Duration
Oct 2023 - May 2024
(~50 hours)
My Role
User Research
Visual Design
Wireframing
Prototyping
Team
Trushaa (Project Lead)
Sanaa (UX Researcher)
Sean (UX Researcher)
Claire (UX Designer)
Xenia (UX Designer)
Me (UX Designer)
My team was drawn to this problem space because many of us have personally battled these challenges. We understand the frustration of navigating the overwhelming variety of products and the discouraging trial-and-error process of finding a routine that actually works for our skin types. Thus, we were inspired to create a solution that would help young people navigate their skincare journeys through education and support.
We came into this project with an initial guiding question: How might we design a comprehensive and affordable solution that empowers people to easily navigate their skincare journey, receive personalized guidance, and improve their overall well-being by addressing both physical and mental aspects of skincare?
To delve deeper into this problem space and validate our existing assumptions, we sent out a survey to gather basic information about potential target users.
Key questions:
73%
start paying attention to their skincare between ages of 13-19.
Assumption validated. The majority of individuals begin their skincare journey during their teenage years, a period marked by significant hormonal changes and the onset of common skin issues such as acne. Thus, we want our solution to target the adolescent/young adult age range.
65%
said that their current skin concerns leads to decreased self-esteem.
Assumption validated. There is a strong connection between skin health and mental well-being. Our solution should include features that allow users to track their mood and how they correlate with their skincare routines and skin condition over time, helping users improve their body image and overall mental well-being.
70%
said that they learn about new skincare products from social media and friend/family recommendations.
Assumption validated. Social influence plays a crucial role in skincare education and product discovery. Our solution should foster a supportive community where users can share their struggles and successes, and receive encouragement and advice from others who have similar skin experiences.
Key questions:
1. People struggle to find the right skincare products and routines that work best for their individual skin type.
2. Skincare advice is most trusted when coming from people (friends, online sources, professionals) who have similar skin attributes like race, color, and age.
3. Many people experience negative mental health due to their skin conditions, such as decreased self-esteem and feelings of isolation.
To synthesize our research, we wrote down key findings from our survey and user interviews onto sticky notes and started grouping them into common themes. We further narrowed down these themes into three key problems that we wanted to address in our solution.
01
Many users feel isolated in their skincare struggles, particularly when their friends and family do not share the same skin issues. Thus, there is a strong desire for a community where people can share and receive personal experiences and skincare advice with others similar to them.
02
Many users experience a significant negative impact on their mental health due to their skin conditions. They express a need for emotional support and resources to cope with the psychological effects of their skin issues.
03
People often rely on friends and online reviews for skincare recommendations, but these sources may not always align with their skin types and concerns. To solve this problem, people need more personalized and specific skincare advice that is tailored to their individual skin and lifestyle.
Given the key problems gathered from research, our team finalized our problem statement:
Riley reflected common user pain points from our research: one who has struggled with acne for a very long time, feels lonely in their battles, and who seeks a trustworthy community of individuals who she can share her experiences with.
Our team held an ideation session to brainstorm possible features for our app. Then, we organized similar ideas into groups to help us see main connections and explore possible directions for our project. Using a diagram of feasibility versus priority, our team narrowed down the most critical features. The optional area shown on the diagram includes features that would build community, provide education, and foster mental wellness.
Our team generated numerous ideas to incorporate into the app, aiming to educate users about their skin and motivate them toward action. We proposed features like educational articles and personalized insights based on skin reports. For the community aspect, we envisioned community forums, user journals, and product reviews. To promote mental wellness, we considered virtual companions for motivation and even ‘gamifying’ skincare routines.
After starting the wireframing process, we quickly realized that implementing all of our proposed features would dilute the app's clarity and direction. My team had many discussions about what features we really wanted to include and what we would have to abandon. Narrowing down our features and figuring out how they would connect together seamlessly was the most challenging part of this process.
We analyzed existing skincare apps to identify market gaps and repetitive features, which helped us refine our ideas. Throughout it all, we continuously revisited our problem statement to ensure that our final features aligned closely with our core objectives.
01
Dashboard with journaling quick actions or jumping off points to other screens
02
Community section where users can view journals and product reviews written by other people
03
Ability for users to write their own journals, product reviews, and take progress photos of their skin
04
Detailed skin profile with skin type and concerns so users can connect with others
Initially, the onboarding process required first-time users to provide their personal information and answer basic questions about their skin type in one go, without any actionable results at the end.
The new onboarding process is divided into two parts: users fill out their personal information, then they build their skin profile. After creating their skin profile, users are recommended other users with similar skin types and concerns, helping them to start building their community right away. This ensures that new users aren't left feeling confused about where to start after being onboarded, as they are instantly connected with others.
The original daily log only asked for the user’s mood, which felt disconnected from the rest of the app's features.
I expanded the tracker to include additional details such as any new products the user started using, their current skin condition, and any medications taken that day, which are saved so users can track changes in their skin and mood over time. This also allows the app to analyze the information and provide users with personalized insights about their skincare routines and skin health.
The original process for writing a review or journal entry was done on a single screen, which could feel overwhelming due to the amount of information requested at once.
To improve this, I divided the process into multiple steps, with each page asking only related information. This approach allows users to focus on one task at a time, reducing cognitive load. Additionally, this multi-step design is more suitable for mobile displays, minimizing the need for excessive scrolling.
The initial user profile design lacked a clear hierarchy, with confusing tag colors and inconsistent design elements.
I redesigned the skin profile to ensure that the tags are separated and clearly labeled, significantly improving readability. Emphasizing the skin profile is important because it is what users prioritize when viewing another person’s account. This helps users quickly and easily understand key information about others' skin types and concerns.
During ideation, my team really struggled with feature prioritization and finding clear direction for our project. We started off with a lot of interesting ideas, but soon realized that it would not be feasible given the time constraints. Another challenge was conflicting design: with no established design system, we frequently encountered design inconsistencies within our prototypes. Despite these hurdles, we maximized the remaining time we had left and finished the project feeling proud of our accomplishments.
As a personal goal, I decided to revisit the project a few weeks later to further improve Glowiee, challenging our previous design decisions and uncovering new insights. Working solo allowed me to adhere to my own timeline, so I used this opportunity to learn new Figma skills. Overall, this was an extremely fun project and I enjoyed every step of the process!
tldr;
