Laundry Sauce
Client
Laundry Sauce
Role
- Lead Web & UX Designer
Category
E-Commerce
Year
2021-2023
Elevating the digital experience for the world's best-smelling laundry detergent brand. The core challenge was translating a highly sensory product—fragrance—into a purely visual digital medium. After an initial MVP that missed the mark on communicating 'cleanliness,' we pivoted the branding and UX to a crisp, premium aesthetic that breaks the mold of traditional CPG brands, turning a standard grocery store experience into a luxury boutique.
Challenge
Sell a fragrance-led laundry product online when users could not smell it and the first luxury direction felt too dark to signal clean laundry.
My Role
Lead web and UX designer partnering with the founder, brand agency, and developers on the e-commerce experience.
Key Decisions
- Pivoted the digital direction from black-and-gold luxury to crisp, white, premium cleanliness.
- Moved scent notes, ingredients, and product texture into the core shopping path.
- Used dynamic product menus and video reviews to make discovery and trust feel more sensory.
Outcome
Raised perceived brand value while strengthening bundle, AOV, and recurring subscription paths.
The Pivot
Black Isn't Clean.
Our initial MVP, created in collaboration with the founder and a branding agency, leaned heavily into a traditional 'luxury' aesthetic: dark, moody, black and gold.
While it felt premium, user feedback revealed a massive disconnect. It's a laundry pod. Cleanliness is the core value, and black simply does not communicate 'clean.' Furthermore, users saw a laundry pod, not an 'amazing smelling' luxury fragrance pod.
We realized that luxury can also be white and pristine. The branding agency pivoted the visual identity to a crisp, white aesthetic, and I led the redesign of the digital experience to match—focusing heavily on conveying cleanliness, ingredients, and scent.
"The site looks very premium, like a cologne brand, but it's hard to tell what the actual product is. A black box doesn't make me think of fresh, clean laundry."
A bright, clean hero section with a high-production video instantly communicates both 'laundry' and 'luxury fragrance'.
The Hook
Grocery Store vs. Luxury Boutique.
The core challenge was fascinating: Selling a Smell on a Screen. How do you sell a premium fragrance when the user can't actually smell it?
Traditional e-commerce treats laundry detergent as a utilitarian cleaning supply—a standard 'grocery store' experience. We needed to elevate Laundry Sauce into a 'luxury boutique' experience.
Instead of framing this as standard checkout funnel optimization, we approached it as a masterclass in sensory digital design, bringing the high-production campaign videos and the sensory value of the product to the absolute forefront.
Design Strategy
Visualizing Scent.
Because users couldn't smell the product, we pushed hard to make the fragrance notes and ingredients prominent visually. The UI itself had to communicate 'luxury fragrance' rather than 'cleaning supply'.
Editorial UI
Moving away from standard e-commerce templates to high-contrast, editorial typography that feels like a fashion magazine.
Macro-Texture Photography
Highlighting raw ingredients and rich textures to visually simulate the scent profile.
Prominent Scent Profiles
Elevating the fragrance notes so users understand they aren't just buying detergent, they are buying a signature scent.
UX Optimization
The Discovery Experience.
Discovery had to be visceral. We designed dynamic product menus that make exploring scents inviting before the user even clicks into a product details page.
By incorporating rich product imagery and clear scent categorization directly into the navigation, we reduced friction and encouraged users to explore the full fragrance collection.
The dynamic mega-menu brings scent discovery directly into the navigation.
Visually driven exploration paths that feel premium and tactile.
Social Proof
Selling the Lifestyle.
The MVP treated reviews as an afterthought at the bottom of the page. But for a sensory product, hearing other people describe the scent is critical.
We completely overhauled the social proof strategy, focusing heavily on user-generated vertical video reviews. We brought these authentic customer stories forward to build trust, handle objections, and sell the aspirational lifestyle.
Vertical video reviews allow customers to authentically describe the sensory experience, bridging the gap between screen and scent.
Outcomes
Metrics Driven by Aesthetics.
By successfully translating a physical scent into a visual digital experience, the redesign completely shifted how customers perceived the brand.
• Elevating the brand perception to a 'luxury boutique' standard directly drove higher Average Order Value (AOV).
• The seamless integration of fragrance education and editorial design accelerated bundle package sales.
• Trust built through prominent video reviews led to a significant increase in recurring subscription sign-ups, proving that aesthetic and sensory design directly impacts the bottom line.
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