Need for clear business brand identity
After rebranding from SearchOwl, Sorcea Labs lacked a clear identity to communicate its mission and attract potential partners.
Problem
After rebranding from SearchOwl, Sorcea Labs lacked a clear identity to attract partners, while skincare shoppers struggled to find products they trusted, leading to abandoned carts.
Team
3 Designers
1 Developer
2 Co-Founders
Role
UX/UI Design Intern
Duration
May – Aug 2025
Product
Sorcea Labs is a beauty-tech startup combining AI and skincare to help shoppers find personalized products while giving brands real-time market analytics.
Goal
Rebrand the Sorcea Labs website to build trust with partners, and redesign the Sorcea consumer platform to make skincare shopping more intuitive and confidence-driven.
Responsibilities
Competitive Analysis • Branding • Wireframing • Design Iterations • High-Fidelity Mockups • Stakeholder Collaboration
01 Define
Lacking trust from shoppers and brands.
The two main problems we were tasked with addressing:
Shoppers lack confidence in products
Skincare shoppers often feel uncertain about which products will work for them, leading to endless scrolling through reviews and abandoned carts.
Primary objectives
Reimagining the business and skincare websites to build trust with customers and brands.
Based on these challenges, my role focused on two main design goals:
- Business Website (Sorcea Labs) — How might we develop a more sophisticated, professional identity that blends tech and skincare aesthetics to better appeal to brands?
- Skincare Platform (Sorcea) — How might we simplify the shopping process to help users feel more confident in their product choices?
02 Research
Competitive analysis.
Based on my conversations with the co-founders, the Sorcea Labs website aimed to merge beauty and tech aesthetics, while the Sorcea website focused primarily on a beauty-driven look and feel. To guide this direction, I conducted a SWOT analysis of competitors in the tech and skincare industries.
My goal was to understand not only the functionality of these sites, but also what visual and experiential elements made a website feel “tech-y” versus “beauty-focused.”
03 Ideation
Key design principles.
From my competitive analysis research, I gathered key principles to guide me through Sorcea Labs’ business and skincare platform designs.
Sorcea Labs
Build Trust
Showcase case studies and clearly highlight what sets the brand apart to establish credibility.
Lead With Impact
Use a bold hero section with strong visuals and a clear tagline to immediately capture attention.
Create Modern Feel
Incorporating interactive and dynamic elements creates a modern, tech-driven aesthetic.
Sorcea
Personalization
Highlight individual skincare concerns and guide users toward products tailored to their needs.
Credibility & Trust
Establish a strong first impression with a visually appealing landing page, clear values, and testimonials.
Skincare Aesthetic
Use clean, neutral colors and high-quality visuals to create a calming, beauty-focused look and feel.
04 Design
Collaborative team environment and design iterations.
The other designers and I had the freedom to bring our own visions for the websites to life, and we regularly came together to share our progress, gather feedback, and combine our ideas. The final designs were a combination of all of our work.
Sorcea Labs landing page evolution
Each iteration helped narrow the business site from a busy visual direction into a more sophisticated, tech-forward identity.
Iteration 1
- Email capture was direct and clear.
- Moving background felt distracting and hard to read.
- Visuals felt busy and did not yet communicate the brand difference.
Iteration 2
- “Unlock the future of beauty” became a stronger, more memorable tagline.
- The hero image aligned better with the tech direction.
- Additional sections helped advertise the company more clearly.
Iteration 3
- Background color and type felt more aligned with the brand.
- The header made it easier for brands to navigate to Sorcea.
- Card-based selling points made the page easier to digest.
“Why Us” interaction
From a single large slideshow of questions to smaller bubbles that cycle through questions and support interactive scrolling.
Sorcea platform exploration
For Sorcea’s landing page, I aimed to present all key information on a single, easy-to-navigate page. I also refined the design while preserving Sorcea’s natural language search and filters to help users find personalized products.
Design direction
Dynamic imagery
Editable filters
Clear product path
Landing page styles
Exploring how imagery, search, and layout could balance beauty, clarity, and confidence.
Design 1
Background might be too distracting and hard to read.
Design 2
Almost there, but needs to be more dynamic.
Design 3
Dynamic, moving images balance information on the right.
Search and filter designs
Moving filters closer to the search box reduced extra steps and made the interaction feel more editable.
Design 1
Filters could only be edited in a pop-up, which might be inconvenient.
Design 2
Users had to open two dropdowns, which could add friction.
Design 3
Filters are integrated into the search box and can be easily edited.
Favorites page mockups
Developed mockups for Sorcea’s new favorites page to improve navigation and personalization.
05 Solution
Final direction.
Sorcea Labs
Reintroducing SearchOwl as Sorcea Labs.
- Sophisticated, tech-forward aesthetic
- Clear and consistent brand identity
- Highlighted key selling points and projects to build trust with brands
- Compelling hero section with strong visuals and messaging
- Dynamic, interactive interface
Sorcea
Crafting Sorcea’s bold, personalized experience.
- Eye-catching, dynamic front cover
- Memorable and impactful tagline
- Personalized, user-centered experience
06 Impact
Future metrics for measuring impact.
Because Sorcea Labs is still undergoing many design changes, we don’t yet have many finalized statistics. However, we did observe a 7% increase in average active time on the skincare website.
If we were to measure how effective our designs are at increasing user and brand trust, I would track metrics such as:
For Brands
- Number of brand inquiries
- Time spent on website
- Brand retention
For Users
- Cart abandonment rate
- Number of return visits
- Favorites saved
- Conversion rate
07 Reflection
My takeaways.
This was my first role as a UX/UI designer on a team, and I learned so much about how to collaborate with other designers, respond to feedback, and research competitors. I also discovered that creativity isn’t always linear; sometimes, my half-baked ideas resonated more with the team than the ones I felt confident in.
This experience taught me the value of sharing openly, thinking creatively, and always keeping users’ needs in mind.
Thank you so much to Sorcea Labs for giving me this opportunity!
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