Gamification of Eyeglasses.com

We recently designed a made-for-China landing page for Eyeglasses.com. Here’s a quick recap of the project as told by the Project Director, Dené.

“I personally was excited when the founder and CEO of Eyeglasses.com approached us to localize their website to China. Having grown up in 1990s USA, I was very familiar with Eyeglasses.com, launching in the first wave of online marketplaces, somewhere between Amazon and Alibaba, during a time when people were quite sceptical about putting their credit card information online, Eyeglasses.com put a lot of effort into earning people’s trust.

The Eyeglasses.com team provided us with a simple wireframe, and our first design round was based on this. We already knew that we would have to make a big leap from their US website’s design in order to catch the attention of a highly trendy Chinese Internet, but quickly it became evident that in order for Eyeglasses.com to have a chance in this competitive and savvy Chinese ecommerce world, much more would be required. So without budget approval we decided to take a risk, and start from scratch.

First, we narrowed down their target market from the initially stated 18-60 year old, to a detailed user profile, one that we could specifically design for.

“Then we had fun.”

Since online shopping in China is quite convenient and fast, in order to bring the allure to Eyeglasses.com, we aimed to incorporate the cool and cultural factor balanced with their core values of trust and experience.

We found this chart on their website, one that I think I remember from 1999.

With this inspiration, we made a wireframe with the intention of creating a 1-page landing that people would have a reason to visit, even without specifically looking to buy glasses.

The design brought to life an interactive game in which people can see which eyeglasses and sunglasses fit their particular face shape with fun quips behind each face shape and each type of frame. Think personality quiz for your glasses and face.

A game in which you can “Discover the right fit for you face.”

We came a long way from what the client originally asked for and what we delivered in the end, but by keeping their branding values at the forefront and moving forward with researched purpose they were happy with the final outcome. The budget was approved.

Core branding values:

• Online shopping provider since basically the beginning of online shopping (trust, service, history)
• Family owned and operated
• Provide educational value to the customer (frame shapes, face shapes)
• Fashionable but not “unattainable” with American culture/style
• Only new, authentic, top brands of eyeglasses, sunglasses, and lenses
• Perfect lenses guarantee
• Biggest selection of top brand-name frames and lenses on the Internet