Background
Kira is a mobile skincare experience that provides education, recommendations, and community to simplify
and customize skincare.
Empathize
Understanding the Problem
The keywords 'skincare routine' saw a 50% jump in Google searches in 2020. Between the plethora of products on the market, a steady stream of social media content, and omnipresent advertisements, consumers are overwhelmed by their options. Coupled with the lack of diversity in the industry, consumers struggle with finding skincare products that address their skin needs.
Designing the Solution
Using the Design Thinking process, I designed an app that provides users with a personalized hub for reliable skincare education, recommendations, and community to optimize the product and content finding experience and build a reliable skincare assistant.
Research Methodology
In order to better understand the needs of Kira users, I conducted research of the skincare industry and users' skincare experience. This included secondary market research, competitor analysis, user surveys, and interviews.
Market Research
Churning for Profit
The skincare industry is worth an estimated $163.5 billion worldwide, and with beauty companies spending billions in U.S. dollars on advertising with no indication of slowing down, it's easy to understand why consumers could be overwhelmed by the seemingly endless stream of products and content that are fighting for their attention. Consumer attitudes about new celebrity-led skincare companies, for example, show that consumers are frustrated with the churning out of new companies that appear to only have profit-driven motivations.
Diversity
Beauty shoppers say YouTube is their top source for beauty-related content and 67% say they turn to influencers to discover new products (Think With Google, Harvard Business School). Paired with the lack of diversity among beauty influencers, content that relates to skin needs of people of color is difficult to find. Women of color describe having difficulty finding quality information and products that address their needs due to the lack of diversity in product creation, testing, and marketing.
Community
Gen-Z and Millenial consumers make up the primary market for a skincare app. This age group values community, and their various community groups are a large part of their identity and online activity (i.e. fandoms pages for specific movie franchises, Instagram accounts that highlight POC-owned businesses, etc.)
Keeping It Clean
Clean beauty has been on the rise for over three decades, and the demand has especially increased due to the pandemic (NielsenIQ). Consumers are interested in learning what products are good for their bodies and for the environment. According to Neilson, 40.2% of consumers say they look for natural ingredients when making a purchase decision.
User Surveys and Interviews
Surveys
Kira's goal is to bring inclusivity and diversity to the beauty industry. In conducting user research to learn about their users' needs, surveys were used to gather information from a diverse group of people who are interested in skincare.
Interviews
User interviews facilitated a deeper understanding of what users care about as it pertains to their ideal skincare experience.
Key Findings
Define
User Personas
Alisha, 28
“I learned a lot about natural skincare from my grandmother. I feel empowered when I understand what I’m using on my skin.”
Alisha is a paralegal based in Jersey City, NJ. She has a hectic schedule, but working from home has given her time for self care. She is learning how to care for her skin while in a harsh city environment and how to reduce her environmental impact.
Goals:
✧ Learn which ingredients work best for her skin from a trusted source
✧ Live more sustainably and reduce her waste
Frustrations:
✧ Ingredient lists are too complicated and don’t explain the specific impact on skin
✧ Buying tons of products to test them out, only for them not to work and accumulate in her bathroom
Current favorite brands:
Marcus, 22
“I’m learning how to love my skin, even with blemishes, but it’s difficult to find skincare that is made for people with melanin-rich skin.”
Marcus is a part-time production assistant and photographer who lives just outside of Atlanta, GA. He has an active social life and busy work schedule, so he wants skincare recommendations that are personalized to his needs without scouring social media.
Goals:
✧ Find BIPOC-owned skincare brands
✧ Develop a consistent skincare regimen
✧ Gain confidence in his skincare
Frustrations:
✧ The time-consuming process of finding product reviews from people with similar skin needs
✧ Forgets the steps that his dermatologist recommended to care for acne
Current favorite brands:
Project Goals
Optimize the product-finding process
Kira can optimize the product-finding process by connecting users with products and content that is specialized to their skincare needs. In turn, Kira can:
✧ save users time otherwise spent searching for products, ingredients and reviews
✧ save users money otherwise spent on products that do not address their needs
✧ reduce waste, as users will buy less items that do not address their skincare needs or are not effective
Develop a reliable skincare assistant
Kira can be a reliable assistant by providing trustworthy expertise and accountability functions. This will:
✧ ensure peace of mind to users that skincare advice and product analysis is backed by dermatologists✧ provide accountability through reminders, environment-specific tips, and stored skincare routines✧ help users making skincare decisions by storing skincare history and product trial logs
Ideate
Onboarding Flow
The onboarding process includes a quiz that users can take to build their skin profile. While 65% of beauty retailers offer interactive quizzes to help customers choose the right products, most brands limit quiz results to their own products (CB Insights). Kira users are not limited to results from one brand.
