The Ordinary: An Ordinary Experience?
Hi everyone!
Today’s blog will be on The Ordinary. This skincare brand has seen viral success on platforms, such as TikTok, and has become a staple in many skincare routines. I’ve personally been influenced by TikTok to buy a product from The Ordinary. I bought a red peeling mask that I saw everywhere, it’s the AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution. I could not tell you what these ingredients mean for the sake of my skin, but TikTok claimed it was “life changing,” so I tried it. But that’s not what I want to focus on, a review of the product can come in a later blog.
What I do want to focus on is the website experience The Ordinary has. The world has seen a major pandemic, as we know it changed so much of our daily activities. From quarantine to remote work and learning, we’ve adapted as a society to be even more digital. I cannot emphasize the importance of the digital enough. Every brand needs to be online and portray themselves in a way that fits the brand character. The Ordinary does this in a simplistic, almost minimalist, way. The website works especially well for experienced skincare users.
As seen above, The Ordinary’s website is fairly simple. There’s a menu and a bold hero image. The hero image shows one of the products with a little twist, showcasing the product itself color. The yellow stroke stands out, especially since the rest of the website is shades of black and white. The hero image is overlapped by text boxes, one is the product name and another is the option to “Build my Regimen.”
The “Build my Regimen” feature is especially helpful. I tried it myself and the results are below. As the image shows, The Ordinary provides recommendations for a regimen for the morning and night time. This is a great starting point to exploring their products. I think having this little quiz featured in the homepage is great.
The mobile version features the same images and products. But I actually like the mobile website a lot better. It feels more full, if that makes sense. With the desktop, there’s a lot of white space that I feel could be better utilized. The mobile version offers the same functionality, but the compressed version just looks nicer to me. I also think that the way the promotions are listed are clearer in the mobile version. The black header featuring the promotion kind of gets lost in the desktop version, while it is more prominent in the mobile version. Everyone loves a promotion, especially if it’s not portrayed as an annoying pop-up. And in the mobile version it’s clearer.
Overall, I think both the desktop and mobile websites provide a good user experience. The website itself is intuitive to view. However, I do think to shop The Ordinary one should go beyond the website and research the ingredients. I think someone with little or no skincare knowledge should go beyond the website and learn a little bit more about what they are looking for.
