon. UI design by Katherine Delorme.
The home page of the English website. Credit: Katherine Delorme
Branded design of luxury nail salon. By Katherine Delorme.
The English website being converted to Japanese. Credit: Katherine Delorme

Project Goal

Create a luxury brand website appealing to both foreign tourists and Japanese natives. While designing, avoid creating a cluttered site that is commonly seen on Japanese websites.

Challenges

  • The bulk of the project needed to be completed in 6-weeks during my stay in Japan.
  • The branding and style guide would need to be created.
  • The text-heavy business plan and presentations will need to be transformed it into user-friendly website content.
  • An unexpected obstacle occurred. The professional photoshoot for the nail designs took place on my last day in Japan.

— Research

Research: UX and UI Design Challenge in Japan

The challenge of designing UX and UI in Japan
By. Ticketbis UX June 7, 2016

More resources below.

"Japan is well known by its sense of aesthetics, which we usually relate to minimalism, and simplicity. When we (westerners) think about Japanese design usually something clean and haiku style comes to our minds."

"So, how come their web designs are anything but welcoming, unwordly, calm, austere or simple? Browsing almost any Japanese web page, one can quickly realize that none of these principles [Wabi-Sabi] are followed. Quite the contrary, it seems as if the opposite rules were applied. If you visit the most popular websites in Japan you’ll often find a mix of bright color, excessive use of text and no navigation orientation. There is so much visual noise, that you can feel like you’re walking through the chaos of Shibuya streets in Tokyo."

Color

"You also need to keep in mind that certain colours have different meanings in different cultures. For instance, in westerner cultures, red is the color of love and excitement and can be associated with both negative and positive purposes. But in Japan it means happiness and joy."

Typography

"When designing for westerner web sites, one can play with typography to create rhythm and style. But when you have to deal with Japanese writing that’s a different story, since there are only a few available web fonts...Japanese fonts need to include the katakana and hiragana alphabets and a pile of kanji...making their web fonts just too heavy to load on a webpage."

Browser window with the site. Book Now button and hands with red nails next to roses.
The seasonal nail color best highlight Japan's joyful association with the color red.
Credit: Katherine Delorme
Branded design. Webpage with fans beside nails with Japanese text. Portfolio by Katherine Delorme
The Omotenashi Japan Collection encompasses iconic symbols, landscapes, and art from the heart of Japan.
Credit: Katherine Delorme
Webpage with four design options and Japanese text. Branded design for Katherine Delorme's portfolio
Four highlighted nail designs on the home page: seasonal, ita, diamond, and Japanese. Credit: Katherine Delorme

— Define

Define: Personas

I created personas based on the owner's previous salon's clientele for comparison. As well as personas for what would be the new salon's prospect clientele. Additional data given about the hotel's typical guests and usual foot traffic was also used. The addition of the hotel's insight widened my perspective from two personas to three: Japanese resident, an American tourist, and a European tourist. The additional details regarding the persona's lifestyle and habits came about from research findings.

Persona: American Tourist
American Persona - Julia Ellis. UI & UX research and design by Katherine Delorme.
Concerns/Needs:
-Being a foreigner to Japan, navigating the high-density streets is quite difficult. The site needs to have clear directions on how to find the salon. Google Maps can take a person to the building but Tokyo is famous for being a maze.
-There may be restrictions on phone internet data, availability of wifi connection, and the ability to make phone calls.
-The salon needs a staff member who can speak a reasonable amount of English.
Persona: Japanese Resident
Japanese Persona - Nakamoto Hikari. UI & UX research and design by Katherine Delorme.
Concerns/Needs:
-Being able to load the website whether at home or on the train.
-Would like contact information, preferably a phone number to make reservations.
-"In Japan, there is an idiom that states, “The Nail That Sticks Out Will Get Hit With The Hammer.” This is a good rule of thumb and an insight into the fashion rationale in Japanese culture."[5]
Persona: European Tourist
European Persona - Alexander Henry. UI & UX research and design by Katherine Delorme.
Concerns/Needs:
-Finding the salon.
-The salon needs a staff member who can speak a reasonable amount of English.
Fulfilling a Need (Persona Driven Result):
-A Men's Success Nail service was created aimed at business professionals and those in favor of a groomed attire.
Persona: Language Level Key
Persona Language Level Key. UI & UX research and design by Katherine Delorme.

Responsive Mobile Version

The personas created helped prove the necessity for the website to be accessible on mobile devices as well as load quickly. International tourists are more likely to discover the salon on their mobile devices. Discovery, in addition to using the website's directions to navigate to the salon while in transit, made page load speed a priority. Japanese cell phone culture is tied closely with the transportation culture. The majority of Japan's commute takes place on trains. The idle time commuting on trains creates an increase in the usage of mobile devices.

Mobile version design by Katherine Delorme.
Mobile responsive view of the website. Credit: Katherine Delorme
Additional items brought to attention when creating personas

Though this did not directly affect the website's planning phrase, it helps bring awareness for the company owner in regards to the physical store. Japan is a cash-based society.[16] Though most tourist traveling to Japan are made aware of this fact, not every person living outside of Japan are aware. Those living in countries like the United States are accustomed to card payments and money transfer apps like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Square, and more.

