Dame needed to reach new customers without violating guidelines. They did this by creating Swell, an ad-friendly content resource focused on lead collection and brand awareness. There have been three versions of Swell. This case focuses on version 3, which was executed in five weeks.
Product Owner (v3), Lead UX/UI Designer (v2-3), Front-End Developer (all)
Sketch, Invision, WordPress
There have been three iterations of Swell since its launch. At the time of the redesign, version two was live.
A completely new and separate brand experience
Jan 2020
Integrating Dame’s branding without changing name
May 2020
Seamless experience between products + content
Nov 2021
In 2021, Dame was able to advertise on the NYC subway, though there were limitations that proved challenging. They had to direct that campaign to the blog instead of their main storefront. The blog was temporarily deprioritized since May and needed a makeover, stat.Â
To make Dame.com a cohesive experience with the e-commerce storefront, I looked at patterns used by stores at the forefront of “contextual commerce.”
Be explicit about what Dame is.
The 360 campaign’s primary goal was awareness so we couldn’t rely on subtle hints like Into The Gloss “g” banner.
Integrate products into the content.
Food52’s “From Our Shop” module showed a great way to link education about products with an action item to buy it.
Products + content side by side.
Competitors gave the storefronts top billing in navigation as well as ample real estate throughout the pages themselves.
We considered using an article as the header but decided to switch to a hero that could introduce customers to the brand.
To avoid guideline issues, we planned to feature products lower on the page. We decided it was worth moving them just below the fold instead.
We had intended to use the campaign imagery for the header. However, we realized that the overload of illustrations lacked a human element.
We swapped out the main hero for a lifestyle photo so the user could connect to a person.
We needed to use the Head of Content’s time efficiently, as she joined two weeks before launch, so I compiled a spreadsheet of existing articles. With a glance, she could quickly identify top performers, favorites, potential product integrations, and brand stories.
Once she had a clear view of options, we had strategy meetings to work through the next steps and she was able to generate the necessary content before launch.
