Sustainable sleep starts online

People are buying more and more online. Beds are no exception. New players offering cheap, one-size-fits-all products are appearing on the online scene. Auping wants to counter this with the ultimate customer experience: buying your bed online, but as if you were standing in the shop. Without compromising on what makes Auping unique: attention to detail, design and sustainability.

But what should that look like?

We immersed ourselves in Auping’s world: their story, their design and their sustainability mission. In shops, we spoke to retailers, interviewed customers and conducted international surveys. All these insights formed the basis for the new Auping​.nl: a platform that is not only ready for the future online, but also showcases Auping’s sustainable values.

UX research
Product vision
Design principles
Style guide
Interaction design
Visual design

Who is Auping? And who are its customers?

Before we started designing or coming up with solutions, we first wanted to gain a clear understanding of exactly who Auping is. And who its customers are. That’s why we did three things:

#1 We visited shops to talk about everything dealers see and know. We learnt about the importance of physical shops in the sleep sector: people want to touch, feel and lie down on the products. They want advice.
 

#2 We delved into existing reports and spoke to staff to learn more about the Auping brand, its products and customers. This quickly made it clear what knowledge was already available and what we still needed to find out. 

#3 We interviewed customers to understand their experience. For example, we learnt about the importance of a high-quality mattress – that’s where most people start their search. We discovered just how important reviews, in-store visits and product details are. Customers shared their frustrations. We gained insight into what they thought, felt and found exciting. 

You lay the foundations for the design together

After some preliminary work, we understood Auping’s story, priorities and customer needs. We used this to draw up a UX vision, design principles and style guide – the building blocks for the new platform.

We did this together with Auping: it’s important that everyone involved believes in the guiding principles. So we brought together various teams (from branding to marketing and e‑commerce) and held a workshop to lay the foundations for the new online platform together.

It’s not always easy to find common ground. Within every organisation, there are different perspectives, interests and goals. But the beauty of a session like this, involving people from all corners of the company, is that it ultimately fosters connection, understanding and a culture of curiosity. 

Sprinting towards a fully developed concept car

The building blocks were in place and the goal was clear: an online platform where you can shop in comfort, find inspiration and get personalised advice to help you find your ultimate sleep solution.

Together with the Auping team, we carried out a number of short sprints in which we designed the key user flows and tested them with users.

Step by step, we further refined the concept car and, following the sprints, we handed it over to Auping.

To give you a better sense of the concept, we’ll briefly highlight our three favourite features:

#1 Clean and functional pages. The new product pages feature a configurator to customise your sleep solution and a ​‘mattress wizard’ to help you choose the perfect mattress. You can easily save and share your choices. You can also quickly see where your nearest shop is. These features didn’t just appear out of thin air: thanks to the interviews, we knew just how important they are to customers.

#2 Lookbook. In the lookbook, we show customers bedroom set-ups from different angles. Links then allow them to easily navigate to the relevant product page. It’s a sort of showroom, but online. We opted for this approach because our research showed that physical shops are still very important when purchasing sleep solutions.

#3 Stories and inspiration. Here, visitors can find information, tips and stories about rest, sleep and sustainability. The content links Auping’s vision and products to customers’ questions. On the one hand, this allows Auping to showcase its expertise and sustainable mission; on the other, it responds to a growing need: not just to sleep better, but also to make more conscious and sustainable choices.

From knowledge of the brand and customers, to the building blocks of the design, to a tested and fully developed concept car. That’s how you build a solid online platform – one that serves both the brand’s and the customers’ objectives.