Ji Kim
Visual, Interaction, Experience Design
Currently open to new projects
2023
Cartier Retail Innovation Lab
Role
UX/UI, Interaction Design, System Architecture, Visual Design
Overview
Aleph is a hologram-based digital vitrine designed for Cartier boutiques, offering clients a unique self-service experience. As Cartier’s first self-service digital touchpoint, Aleph allows clients to interact with high-resolution, 360° holograms of rare and exceptional jewelry pieces while waiting for a sales associate. These pieces include one-of-a-kind high jewelry, limited-edition watches, and museum artifacts.
Located inside an alcove on the 2nd floor, high jewelry section, in the boutique. The Aleph is placed right next to lounge chairs in which clients waiting. High jewelry collection including tiaras, diamond bracelets and clocks are curated.
When I Joined
Aleph is a holographic digital kiosk installed in Cartier boutiques. The brand’s first self-service touchpoint is designed to engage clients while they wait quietly. Users can browse and rotate rare jewelry pieces through AI-generated, 360° hologram videos.
By the time I joined, the hardware and system concept had already launched in Chicago.
- A two-screen setup: a main hologram display (circular mirror) and a 13” iPad Pro controller
- The touchscreen controlled the hologram experience
- Aleph showcased high and fine jewelry—not as a sales tool, but to spark curiosity
My Role
Cartier was preparing Aleph for a wider rollout. I joined to lead the redesign of the interface and content strategy for the second version.
Responsibilities included
- Redesigning the touch UI to support rather than compete with the hologram
- Rebuilding the IA and interaction flow
- Creating CMS architecture and scalable content standards
- Working closely with Cartier stakeholders and external dev teams across multiple markets
01. Problem
Feedback from the first rollout showed the concept was strong, but the behavior didn’t align with the intent.
- Clients focused entirely on the touchscreen, ignoring the hologram
- The experience wasn’t generating questions or conversations with sales associates
- The interface felt more like e-commerce than a luxury encounter
I began by analyzing how the design and interaction patterns contributed to these outcomes.
The touch interface layout follows the common e-commerce style UXUI. It shows multiple product images in higher resolution compare to the main hologram made with peppers ghost effect. The main hologram is synched with the touch interface product when the user press “See Product” button in the touch screen. Until then, the hologram and the touch screen product are not synchronized.
02. Design Exploration
Balancing the Experience
“How might we re-center attention on the hologram?”
Issue
The large, bright secondary screen overpowered the main display.
Response
User interviews and observations in the boutiques revealed that a minimalistic touch interface reduced cognitive load and enhanced focus on the holographic display. We explored different form factors, screen sizes, and interaction layouts to create a clearer visual hierarchy.
Design Changes
- Replaced the iPad Pro (13”) with a smaller Galaxy Tab S9 (10”)
- Redesigned the UI system to be ambient and minimal
- Eliminated all non-essential features from the controller
→ These changes shifted focus back to the main display, as intended.
The secondary screen changed to a smaller one. Touch interface also redesigned.
With the smaller secondary screen on the bottom, the screen hierarchy became much more balanced
Whilst the secondary screen became smaller than the previous version, the key CTA takes the largest amount of screen space making it clearer what clients can focus
Reducing Friction
“How much functionality is too much?”
Issue
The original interface mimicked an e-commerce layout, with image carousels, zoom features, and heavy content—too much for a short, stand-up interaction.
Response
Aleph was designed for casual, 3–10 minute use—not deep browsing. We reprioritized the feature set to align with that behavior.
Touch Interface Feature Audit
Design decisions
- Focused interaction on rotating and pausing the hologram
- Removed image gallery, zoom, and “call associate” functions
- Reduced product content to short, museum-style captions
→ This helped reframe Aleph as a curiosity starter—not a digital commerce catalog.
Redesign Touch Interface
The touch interface got breathing room to contain only the essentials. I used only one color, gold, on the black background. Lightweight icons with concise captions. Product images are used only as product thumbnails on the gallery page.
To bring the ambient atmosphere in the UI design, the focus was on the carefully paced transitioning animations between screens, and the key interaction; rotating the hologram.
This video demonstrates the final animation iteration. After this prototype, “View actual size” CTA and the button to go to the “Gallery Screen” on individual product screens got revised.
Key Interaction Process Sketches
Rotate The Product Hologram CTA
Early 2D Sketches
Early Animation Sketches
Selected design direction animation sketches
The transition between Product Screens
The final transition selected as brief fade in-out. We decided not to include this types of transition because it delays browsing time.
Developer Handover Materials
Collaborated closely with the engineers to ensure the redesigned UI was technically feasible while I was designing, leading to a seamless integration of the new touch interface without delays in the rollout schedule.
Detailed annotations for the animation spec was shared with Processing engineers to perfect the animations.
03. CMS Guideline for the Brand
My team handed over the updated device, the software, and the staff training guides to the corporate team, which maintained the experience. To support that, I structured its usages and content guidelines.
For Boutique Uses
- Self-guided interaction
- 1–8 curated products, linear browsing
- Product content managed from HQ
- Auto-sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity
- Product order resumes from the previous user
For Event Uses
- Staff-moderated presentations
- Index screen activated for non-linear navigation
- Manual product controls are enabled via the admin page
These two modes allowed Aleph to scale without changing the core experience.
Impact & Reflection
Aleph successfully rolled out in multiple North American boutiques and international special events, including one in Geneva. The centralized Bright Sign CMS and the asset guideline have been under scalability testing for future global activation.
This project reinforced my belief that effective design often involves subtraction rather than addition—removing unnecessary elements to highlight what truly matters to the user. By stripping away unneeded parts, we clarified what mattered most. Reducing isn’t about doing less—designing for the proper attention.