Lyst is one of the most celebrated breakthrough stories in fashion retail. Established in 2010 from a small shed in London, Lyst emerged to become the largest global fashion search platform, bringing together 5 million products from 12,000 of the world’s leading brands and retailers, all in one place. Lyst continues to innovate e-commerce with curated customer experience, and partnered with a Dept to conceptualise their latest campaign. Fulled by data and brought forward with award-winning creativity, an interactive quiz encouraging users to ‘Discover your Fashion DNA’ was launched.

USING DATA TO FUEL CREATIVITY

Dept took a strategic, data-led approach towards developing the campaign concept. The structure and narrative of the quiz were cleverly designed to compel users, prevent drop-offs and encourage social sharing. 

Using relatable, scenario-led questions in a quiz format, Lyst was able to effectively gather lifestyle-oriented data to generate a better understanding of its users, based on their preferences. As this information was gathered, it was directly linked into Lyst’s existing database of website analytics, paths to purchase, onsite user journeys and favourited products or categories.. Adding this new data and filtering results into categories enables Lyst to formulate well-rounded user personas to frame future marketing campaigns with highly personalised touchpoints.

DESIGNED TO TRIGGER ENGAGEMENT

Creativity was pushed beyond the limits, using a combination of digital art forms, to entertain users and align with the trendy, fashion-forward brand Lyst has established for itself. Cross-platform micro-interactions

Small interface changes were designed to amuse the user throughout the quiz. Animations were introduced to help users see the results of their actions and give gratitude for their continued engagement. Micro-interactions were used to gamify the quiz with parallax features, drag-to-reveal prompts, and boxes to type out answers. The quiz features 8 different micro-interactions and 22 different split-screen animations.

These elements of flare were integrated into the interface to upgrade the user experience without impeding on its usability, ensuring a consistent and sleek experience for quiz-takers across all mobile and web browsers. 

SCROLLING IN A DIFFERENT WAY

The Lyst campaign website was designed and developed as a hybrid platform, instead of being built natively for mobile and/ or web, which is not typically the case for interactive platforms like this. 

The project team saw this as a welcomed challenge and focused on a concept of ‘endless discovery’. Graphic blocks of questions were designed for users to scroll through in a similar format to the popular ‘tinder-swipe’, encouraging impulse decisions. This tactic was used to make the quiz as intuitive as possible; simple for anyone, anywhere in the world to enjoy with little instruction. 

SIMPLICITY AT THE FOREFRONT

The aesthetic of the quiz was designed to grab the attention of users, yet also be understated to act as a stage for the content to shine. A simple interface teamed with 3D graphics was the solution. Questions were separated with different colours and animations divided sections; an approach to keep messaging clear and concise whilst maintaining an order list. The attention to detail with displaying fonts, topical references and products made the campaign so visually strong.

INNOVATIVE TECHNICAL WORKAROUNDS

Dept worked in collaboration with the client throughout the project in an agile way; being reactive to budget and timing changes, as well as iteratively releasing demos and digital modules as they were being developed. With this partnership, creative assets were produced in-line with Lyst’s tone of voice, and points of sign-off were streamlined, allowing the team to continuously progress. 

It was important for a timely launch of the campaign, which required a technical workaround to maintain the original creative concept. It would have been best practise to build each animation in code however, time constraints meant that we used an alternative method involving video that worked just as well. 

Upon completing a question, a video is triggered to play for the duration of the timing gap leading into the next page. On mobile, videos were swapped for GIFs. The end result was a seamless transition, demonstrating how Dept’s dynamic teams of design, motion and code experts can release digital products, to brief, when the pressure is high and time is of the essence.

Dept created a highly engaging campaign for Lyst that recognises the differences between countries and people, celebrating the individuality of nations and people alike.

 The quiz indulges users in an interactive experience that eventually gives them insight into how their lifestyle preferences position them on a global scale; a fair value exchange for Lyst to gather user data. 

Launched in March 2020, The ‘Discover Your Fashion DNA’ campaign was translated in 8 languages. There are over 200 possible clothing items that are displayed on the results page and many, many more found within the quiz.