Key Features
Kira’s point system rewards users for completing skincare tutorials and routines, contributing to product reviews, and completing product trials. These points can be used to order skincare product samples and other items, such as exfoliating pads, microfiber face cloths, and more.
By rewarding skincare activity, Kira is helping users be consistent with their skincare practice and saving them money.
Personalizing the skincare experience eliminates the time and effort that users otherwise expend searching for products and content that are applicable to their skin. This is exemplified by the product reviews, which are filtered to prioritize reviews by other Kira users who have the most similar skin profiles.
Prototype
Brand Design
Wireframing
Sketch to Low Fidelity to High Fidelity
Morning
Night
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Your morning skincare routine is all about protection. Antioxidant serums are great for protecting against daily aggressors and are light enough to easily layer under makeup. Formulas that include Vitamin C are great for preventing damage. For acne-prone skin, oil-free antioxidant with vitamin E is a great alternative. Always finish off your morning routine with a hydrating moisturizer and SPF for sun protection. Don’t forget to pack your SPF to go if you plan on being out for a long, sunny day ☀️
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As your complexion’s needs change through the course of a day, so does your skincare needs. At night time, your priority is regeneration and repair. Cleansing your skin of all the dirt and oils that have accumulated throughout the day is vital to healthy skin. (In fact, many recommend a double cleanse). Moisturizers should include ingredients that encourage skin cell turnover and hydration. Overnight creams are great for an extra dose of nourishment for your skin 🧴
Testing
Usability Testing
Users were given different tasks and their actions and reactions were recorded.
Task 1: Complete the onboarding quiz
Participants described the onboarding flow as simple and straightforward. Many mentioned that they expected to be presented with additional information in their quiz results about their behavior, diet, exercise, and other factors in addition to product recommendations. Additionally, users were uncertain about the need to take several quizzes, and often skipped the second quiz.
Recommended Revisions:
✧ In order to meet users' mental model, include behavioral recommendations to the onboarding quiz results.
✧ Condense the onboarding quizzes into one quiz in order to save the user time and increase the completion rate of the onboarding process.
Task 2: Add a serum to your morning skincare routine
Participants had an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the ability to ‘Build Your Routine’. They praised the feature for providing a recommended routine while allowing user edits, and the ability to choose who you would like to be your skincare guide. While moving through this flow, participants encountered the SkinMatch rating for various products. All participants appreciated this feature, and a few explained that they would like to know more about how the rating is calculated.
Recommended Revisions:
✧ Provide a 'break down' of the SkinMatch ratings to provide users with further education and understanding about skincare.
Task 3: Scan a product, explore the information available on the product page, and order a sample
Participants appreciated this feature, but mentioned that when they are scanning an item in person, they would prefer for it to be more accessible. Users also mentioned adding a feature to view scan history and seeing availability and price of products in other stores upon scanning.
Recommended Revisions:
✧ Switch the scanner and bookmarks tab in the navigation bar in order to ensure it is more accessible in on-the-go situations.
✧ Add the ability to view previous scans
✧ Add prices and availability to product pages
Addition of Scan History
A/B Testing
Users revealed that, while they consistently agreed that the right option was more "familiar" and "aesthetically pleasing" they preferred the left side because it provided more information.
Conclusion
User Response
Because this was a concept case study, I was not able to see Kira out in the wild, but the positive feedback from participants shows that Kira would be an impactful addition to their skincare experience.
Reflection
Crafting Kira was my first experience with end-to-end application design. Over the course of four weeks, I was able to learn a lot about user testing, design, and how to prioritize user needs above my own assumptions. Additionally, it's easy to get so excited about new ideas for users, but I learned how to deliver the most important aspects of a design while adhering to a project timeline.
During the creation of Kira, I learned a lot about the lack of diversity in the skincare industry. The skincare industry, like many others, often excludes certain groups in the ideation, creation, testing, and marketing of new products. It was refreshing to discover so many new methodologies and companies in the beauty industry that are making strides to ensure that people of color are not excluded from skincare. This case study allowed me to understand how design plays a critical role in shaping our world and who is given access to flourish in it.
Looking towards the future, Kira users could benefit from a stronger community on the platform, including participation in groups where they can interact and share with other users. Additionally, it would be worth testing an integrated AI chat feature that could answer basic skincare questions, provide reliable resources, and use data on the needs of users to improve skincare content.
