Joie Beauty Branding
Design Story
Joie Beauty is an innovative digital platform founded in Sydney that uses color testing AI to help users find their perfect beauty palette. The founder’s experience with AEGI Sydney — a color testing studio — was the inspiration for a more accessible digital solution. The goal was to design a mobile-first e-commerce experience that feels intuitive, empowering, and confidence-boosting, while translating a traditionally in-person color consultation into a seamless online journey.
The total view: 2.5M+
Location
Sydney, Australia
Team
HGH | Joie beauty marketing team
Year
2024
Client
Joie Beauty
Link
Design Challenge
The Challenge
Design a mobile-first beauty experience that transforms AI-driven color analysis into something users can easily understand, trust, and act on. The goal was to translate professional, in-studio color consultation into a calm and intuitive digital flow—without overwhelming users or reducing confidence in the results.
01 - Building Trust in AI Results
Clear explanations, visual cues, and step-by-step guidance were used to demystify AI colour analysis. Instead of presenting raw data, results were framed in human language, icons, and easy-to-understand visuals—bridging the gap of lost communication between algorithmic accuracy and personal reassurance.
02 - Improving Usability & Understanding
Unlike on-site color studios where experts explain results in real time, digital analysis requires self-interpretation. The interface prioritises clarity through progressive disclosure, simple terminology, and visual comparisons, providing step-by-step help that enables users to quickly understand the result and its application.
03 - Supporting Confident Decision-Making
Color analysis results were directly connected to product recommendations, reducing cognitive effort. This allowed users to move naturally from understanding their palette to selecting products—increasing conversion and CTA action without second-guessing or leaving the flow.
04 - Scientific Precision with a Human Touch
The visual system was designed to feel credible and scientific without becoming cold or clinical. Minimal layouts, refined typography, and controlled color usage establish a sense of accuracy and luxury, while soft spacing, gentle motion, and warm micro-interactions maintain a human, reassuring presence throughout the experience.
Research & Insight
Market Research
Mobile-first behavior dominates beauty discovery and purchase, particularly among younger users. Research indicates that Gen Z and younger Millennials (ages 20–35) are the most active adopters of clean beauty and AI-assisted tools, valuing personalization, transparency, and speed. As Joie Beauty is positioned as an online AI-powered platform, the experience needed to align with users who are digitally fluent and expect intuitive, app-like interactions.
User Insights
Primary users are beauty-conscious, tech-comfortable individuals who are open to AI recommendations but require reassurance to trust the results. Insights revealed two consistent needs:
Immediate, practical application of results to product choices
Reducing interpretation effort was critical, especially without the presence of an in-person consultant.Clear explanation of how color analysis works and why a result is recommended
02 - Competitor Analysis
Reviewed clean beauty brands and platforms including Saie, ILIA, MERIT, and similar digitally native brands. These competitors successfully communicate trust through minimalist design, ingredient transparency, and calm visual language.
However, most rely on static content or manual selection, revealing an opportunity to integrate AI-driven personalization while maintaining the same level of aesthetic restraint and credibility.
03 - Visual Direction
The visual language follows clean beauty principles: muted tones, generous white space, and minimal UI elements. This direction reinforces a sense of purity, scientific credibility, and luxury, while avoiding visual noise that could undermine trust in AI-generated results or overwhelm users during decision-making.
04 - Competitive Gaps in Existing Color Testing Tools
Research into current online color analysis platforms revealed consistent trust issues. Many solutions appeared visually unreliable, overly technical, or generically AI-generated, making results feel questionable rather than credible.
In addition, outdated interfaces and poor UX patterns weakened user confidence and failed to reflect the precision such services claim to offer. This highlighted a clear opportunity to redesign the category with a more refined, transparent, and trustworthy experience.
APP - User journey map
E-commerce - User journey map
Joie Beauty E-commerce
Desktop E-commerce - Home page
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