UX Methods for Digital Innovation: JUST Egg
3D web design offers users a unique and immersive viewing experience, creating attractive opportunities for brands to integrate hyper-realistic visuals in their websites and applications. Advancements in 3D modeling software such as AutoCAD and Blender, as well pseudo-dimensional techniques such as parallax scrolling and animated visuals, have made 3D elements increasingly accessible to designers. This report will explore the emergence of responsive 3D design, specifically as it relates to the plant-based foods manufacturer JUST Egg's website.
Emergence of 3D web design
3D graphics have been available in web browsers since 2010 thanks to Google Chrome’s release of WebGL API. This technology expanded web design capabilities by allowing designers to create graphic elements with JavaScript instead of HTML and CSS. Further advancements in JavaScript, such as Three.js and Babylon.js, made 3D web graphics a viable option for designers (Zdrzałek & Michalak, 2021). Attitudes toward 3D design declined in the mid-2010s when Windows 8 and Apple’s iOS 7 discarded skeuomorphism in favor of flat, 2D interfaces (Flat Design). However, its reemergence in the 2020s may be attributed to advancements in capability and UI technology and brands’ preferences toward storytelling through UI (Kumbharkar, 2022; Top 11 UI/UX Design Trends, 2020).
Applying the usability heuristic simple and natural dialogue reveals the appeal of 3D web designs. The heuristic states that interfaces should represent the user's task as naturally as possible in order to reduce their mental model (Nielson). The multidimensional, dynamic, and interactive qualities of everyday life are replicated in 3D web designs, appealing to this usability heuristic.
JUST Egg
Founded in 2011, JUST Egg develops and markets plant-based alternative egg and meat products. The JUST Egg website showcases vibrant colors, full-screen images, and strong typographic elements indicative of its modern design choices. This report zooms in on JUST Egg’s Learn page, which asks “How do we make eggs from plants?” The Learn page takes users on an interactive journey as a crowd of eggs is reimagined as a single mung bean, incorporating high quality 3D renders and user-paced progression to immerse the user with storytelling.
Method
To evaluate user perceptions of JUST Egg’s Learn page, three first-time users were asked to explore the interface and subsequently complete a questionnaire. This questionnaire targeted JUST Egg’s success in creating an immersive experience, promoting cognitive absorption, and adhering to the usability heuristic of simple and natural dialogue. Each participant was offered 10 minutes to explore the Learn page however they wished to pace themselves and were administered the questionnaire immediately after through Google Forms. The form also offered users the opportunity to elaborate on each question if they so wished.
The questions are listed to the right. The various scales were translated into a 1 (negative) to 5 (positive) scale to statistically evaluate in the next section:
Rate your satisfaction with JUST Egg’s Learn page’s aesthetics & visuals.
SCALE: Very unsatisfied; Moderately unsatisfied; Neutral; Moderately satisfied; Very satisfied
Did you find JUST Egg’s Learn page easy to use?
SCALE: Very difficult; Somewhat difficult; Neutral; Somewhat easy; Very easy
Did you find JUST Egg’s Learn page more immersive than other website interfaces?
SCALE: Not at all; Not really; Maybe; Somewhat; Definitely
Are you more inclined to purchase JUST Egg after viewing the Learn page?
SCALE: Not at all; Not really; Maybe; Somewhat; Definitely
Do you think you will remember JUST Egg better now that you’ve explored their Learn page?
SCALE: Not at all; Not really; Maybe; Somewhat; Definitely
Evaluation
The questionnaire resulted in a unanimous positive experience exploring JUST Egg’s Learn page, with only some deviation when asked if users were more inclined to purchase their product after viewing.
Despite positive impressions, critiques of the interface included “slightly glitchy” frame rate and lack of wayfinding icons indicating to scroll. Otherwise, users were unanimously impressed with the design, rating the experience highly immersive, easy to use, and memorable.
Conclusions
With its business-to-business model, the JUST Egg website offers consumers an immersive story about their plant-based vision as opposed to a platform for purchasing. This is an important distinction from retail website models which may not reap positive impacts of 3D design elements, as explored in the 2015 report The influence of website dimensionality on customer experiences, perceptions and behavioral intentions: An exploration of 2D vs. 3D web design. This report concluded that 3D websites were perceived as less easy to use and induced lower level of cognitive absorption than their 2D counterparts, specifically in utilitarian systems applications (Visinescu et al., 2015).
Works Cited
Kumbharkar, S. (2023, January 18). Return of 3D graphics in web and mobile UI. Calsoft Blog. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://calsoftinc.com/blogs/2022/12/return-of-3d-graphics-in-web-and-mobile-ui.html
Learn. JUST Egg. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://www.ju.st/learn
Nielson, J. (n.d.). Ten Usability Heuristics. Retrieved February 13, 2023, from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5f03/b251093aee730ab9772db2e1a8a7eb8522cb.pdf
Top 11 UI/UX design trends: What to expect in 2023 and beyond. Software Testing Help. (2023, February 21). Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/ui-ux-design-trends/#10_Storytelling
Visinescu, L. L., Sidorova, A., Jones, M. C., & Prybutok, V. R. (2014, October 23). The influence of website dimensionality on customer experiences, perceptions and behavioral intentions: An exploration of 2D vs. 3D web design. Information & Management. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378720614001293
What is flat design? The Interaction Design Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/flat-design
Zdrzałek, M., & Michalak, C. (2021, October 11). Web 3D programming: Past, present and future. Emphie. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://emphie.com/insights/web-3d-programming