Branded design of luxury nail salon site. Vibrant red holiday nails. UI design by Katherine Delorme.
Seasonal Collection - Winter Holiday Credit: Katherine Delorme
Webpage of blue nails next to flowers. Red nails beside a tingsha. UI design by Katherine Delorme.
Omotenashi Japan Collection Credit: Katherine Delorme
How we want to make people feel:

Website: Luxury • Informed • Secure • Confident in finding the salon • Satisfied • Authenticity • Desire • Extraordinary • Fantasy • Lifestyle Statement

Salon: Luxury • Confidence • Exclusivity • Sense of Status • Value • Serenity • Comfort

"Luxury brands have long known this. In their advertisements, they generate desire by relying on three principles: enrichment, distancing, and abstraction. The differences from mass-market and premium brands are striking. Through enrichment, such as storytelling, luxury brands take us on a journey towards the destination of desire. We rarely desire what we can have immediately. That’s why we seldom desire the ordinary world. Desire is created when something is just out of reach." [14]

An iteration of a luxury website design. UI design by Katherine Delorme.
iteration of luxury website. UI design by Katherine Delorme.
Experimenting with the copy to hightlight the luxury brand through enrichment via storytelling. Credit: Katherine Delorme

— Design

Design & Test: Grey Boxing, Sketches, Wireframes, and High Fidelity Wireframe

Home Page - Grey Boxing

grey boxing. UI & UX design by Katherine Delorme.

Home Page - Wireframe

mockup/wireframe. UI & UX design by Katherine Delorme.

Home Page - High Fidelity Wireframe

High Fidelity Wireframe. UI & UX design by Katherine Delorme.

Design & Test: Final Iteration

Home Page - Grey Boxing

grey boxing. UI & UX design by Katherine Delorme.

Home Page - Wireframe

mockup/wireframe. UI & UX design by Katherine Delorme.

Home Page - High Fidelity Wireframe

High Fidelity Wireframe Final iteration. UI & UX design by Katherine Delorme.

— Next Step

Here I list what would be potential steps to take after the completion of the project.

Next Step: Market Expansion

After the launch of the English and Japanese versions, the next logical move would be to create a Chinese version. A large percentage of Japan's tourism comes from China. This information backed with the new wealth and middle-class families of China taking part in travel made for a sensible strategy.[1][2]

"Government officials estimate that 31.2 million foreign nationals visited Japan in 2018. The figure rose 8.7 percent from a year earlier, marking a record high for the 6th straight year. Visitors from China accounted for 8.38 million, up 13.9 percent. Chinese tourists accounted for nearly 34 percent of all spending, at over 14 billion dollars." -NHK

After completing this project, I gained an interest in working on more Japanese websites. Doing so would allow me to explore user experience and interface design further for the Japanese market. I feel the same about exploring other Asian countries like China, Korea, and India. My curiosity also extends to the user experience of those across the pond in Europe.

Home page language picker. Choices English, Japanese & Chinese. 言語を選択してください。Please Choose A Language
The language selection featuring Japanese, English, and the newly discovered market Chinese. Credit: Katherine Delorme & Brynna Robin

Next step: Social Media - Instagram Grid Idea

The next course of action could include starting a social media strategy. I played around with ideas for a possible Instagram grid. Comparing the most popular social media platforms, Instagram would be the most efficient platform in reaching an audience and the salon's clientele. In my first iteration, I made the mistake of forgetting to capture a luxury brand atmosphere. What I created matched more of Instagram's aesthetics at the time. If I have time, I'd like to revisit this and create a grid that captures the luxury brand's storytelling, status, exclusivity, uniqueness, and lifestyle.

Instagram grid for for social media marketing. Text 'Tokyo'. Photo of clean nails and a salon.
Proposed Instagram grids.
Credit: Katherine Delorme
Social media marketing Instagram grid. Alice in Wonderland inspired nail design & more nail designs.
Instagram grid by Katherine Delorme. Sailor Moon nail designs, text 'LUXITA' and diamond nails.
Resources
[1] I learned about the impressive number of Chinese tourist visiting Japan while reading NHK News Easy Japanese site. I found an additional English version linked below.
[2] Foreign visitors to Japan hits record high. NHK World-Japan. January 15, 2019.
[3] Long hours, no extra pay: what it’s like to work in Japan. Raconteur. July 25, 2018. [Used for persona research]
[4] Japanese Business Dress Code. Japan Printing & Graphics, Inc. [Used for persona research]
[5] Japanese Business Dress Code. AsianBusinessCards.com [Used for persona research]
[6] Nice Toes, Bro. Young Men Invade Nail Salons. The Wall Street Journal. July 28, 2019 [Used for men nail market research]
[7] The Men's Grooming Stats Sheet. NAILS Magazine. April 1, 2007 [Used for men nail market research]
[8] Nails Around the World. NAILS Magazine. January 1, 1992 [Used for men nail research]
[9] What is the identity of a man who wears nail polish? Men can wear nail polish. July 4, 2013 [Used for persona research]
[10] What Languages Are Spoken In Belgium?. Babbel. May 1, 2018 [Used for persona research]
[11] (S. Satoko, personal communication, February 4, 2020). Review of the Japanese native's persona by a female native in Japan. INTERVIEW.
[12] (J. Southwick, personal communication, August - September 2017).
[13] The Emotions of Luxury. Psychology Today. October 12, 2016
[14] Dreaming Up A World – How Luxury Brands Create Desire. Forbes. November 20, 2019
[15] Luxury Brand Marketing - Simple strategies that really work. SO Creative Studio Limited. February 18, 2015. Modified August 12, 2019.
[16] Money in Japan Cash, cards, and ATMs. Just Landed. September 29, 2014. Modified July 19, 2019.

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