Knowledge with a flawless finish
About the client
CliniquePlay Hero Edition is a mobile training app built for The Estée Lauder Companies, designed to help retail staff and sales associates learn Clinique's product line inside and out. The app centers on Clinique's top performing "Hero" products and new launches, giving employees a way to scan physical products for training guides, work through fast product facts, and play games to earn points and climb regional and global leaderboards.
The task
CliniquePlay already existed, but Clinique wanted to push it further. They brought us in for two things: design three new mini games, and give the app a visual refresh to bring it up to date with the brand. The games each had a different job. One needed to support an upcoming product launch, one needed to be evergreen so it could stay useful as new products rolled through, and one needed to center on a specific product line. Underneath all three was the same problem: retail training is dense, forgettable, and hard to fit in between customers, and the goal was to fix that without losing Clinique's polish.
Type
Mobile App
Game Design
Logo Refresh
Who & When
Designer Duo
2021
Tools
Figma
Procreate
Designing for Play
Neither of us had designed a game before this project. Training content wants to be thorough, games want to be fast, and figuring out how to keep information dense material feeling quick and sticky instead of just simplified took real trial and error. We had to keep asking whether a mechanic actually taught something or just felt fun for its own sake. The games that worked were the ones where those two things lined up. We researched 9 different types of game mechanics and explored how 1 of our 3 mini game subjects could fit into each base concept. We narrowed down to 5 to present to the client and refined 4 of those to develop further.
Explorations that didn't make the cut
A skincare regimen game and a Pac-Man inspired concept didn't make it into the final app, but they were part of how we found our way to what worked. The skincare regimen game was informative, walking through a simple routine using Clinique products, especially their 3 step system, but the client raised concerns about any visuals implying the removal of dark spots or imperfections. We agreed we didn't want to risk any negative connotations in the design. The Pac-Man inspired game was fun to create, but ultimately it leaned too far into being overly gamified, and would have taken longer to play than made sense for the app.
The chosen ones
Clinical Pursuit is a trivia game built to last. Rather than locking the content to a single launch, we designed it so quizzes can be swapped out as new products come in, keeping the game relevant instead of stale six months later. Shade Match is a pairs game built around an upcoming foundation launch. Players match skin tone to foundation shade, which turns a skill that usually takes hands on experience into something staff can practice in short bursts, low pressure, before they're doing it in front of a customer.
Visual refresh
Alongside the games, the app got a full visual refresh. We brought in a cleaner, more modern look that aligned with Clinique's brand and improved usability throughout, not just in the new games but across the whole experience.
