Gloh
Mobile app designed for helping users curate their skincare.
Overview
The skincare market has grown rapidly in recent years with the promotion of healthier lifestyles. The focus on beauty is shifting towards skin care due to the trend of a more natural appearance. The oversaturation of what products are available can be overwhelming for consumers to decide what to purchase.
Problem
There are too many options making it difficult for consumers to create a skincare routine tailored for their needs.
Solution
Design a mobile app that offers recommended skincare products for the user.
Market Research
Global Market Size
Competitive Analysis
The objective for competitive analysis was to get familiar with the beauty industry so that I had a better idea of what other companies are already doing. This information was important in the beginning stage in order to get insight on industry standards and where the strengths and weaknesses are of other companies. The first three companies Troveskin, Charm, and Think Dirty are direct competitors as Curology is an indirect competitor of Gloh. The direct competitors are skincare routine apps which allows users to create routines based on many different brands. Curology has the same motivation to help users with skincare, but they accomplish this by personalizing a routine with their own products.
Interviews
Get a better understanding of user behavior and insight on goals, needs, frustrations, and pain points when forming a skincare routine
Questions
What motivated you to start a skincare routine?
Tell me about your current skin care routine.
How did you decide what products to buy?
Insights and Needs
People feel that there are too many options to choose from.
People need to be able to filter products
People chose products that suit their skin type and concerns.
People need personal recommendations
Persona
Jane is a teacher that lives in LA. She is 29 years old, single, and has no kids. She is tech savvy and spends a lot of time with friends and family.
Goals
Wants to improve skin health
Prevent breakouts and wrinkles
Buy the right products
Frustrations
No time to research
Trying new skincare products
Doesn’t know skin type
POV and HMW
Using the insights and needs from the data I collected, I created POV statements to validate my insights. Then, to frame my questions in order to brainstorm solutions, I turned the needs into questions. This will ensure that I have the user’s needs in mind.
Brainstorm
Using the HMW questions, I wrote down each question on a page. I used the findings from the competitive analysis and browsed similar websites to help inspire my brainstorming activity. Once I had several ideas written down I set that aside so that I could start to define my goals.
Project Goals
Here I have defined the business goals, user needs, and technical constraints in a venn-diagram to help visualize their relationship and ensure that both business and user goals are being met.
Product Roadmap
After completing the brainstorming exercises, I was able to list out the solutions using Airtable to make a feature roadmap. Using Airtable allowed me to prioritize the solutions and provide a description of each feature for other stakeholders to use as a reference. It was also important to refer to the shared project goals which are to have seamless navigation, create a skincare routine, and to have accessible information.
Sitemap
I decided to split the navigation menu into three main screens to be minimalistic. This is important to establish before creating any flows in order to have an information architecture and using it as a reference to create the paths. I used the Spotify app for their ability to organize their many features in three main screens.
Task Flow
Once I had the information architecture of the site, I was able to use it as a guide to create a task flow. I referred back to the user’s needs to create 3 tasks which I could use to create the prototype. The tasks will prompt the user to complete the skincare quiz, look through the product screen, and read the reviews for a product.
User Flow
The task flow showed me what screens would be necessary to create for the prototype but I also created a user flow to get the user’s perspective on how they will navigate through the site. I used the same tasks but focused on the different decision points the user might have to make as they complete the tasks.
Sketches
I referred to the flows to create the screens necessary to complete each task. I made quick sketches on the different ways I could create the screen and organize the different features.
High Fidelity Wireframes
TEST PARTICIPANTS
TASKS
Task 1: Log into your account
Opinion Scale: How was the process of logging in?
Task 2: Find the top rated acne product
Task 3: Find the reviews
Open Question: How was the process of finding the reviews for the top rated product?
Task 4: Add the product to your current skincare routine
Open Question: Is there anything that you would change during that process?
Task 5: Take the skincare quiz
You are 25 with oily, acne prone skin and want to feel more confident. How can you find a more personalized list of products to add to your routine? Take a quick look at the cleansers.
Open Question: Did you have any difficulty navigating through the app?
Test Results
A majority of the screens did well and had at least a 90% success rate, though below are some of the screens that performed poorly. The login screen had many clicks outside of the “Log in” button. It seems like maybe users were not able to clearly see the button due to not having an outline. There was a 70% misclick rate for the home screen and users were not able to easily find the button for the “skincare quiz”.
Iteration
I switched the “Log in” and “Sign up free” buttons because many of the users clicked the other buttons on the screen. It could have also been an issue caused by the touch target on the prototype was too small.
User Testing
Adding the “Skincare Quiz” to the home screen should help the users find that feature easier. I thought it would make sense on this page because it is one of the most important features on the app. I also decided to redesign the personalized modal because weather can impact the way user’s approach their skincare.
The last change I made was the view of the reviews. Even though it had 100% success rate for testing, I decided to change it based on best practices instead of it’s performance. Instead of having the dropdown, it would automatically be shown on the same page in order to minimize clicking and reducing the amount of hidden information. Th
Conclusion
Reflection
It was a challenge to create the branding from scratch and identifying the MVP. Through my research, I was able to easily define the scope of the project from the data collected from the market and interviews. I was able to create a product that served both the user and business goals. I really enjoyed the challenge of creating the UI from scratch and was really inspired to create a minimal app that helped users to create a skincare routine with products that they love.
Next Steps
Complete the app by creating the rest of the screens and conducting another user test with the updated changes.