Designing an app to educate people of color about skincare

Overview

Problem:
There are a lack of resources for people of color when it comes to skincare. As a result, they tend to have trouble finding what works for their skin. Melanated skin and non-melanated skin have different needs. I noticed this firsthand when speaking to peers about how to decide on which ingredients would work best for their skin type, or having to go down a social media rabbit hole of confusion in order to find products.

Solution:
I decided to create an app that educates people of color about skincare, creates a skincare regimen based on their skin concerns, and provides them with affordable solutions.

Role:
Product Designer

Tools:
Figma, Maze, Google Docs

Timeline:
12 Weeks

OS:
iOS

Research Goals

When doing the research, these were the research goals that I wanted to accomplish:

Determine what factors women of color consider when purchasing skincare products.

Learn what pain points women of color are having when it comes to learning about their skin.

Find a way to educate people of color on skincare and to help them find products based on their needs.

Competitive Analysis

For the competitive analysis, I compared four skincare resources: Skincarisma, Incidecoder, What’s in My Jar, and the subreddit r/SkincareAddiction.

The reason why I chose those resources since they are four of the most popular resources for skincare.

The goal was to see which features users benefitted from and what was missing.

Quick Analysis:

  • Skincarisma, INCIDecoder, and WIMJ have an ingredient analyzer where the user can copy/paste or scan ingredients to learn more about them.

  • Skincarisma, WIMJ, and r/SkincareAddiction are more community based. Users are able to connect with others about skincare.

  • None of the resources have a skincare quiz, so the users will have a harder time building a regimen.

User Interviews

For the user interviews, I interviewed four women of color, ranging from their 20s to their 30s. When interviewing, I wanted to make sure it was more of a conversational interview. I wanted to learn more about the user’s background so that I could get more information and understand their experience better.

Some of the interview questions asked were:

  1. Tell me about your relationship with skincare over the years and now.

  2. What were you taught about skincare growing up?

  3. What do you believe would make your research process and skincare journey easier?

  4. What challenges did you face, and continue to face during your research process and skincare journey?

  5. What resources do you use when it comes to searching for new products, and learning about your skin?

  6. What are factors that you consider when it comes to purchasing products?

Synthesis Debrief:

  • The majority of the users didn’t learn about skincare until later on in life. They all used social media (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok) to learn about skincare.

  • Users were frustrated with seeing more incentivized reviews vs actual reviews. They found it difficult to trust reviews on certain products.

  • Users were unsure of which ingredients were beneficial to their skin type. They all spoke about their frustration with going down the social media rabbit hole in order to know what worked and what didn’t.

User Personas

I created a user persona based on the information I gathered from the user interviews. I made sure to keep my persona in mind when making design decisions

Meet Kiana!

Kiana is 28 years old, and is learning how to take care of her skin. It’s important that she has a regimen that is cost-effective and addresses all of her skin concerns.

Feature Prioritization

I chose to prioritize features based on user impact and priority. That made it easier for me to not only move forward, but also focus on the design.

I also chose the features based on what I found were successful in the competitive analysis.

Task Flow

After l decided on the features that I wanted to incorporated, I decided to create a task flow to ensure that the features would be user-friendly and effortless.

Task 1: Skincare Quiz

Task 2: Create a Routine

Task 3: Create an Account

Early Stages

For the design, I knew that I wanted something was direct and user-friendly. While sketching, I wanted to make sure that what I had in mind would be very straightforward, especially for beginners.

Branding

When it came to the branding, I used Pinterest and TikTok to look at other beauty brands. I found memes, photos and fonts that gave off the feel of inclusivity while also encapsulates the audience o

For the design, I researched colors that are commonly used by skincare and other beauty brands. I also researched colors and font styles that are popular with both Millennial and Gen-Z audiences. When doing research, I noticed that brands gravitated towards orange, green, and purple.

The colors that are currently popular with millennials and Gen-Z happen to be green and purple. Both colors represent inclusion and a desire for change.

I decided to use green and purple because the purpose of the app is to be inclusive. For the font, I decided to go with a sans-serif font. I wanted the app to look friendly and approachable to the user.

High Fidelity Prototype

After establishing the branding, I used Figma to create my high-fidelity wireframes.

Usability Test

The usability test was conducted using Maze. I had the users complete three tasks.

Task 1: Account Creation

Task 2: Skincare Quiz

Task 3: Routine Builder

Results/Feedback

  • A few users were a bit confused about the add-to-routine pop-up.

  • The majority of users enjoyed the design of the app, and thought that the tasks were straightforward.

  • Some users wanted directions of how to use a product.

Priority Revisions

Below are the before-and-after revisions that were applied to key screens based on user feedback from the usability testing.

Key Takeaways

What I’ve Learned

  • I learned that skincare isn’t marketed to men as much as women. This was shown in my difficulty in getting men for user interviews. As a result, the app focused solely on women of color.

  • I learned how to use the methods that are appropriate for the user.

What’s Next?

  • I definitely would like to refine my tasks, and eventually add new tasks that could benefit my user.

  • I would like to conduct more user interviews with men to get their perspective, since that is overlooked.

  • I would like to conduct more usability tests, and work more on the design.