Sephora International
Citrus Studios recently redesigned the corporate intranet of Sephora International. Sephora, a well-known Paris-based beauty product empire and part of the Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton Group (LVMH), boasts 750 stores in 21 countries. Citrus was hired to overhaul the internal Web site through which company information is shared with Sephora's thousands of employees.Citrus began this challenging task by performing an in-depth review of Sephora's existing intranet, and comparing it to those of the company's competitors. Citrus found that Sephora's content was disorganized and difficult to locate. The primary navigation wasn't intuitively designed, and many links which should have led to other site pages instead launched MS Word or PDF documents, creating a cumbersome user experience.
In its redesign efforts, Citrus first tackled the site's information design--the "blueprints" that define where content is located and how it is accessed. From this analysis, Citrus designed comprehensive wireframes that defined the elements comprising each page, as well as the relationships between the pages. Content was subdivided into individual "modules," each placed in an area that made logical sense vis-à-vis the rest of the site. In addition, a subnavigation was added to enable direct access to deeper levels of the site.
Graphic design efforts focused on updating the site to be consistent with Sephora's overall branding. The new design is clean and modern. Its uncluttered white palette is accented with splashes of red and black, much like Sephora's dramatically minimalist retail outlets. The previous site's inconsistent fonts, link styles, and page layouts were replaced with recurrent treatments that enforce--rather than muddle--the site's information design.
Abundant features were added to make the site more engaging and user-friendly: a slideshow depicting recent news and events, a "spotlight" section featuring upcoming events, a module that highlights the latest employee contests, and a "quicklinks" section that provides easy access to the site's most visited sections. In addition, robust search functionality was incorporated.
For content management--previously handled by FrontPage, an HTML editor that proved incapable of effectively scaling with Sephora's dramatically expanding business--Citrus implemented Ektron's CMS 400, a robust content management system that is as sophisticated as it is user-friendly. Content management is now facilitated by multiple site administrators, all of whom can access and update their sections with ease. Future plans include offering site content in French and Spanish, and incorporating online calendaring and survey functionality.