The App
Gloe: the skincare playbook for an everyday skin routine and dermatologist studied solutions for the ultimate healthy skin.
The app specializes in solutions for all major skin concerns and targets skin needs based on users' specific skin types. Features like real-time camera scan for current skin problems, skin care guides, and tips and secrets to problem areas affecting the overall skin appearance is accessible in the app.
Project Context
I led the research, design, user testing and development of this project end to end.
The deliverables consists of an in-depth research phase on the skin types, common concerns and past user experiences, an ideation process for solutionizing accessible products that can be recommended for users and lastly, a prototype app.
Approximately 85% of adults experience at least minor acne
Acne, a global skin disease affects adults in all stages of life. While the causes are similar, treatments and medications are different for every skin type and only a small minority actually know how to prevent and treat it - and that's after countless hours of research spent on a million articles, blogs, and reviews.
In an American study with 2000 acne sufferer participants, the research reveals unnerving results. . .
Primary ResearchDesign Problem
Analyzing Consumer's Pain Points
To understand the direct skin challenges consumers face, I conducted decontextualized interviews with adults who are currently experiencing or have past experienced skin problems to analyze pain points in their skin routine, behaviours and conditions that can't be measured through quantifiable research.
INTERVIEW
Decontextualized
DATE & DURATION
1 Round
INTERVIEWEES
Age: 18-35
Time Commitment
Most individuals who experience acne and skin problems admit that they are often in stressful environments and don't have the time or capacity to take care of their skin.
They are often troubled by their skin but don't know what to do without taking out a huge chunk of time to browse and see a professional.
Information is Scattered
Resources for consumers are all over the place. There is no direct source for the perfect skin product, routine and treatment for consumers' specific skin type unless a professional is seeked.
If consumers wanted to learn about their skin, they would have to spend countless hours going through blogs, reviews, youtube channels, recommendations from friends and long medical articles to find what is actually suitable for their skin - and sometimes with all the information, individuals don't end up finding a solution at all.
Consumers Buy What They Think is Good and Ignore What They Actually Need
Many consumers have the habit of buying off labels that advertise ingredients that are supposedly good for the skin. Little actually know if the product is really good for them and if it works.
Instead of seeking a skin expert due to several reasons such as high rates, insecurities and time, consumers rather spend the time doing their own research by shopping for products they think their skin needs. Many agree that they don't actually have a working skin routine and know little information about their skin type.
Revised Problem Space
GoalIncrease Consumer Knowledge
To continuously stay updated in research and deliver accurate product knowledge for consumers.
Deliver a Consistent and Enjoyable User Experience
To achieve interactive design across the platform by ensuring design systems are efficient and time debt is reduced in consumer's research.
Combat Users Current Skin Concerns
To optimize consumer's skin needs and allow product offerings for all skin types and concerns. To go beyond a skin analysis and build a habit-seeking app that analyzes user's current and past trends to build an accumulative solution based on the personalized needs of the user.
Synthesizing Key Insights Through Personas
To provide a better experience for consumers, I built a user persona reflective of the interviewee’s main concerns and refined problem space to help highlight the needs of our users. The constructed archetype aligns our design goals with impact statements to help the user so a consistent and effective design can be delivered.
The Frantic Skin Product Consumer
ABOUT
Often stressed and overworked, the consumer has little to no focus on their skin trends and fails to notice problematic behaviours in their routine. They are habit-buying consumers of products with smart advertising labels and have a hard time understanding information on labels that are actually effective for their skin.
FRUSTRATIONS
- Feels inferior with their bare skin and is embarrassed to see professionals
- Doesn't have time to research and understand beneficial products
THEIR GOALS & OUR IMPACT
- Gain information on product knowledge and their skin needs
- Be able to access a skin routine that is effective and efficient
Design Map
I took the perspectives of our persona and early design goals to map out a key theme for the project. Through our targeted theme, I was able to fill a gap within the problem space and push out specific user stories for our design.
To measure the user success metrics, two user flows were mapped.
Solution Sketches
To help visualize our design interface, early solution sketches were mapped out and tested for functionality through marvel app.
Hi-fi Wireframes
A collection of early hi-fi wireframes, designs and drafts that did not make the cut. These reasons mainly did not meet the design expectations because it led to user confusion, accessibility errors or mundane user experiences that could be improved.
Logo
I wanted a logo that could accurately represent the brand and paired shapes in the form of a sun with neutral tones that could reflect off the skin so end users can indulge in a radiant and confident 'gloe.' In the end option four was selected based on its ability to represent a more vibrant note for an illuminating effect.
Final DesignsThe App
Features
A detailed walkthrough of the app includes features like real-time skin scans, personalized skin guides and skincare routines, daily new tricks and tips for healthy skin and thorough overviews of a skin analysis.
Home Screen
To get the best results for users, a skin type questionnaire is requested to help understand our users needs. On the landing screen users can find daily challenges for skin benefits, user specific skin-type guides and tips, and personalized articles based on our user onboarding questionnaire.
Skin Type Analysis
Detailed overviews on research proven ingredients are provided to help users understand their problem areas beyond the surface by targeting potential harming factors in daily routines through face mapping.
Skin Problem Analysis & Product Recommedations
When users use the camera function for a skin scan, the app is able to give skin analysis' based on detected skin problems. Gloe gives users a detailed overview with dermatologist recommended solutions for every skin concern users need to treat.
To complete the user experience, skincare routines are provided through step by step product recommendation guides that enables users to easily understand their routine needs without the hassle of additional consumer research.
Through personal and research proven solutions we build habit-friendly interfaces for the user.
LearningsDesign Hierarchy
As this project had several demands from the perspective user, I had the constant challenge of reducing and re-invisioning design components for the user so that information delivery could remain simple yet engaging for users.
Products are More Than Ideas
Although ideas are often great at finding a product, products are much much more than just a single vision. It takes the opinions of countless consumers and users, a full team of members to collaborate so that goals are effective and the tools work.
Next StepsResearch
Since the nature of the project is heavily dependent on research to provide the best experiences for our user, we will continue to update the app based on technological advancements and future findings.
Features
We will continue to define the brands initiatives and design the app's features for mobile and tablet platforms.
User Testing
To grow with our users, we will continue to optimize our design to be user friendly and refine our app models based on the results and interactions of users through continuous testing.