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Project Overview
This application is the essential tool for professional hairdressers. Aligned with the Matrix Hair Care mantra Reach all, Teach all, it is all about educating and inspiring professional hairdressers anytime, anywhere.
Offering interactive and next generation education, it is a complete digital tool for business development and a way of combining traditional learning methods with modern digital interactivity for hairdressers.
Project Commissioner
Matrix Haircare Australia (L'Oreal Australia)
Project Creator
Team
Crave Agency is a visual creative agency located in South Yarra Melbourne. We specialise in finding innovative solutions to market and brand organisations across new and exciting mediums. This may include anything from digital design and application development; graphic design; video and photography production; and communication strategies.
Crave Agency undertook the developing of the Matrix&Me application for the client Matrix Hair Care (L’Oreal Australia) and have since recently completed the project to great success with official public launch occurring this month. Heading the project was Jason Panda, Co-Director of Crave Agency and responsible for the creative and concept development. Assisting him in this effort was Andrew Gueit, also Co-Director of Crave Agency; and Christian Pandelides who was responsible for the graphic design of the applications user interfaces.
Crave Agency worked alongside Omate, a separate IT development company in the creation of this app. This company was subcontracted under Crave Agency to perform the coding for the application with project management on this side being handled by Mr Barath Kumar who worked closely with the Crave Agency project team in transforming the application into reality.
For more information on Crave Agency please visit our website: www.craveagency.com.au
Project Brief
With a vision to bring traditional hairdressing learning methods into the online realm this application is a breakthrough in education technology for the hair dressing industry. Offering state of the art features that allow users to teach, learn, inspire and create, the application is the perfect resource for any hairdresser or salon owner looking to expand their skills or business.
The technology allows hairdressers the opportunity to explore hair structure, colour fundamentals and stylising all within the one user friendly and creative framework. Not only is it designed for hairdressers to use in day-to-day work setting but can also function as a platform that educators themselves may use within classroom settings. It boasts never before seen technology such as interactive 3D head sheets for hairdressers to use in planning their colours and cuts; practical learning resources including a fully interactive colour wheel; and innovative technical platforms like our digital hair strain cross section that shows colour activation at the swipe of the finger.
These features are all designed to assist in a variety of areas including sales, education, marketing and business development. This support flows through to hairdressers, salon owners, all the way down to the clients in the chair, creating new ways to communicate, learn and create
Project Need
This application truly is the next step forward in hairdressing education. Its innovative capabilities are a long time coming for such a visual oriented industry, the most prominent being our Colour Builder feature that uses 3D digitally interactive head sheets, allowing hairdressers to design styles, cuts and colours directly on their device. Such technology is entirely new, being the first hairdressing app to offer this kind of user experience to aspiring hairdressers. It is a perfect example of how our application has incorporated old hairdressing education into new technology, with head sheets previously being limited to sketch pads with 2D views being the critical limitation.
Now hairdressers will have the creativity and stimulus they need for learning and growth literally at their fingertips, supplemented by equally innovative features such as step-by-step educational PDF’s and videos; a mood board to store ideas and inspiration; and our interactive colour wheel and hair shaft cross section to teach colour fundamentals.
All of these features combine to create an application that in itself is a revolution for the hairdressing industry. Providing one place for hairdressers to access and store all of their education, resources, and inspirations, it is literally a tool to guide them through their career, designed to grow and develop as they go.
User Experience
End user engagement is the central element of our applications user interface and overall design. Keeping this same focus at the forefront throughout the entire development process is one of the reasons that our end product is so successful in meeting all requirements.
One of the main ways we achieved this was by undertaking a rigorous research process at the onset of the project into the various stakeholder groups who are affected by the education that Matrix Hair Care offers. From this research process we identified four tiers of end users, each with different needs and expectations. Our purpose for the app was to meet the needs of each of these groups by creating a “meeting point” in the app that substantiated communication and increased educational results.. Our solutions are encompassed within the various groups of users: solutions for Matrix Hair Care; solutions for The Matrix Education; solutions for the salon’s / hairdressers; and solutions for the end client in the chair. Crave Agency identified that this application needed to not only service education requirements but a way forward to keep hairdressers inspired .
The Matrix application offers something different for each of these tiers, solutions for the creative and communicative restrictions that hindered them in the past. The application acts as the “meeting point” where all of these users come together, standing in as the ultimate solution, an essential tool, and the future for hairdressing.
Project Marketing
Our application is being marketed on both an internal and external level. Internally, it is being projected to overseas buyers (other Matrix Hair Care branches) who are looking to adopt the Australian made Matrix application into their countries market. This has involved meetings with the both European and Asian correspondents, as well as a particularly strong expression of interest from Matrix Hair Care New Zealand. To showcase the application to their overseas buyers Crave Agency created an internal marketing video for the app that centralised on clearly explaining the uses and benefits of each feature within a mainly informative toning. This was used by the Matrix Hair Care Australia spokespeople during meetings and seminars as a way to “sell” the application.
On an external level the application is being marketed to the wider Australian community, with a strong focus on the end user: hairdressers. These marketing strategies are currently ongoing and include the use of a short PR video for the application that is being used to engage with the target public and peak an interest in the app.
Promotion of the app and the PR video will begin over the following weeks and include a variety of online tactics for engagement. A more direct line of communication will further be initiated by Matrix Hair Care who will be emailing and notifying all salon owners of the applications release for the initial set of downloads.
Project Privacy
Our application makes use of a variety of methods to implement best practice privacy. Most notably upon initiation of a download users must read a pop up Privacy Notice that reads as follows:
“L’Oreal Australia Pty Ltd through its Matrix brand will collect your personal information for the purpose of developing our relationship with you and providing you with information about Matrix and its products. If you opt in above, you consent to continuing to receive marketing and promotional offers from us (including via email and SMS). Generally, we only disclose personal information to our related companies and to third parties which provide us with (or assist us to provide) products/services. This may involve transferring your information outside of Australia including to NZ, USA, Singapore, Canada and the EU. Our privacy policy (available at www.loreal.com.au) contains information about making a complaint and accessing or correcting the information we hold about you. You can contact us (and opt-out from marketing) at the L’Oreal Consumer affairs Department at 564 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Victoria 3004, telephone 1300 659 359 or by email consumeraffairs@au.loreal.com.”
In support of this, the downloading procedure for the app also includes a variety of steps to ensure privacy. For example users must first register a profile, and then verify this profiles legitimacy via email before being able to log into the app. The app will then store all identifying information for the user under password protection.
Education
This category recognises education themed apps across all education sectors.
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