Estée Lauder Companies Pavilion
Architecture & Interactive Facade
In 2020, I designed the Estée Lauder Pavilion with the concept of Crystal Garden. To learn from the visitors’ experience and enhance their engagement during the waiting. I decided to go back to this project and incorporating digital media into the architecture. The Pavilion becomes interactive and react to visitors’ movement.
Team: 3 Designers, 2 Engineers
My Role: Design Team Lead
Duration: 12 Weeks Design & 8 weeks Construction
Location: Shanghai Convention and Exhibition Center, China Exhibition: China International Import Expo Space: 5425 square feet
01. PAVILION DESIGN
Transitioning from architecture to product design, I am crafting intuitive experiences that empower people’s lives through emotion, functionality, and aesthetics. I aim to design experience to help us to connect, have fun, bridging gaps and solving problems in both digital and physical spaces.
When people move through the pavilion, they would experience the change of the lights and shadows of the bottom part of the acrylic walls while the variety of shapes and sizes of the upper part at the same time. The atmosphere was changing all the time. One can feel open and shining as if he was in a crystal garden in one moment, and feel narrow and serene as if he was in a deep forest when turns a corner.
02. EXPERIENCE DESIGN
Based on the 28 visitors I interviewed about their experience during the Estée Lauder Pavilion Visit…
Visitors say…
The Waiting Line is too long
Lack of Crowd Splitting Simulation
Hard to Locate Product
Not Friendly for Return Visitors
Feel Rushed during the Visit
Repeating Music & Reminders
“The space of Estée Lauder Pavilion is well-designed, but my experience is significantly compromised by the long waiting hours and the heavy foot traffic.”
Based on insights gathered during the interview, I realized that there is a conspicuous moment that was absent within the scenario of visiting experiences curated for the Estée Lauder Pavilion: Although visitors spend approximately an hour in line prior to gaining entry to the space. However, their actual visiting experience begins only once they step inside of the architecture.
Persona
Based on the personas of various stakeholder groups reveals that the waiting experience has indeed an negative impact on both business opportunities and marketing objectives. It includes decreased visitor volume, missed trading opportunities, reduced customers’ engagement and satisfaction. To address these challenges, we define the problem-opportunity gap as follows: How can we enhance visitor engagement during their waiting period?
Problem
Journey Map
Opportunity: How might we help visitors to feel more engaged during their waiting?
Solution
Before
Result
Goal
After
I introduced the concept of a dynamic interactive projection on the architecture facade to build visitors an interactive experience during the waiting. This innovative system is designed to ensure that visitors remain engaged throughout their entire visit while also enabling Estee Lauder to present product information in a more personalized and adaptable way. In this reimagined use journey, visitors’ experience starts at the moment they decide to visit this pavilion, which extends beyond the physical entry into the space. Mirroring the movements and gestures of visitors, the translucent acrylic panels on the architecture rotate, they seamlessly transition into the interactive projection screen. This transformation results in an expansive screen that replaces traditional televisions within the space.
The translucent acrylic panels transform into the screen of the interactive projection as they rotate, following the movements and gestures of the visitors. This formation creates a full screen that replaces televisions within the space.
Additionally, as the translucent acrylic panels rotate, the jumping balls on the interactive screen move between the panels and determine which visitors will win the prizes.
Before
After
The concept I proposed was successfully adapted by the Estee Lauder Companies to elevate the visitor experience at their pavilion in the subsequent year. In 2020, the redesigned Estee Lauder Pavilion represented a noteworthy enhancement in visitor engagement and the achievement of business objectives, resulting in a more captivating and interactive visiting experience.