USHA - Kitchen Appliances
Packaging & Website Design
Made at Landor & Fitch, Mumbai
Design Director: Kurnal Rawat & Hiren Dedia
Designers: Shrishti, Rutika Moghe & Bipasha Ray
Recognizing that cooking is more than just a chore and can be a meaningful social activity shared with friends and family, USHA - one of the leading kitchen appliance brands in India, decided to revamp its brand's website and packaging.
A well-designed packaging system can leave a lasting impression on customers, and we committed ourselves to bring it to the forefront. With a fresh package architecture featuring vibrant colors, friendly language, and contemporary fonts, we tested a new packaging method in multiple Indian cities. By redesigning USHA’s digital presence, including a new website, the brand successfully attracted a new, predominantly young user base. The brand's bold and playful aesthetic, coupled with a friendly tone, has helped to create a cohesive and engaging brand experience for users across various touchpoints.
The quest for simplicity and love for home-cooked meals were USHA’s heritage brand language. This led us to a very clear strategy, a story that we wanted to narrate in a simple and honest way: “Touching lives by rekindling one’s passion for cooking”
During the brainstorming session, the team explored three distinct routes for the brand's design strategy: the evolutionary route, which involves making small design changes to the existing packaging; the revolutionary route, which calls for more drastic and dramatic design changes to convey a new narrative; and a third option, which involved ideating a fresh approach to the brand's packaging design.
Assigned to this third option, I was tasked with developing a concept that would effectively balance the brand's heritage with a modern and innovative aesthetic, creating a powerful new visual language for the brand.
The voice route was designed to initiate a conversation with customers by using expressive typography and simple illustrations that transformed otherwise text-heavy information into eye-catching and engaging content. Delicate hand-drawn illustrations were used to highlight product details and important features, creating a unique and visually appealing package design.
To enhance the cooking learning experience, I implemented an interactive recipe display and added a QR code that directed users to USHA’s website for more cooking enthusiast recipes. The client was thrilled with this idea, so much so that they wanted to include it in all the designs before conducting user testing.
Third Route: Voice
// To make the packaging more visually engaging, we adopted an infographic style on the side of the package. This was a unique approach in the market and we believed it would be eye-catching for customers.
// packaging architecture
User Testing
All three routes showed promising potential. To gain a better understanding of user preferences, we printed full-sized boxes of each option and conducted tests in four major cities across India, including Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai. The tests allowed us to gather valuable feedback and insights from users to help inform our final design decision.
The Voice route was preferred amongst the other routes due to several factors, including the use of bright colors and a catchy typeface that drew a lot of attention to the packaging. The language used in the packaging was found to be peppy and contemporary, particularly appealing to a younger audience. Additionally, the overall design was viewed as modern and trendy, contributing to its popularity during user testing.
However, there were also some drawbacks to this route. The colors used on the packaging were not well-received by older consumers, who found them off-putting. The smaller fonts used for product descriptions on the front of the packaging also created readability issues for many consumers. Additionally, the packaging hierarchy names did not make sense to most customers, which caused confusion and made it difficult for them to navigate the packaging effectively.
New challenges
As the team moved forward with the voice route, we faced a new set of challenges in the next stage of designing the KLDs (Key Line Drawings) for 36 different packs. We needed to develop a design system that was flexible and unique, while also reducing the effort for future designers who would work on the packaging. We spent a significant amount of time brainstorming and experimenting with different design elements to achieve this goal.
Eventually, we were able to create a design system that was easy to work with and could be adapted to different product categories, sizes, and formats. This allowed us to achieve consistency across the entire range of packaging while also maintaining the brand's visual identity and messaging. By investing in a thoughtful and well-designed KLD system, we were able to ensure that the packaging design process would be more efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable in the long run.
Challenge 1: Product categorisation
USHA (International Ltd.) has divided its 36 products into three categories based on price range and features: premium, better, and affordable. The premium products are packaged in black, the better category products in black and white, and the affordable range products in white. This categorisation was done by USHA to help customers quickly identify the product's category and pricing.
// Oven Toaster Griller (Good Category) Infinity Cooker (Best Category: The black packaging represents the most high-end range of products, while the white packaging is for the most affordable range.
Challenge 2: Typography
To maintain a consistent visual language, we thoughtfully selected two distinct fonts for the front of the pack. For the premium packages, we chose Photowall, which features graceful swashes and ligatures that impart a sense of elegance and versatility to the design. Meanwhile, for the white packaging, we opted for Foco, one of my personal favorite Adobe fonts, which boasts playful details and exceptional clarity across a range of text sizes. We believed this font would be the perfect complement to the white packaging, elevating its sophistication and visual appeal.
Challenge 3: Product bucketing
To ensure consistency and streamline the design process, we created five distinct SKU size buckets, each with a fixed USHA logo unit, font size, and icon size. This approach simplified the pack design and reduced the need for post-production work. Plus, we can now adapt this system to all USHA products, promoting uniformity across the brand.
To validate the font size, we printed three products from each bucket and cross-checked the results. This exercise also allowed us to create templates for the photographer to use in determining the area of the product and food shots on the pack. By establishing these standardized parameters, we were able to maintain a cohesive and visually appealing packaging design across all products.
In addition to creating a visually appealing packaging design, the cohesive set of icons enhances the user experience on the website. By incorporating these icons across the site, we were able to reinforce the brand's visual identity and make the content more engaging and intuitive for visitors. This design element further contributed to a seamless and consistent brand experience, both on and off the shelf.
Impact
We were thrilled to discover that the new packaging had a significant impact on customer engagement, with 73% of retail customers noticing the updated design and many choosing to pick up the carton and learn more about the product. What's more, the rebranding helped attract a wider range of consumers, as both older and younger audiences - including millennials - showed an increased interest in the products.
The improvements extended beyond the retail setting, as 68% of website visitors were able to successfully scan and search for recipes. This success resulted in a 10% decrease in website bounce rate, highlighting the effectiveness of the updated design in promoting customer engagement and interaction with the brand. Overall, we're thrilled with the positive impact the new packaging has had on both retail and online channels, and we look forward to building on this success in the future.
“Previously, our boxes were designed to display just the necessary information. The new packaging design adds to the customer buying experience by making each box special.”
- Team Usha
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