Creating a new sensory experience
EBRAM
Nota Nota Perfume mixer
Ebram Investments (Saudi Arabia) is a Gulf Cooperation Council leading company. It provides innovative solutions using smart systems mostly dedicated to four specific sectors: communication, real estate, health and logistics.
Assigned task
The project goal was to conceive a new device to create tailor-made perfumes: users can activate the machine to mix customized essences, try new fragrances and share them online through a social app.
Challenge
The challenge was to create a one-of-a-kind product, developing its functions, characteristics, design and interface from scratch.
This is a brand-new invention featuring complexities typical of the sector: chemical substances and their preservation, RFID technology to identify the cartridges and electronic components made to measure.
Solution
Every team works on every single step by supporting one another and combining skills, ideas and processes. Together, they bring to life a multi-disciplinary path, consistent along the entire project, to create a product of stunning potential.
BRINGING AN IDEA TO LIFE
The engineering team has put the idea into practice, working side by side with the client, to understand the electronic and mechanical specifications, as well as the software required: during this stage, the digital team has set the bases to develop the digital environment to control the device.
Study of the chemical substances, their use and preservation has become key to product development right from the start, determining the mechanics and design of both the device and the cartridge package.
The user experience has always been the focus of every operation and prototype, to design a product which is accurate, noiseless and winning while extremely user friendly.
BLENDING PERFUMES AND COLORS
The communication and marketing team has carried out a thorough market survey to identify the buyer personas and target: evolved and sophisticated individuals, art lovers and creative spirits – with a special eye on early adopters.
Each step of the project focused on creating a friction-free user experience right from the packaging, designed to offer a tangible functionality and intuitively encouraging users to pick up the product from the bottom and not from its top, up to creating and then sharing the perfumes online.
Each fragrance family of the Nota Nota kit features a different color: the chromatic combinations now identify and evoke the character of each perfume created.
Gradients have been used as identification elements for the entire brand communication: packaging of the device and cartridge kit, layouts designed for web development, social app and marketing materials, up to the product presentation clip.
Color also drives the identification of the Tolas to be inserted into the device, that is raw fragrance cartridges characterized by essence icons.
The icons feature minimal lines, and this enabled us to include multiple information on the Tolas: fragrance family, intensity range, scent name in two languages…
A SOCIAL EXPERIENCE
Key to the project development was the creation of a device not requiring a physical interface, though providing the user with a feedback on the process status.
The engineering and digital team devised an effective solution, in line with the minimal look of the device: one single control unit communicating with the user thanks to the colors of the integrated led.
Development of the app turned an innovative idea into something even greater: it made the system social, exponentially increasing the potential of both the product and the entire system.
Users can communicate with the device, experiment and share recipes online, vote for others’ and reproduce them thanks to step-by-step instructions.
FROM TECHNICS TO ART
Using colors to communicate the fragrance mixtures and Nota Nota’s identity has been the silver thread of both the project and brand definition.
To support the product launch, we made a story-video with a two-fold purpose: reach the target and explain the product operation and peculiarities.
We then combined sounds to colors and images. Our video makers worked with the client and a sound designer to shoot a video tailor made for the Arab world, where Nota Nota made its debut.
Nota Nota was presented at CES 2018 in Las Vegas and won an iF Design Award 2018.
