Case study · Luxury watches
The watch was never the product
How a request to redesign two pages became the reason Richemont's maisons came online in India.
- +30% conversion
- +80% add-to-cart
- iOS 4.2 → 4.8
Aarti Kava · Design leader · Shanghai
Every brief hides a better one. I find it.
For eight years I've led design across luxury, AI and commerce. I look past the brief to the problem underneath, and solve that one.
How I think
Most designers jump from brief to solution. I pause. I dig for the why beneath the what. Then I build.
-
01
Understand
Human behaviour, psychology, the emotional need underneath the request. What people feel when they decide.
-
02
Connect
Patterns, systems, the insight others miss. Data and emotion, heritage and innovation, business goals and human needs.
-
03
Align
Teams, stakeholders and strategy on the right problem, before anyone commits to the wrong one.
-
Then
Build with conviction
The pause isn't slowness. It's moving fast because the deep work is done.
The ask was a reskin of two pages.Research revealed that the watch was never the product. See what changed →
- 8 yearsleading design across three businesses
- 159%revenue growth
- 6Richemont maisons brought online in India
- +30%conversion on luxury watches
- +31%conversion from the app homepage
- +28%cart conversion from the checkout redesign
- 4.2 → 4.8iOS rating after the watches redesign
- 500+components in the design system
- 1stluxury AI shopping assistant in India
- 1stBvlgari digital boutique in India
- 2 + 4designers and interns grown into a team
- 138mentoring sessions in 12 countries
What I bring
The skills behind change that lasts.
Good design work gets shipped. Lasting change needs people, thinking and systems that keep working after the project ends.
Thinking
- Strategic thinking
- Cognitive psychology
- Systems thinking
- Pattern recognition
- Research and synthesis
People
- Stakeholder management
- Facilitation and workshops
- Mentorship and team growth
- Storytelling
- Cross-functional alignment
Making it last
- Documentation
- Design systems and ops
- Change management
- Measuring what matters
- Industrial design and making
Selected work
Three stories told in full. More on the shelf.
Pick a spine to open it here, or go straight to a full case study.
Never the product2021
Luxury at first glance2023
Systemising a feeling2022
TARA2024
Bvlgari2024
Side projects∞
Bookmarked spines are full case studies.All work →
Case study · App homepage
Redefining luxury at first glance
A homepage that kept growing longer and working less, rebuilt around what people do in the first two folds.
- +31% conversion
- +200% clicks per visit
- Bounce rate halved
Case study · Design system
How do you systemise a feeling?
A luxury design system built by a team of three, through a tool migration and a full rebrand.
- 500+ components
- 40% faster turnaround
- 9 months
AI experience · 2024
TARA, an AI that asks better questions
Most people don't prompt well. India's first luxury AI shopping assistant leads the conversation, more like a good shop assistant than a search bar.
- India's first luxury AI assistant
- Conversation design
Brand experience · 2024
Earning a 140-year-old maison's trust
A 140-year-old maison handed over its brand world. The result was Bvlgari's first digital boutique in India.
- Bvlgari's first digital boutique in India
- Store-in-store
Before the job titles, there was the making
Side projects
The curiosity shelf
Science, then industrial design, then years of making things. Where the breadth comes from.
- Products
- Spaces
- Experiments
The range
Deep in two places, fluent in many.
My best skill is connecting things others keep apart: psychology and screens, data and emotion, business goals and people's needs.
I studied science first, then industrial design. Years of making things taught me how physical and digital products really get built.
- Industrial design
- Phygital
- AR / VR
- Emotional design
- Luxury & brand
- Research
- Systems & ops
- Leadership & strategy
- 0 → 1 product
- AI experience
- Mentoring
- Side projects
Peaks: where I go deepestRange: what connects them
How I lead
How I work with teams.
i.
I earn the mandate.
Briefs arrive as solutions. Before committing a team, I make the case for the question underneath, and earn the room to answer it properly. On luxury watches, with no Head of Design above me, that meant asking for full research and creative authority, and getting it.
ii.
I build buy-in, not decks.
Sales, service, product and engineering sit inside the research, not in the audience for it. An insight people found themselves doesn't need defending later.
iii.
I advocate for what's right.
For the people using the product, for the team, and for quality. When a rebrand or a deadline shifts the ground, I protect the thinking that matters and say plainly what can be rebuilt and what can't.
On my mind
What I'm noticing, from here.
I take experiences apart for a living, even off the clock: a hotel lobby, a checkout flow, a label on a bottle. These are the ones I'm working through. Each is a peak in the view at the top of this page.
Document to scale, not just to ship
Deep research is an organisational asset. Most teams treat it like a receipt.
Read the essay →What hotel lobbies teach digital onboarding
Arrival, welcome and orientation, and what apps get wrong about all three.
Why the best checkout flows feel effortless
It isn't fewer steps. It's fewer doubts.
Two ways in
If you're building something that deserves a clearer view, let's talk.
Hiring
Need someone to lead your design team?
I set direction, build the practice around it and earn the room's trust, whether the role is Head of Design or Design Lead. Strategy and execution in one leader.
Consulting
Need an outside view, and a direction?
For businesses that want to grow without losing what makes them feel special. I'll see what you're missing, and help you build it.