Does this sound familiar? You're not alone. 😉 Inspired by the many women in my life that have encountered this very saying and presumably said it to me directly, I thought to myself— also as someone fighting troubled skin and constantly testing new products— why isn't there an app that can keep track of your skincare routine and products so that you can have a point of reference before your next product purchase or can offer any suggestions to other friends or family who may be experiencing the same skin concerns?
The concept of this app was initially sparked by the above idea and a thought that people would be interested in learning more about the k-beauty 10-step routine— a global phenomenon of "having the right products that do the right things and using them in the right order." I wanted to understand what was important to skincare enthusiasts and what the process looked like for anyone looking for the 'right' product before their next purchase, which would ultimately drive the direction and brand positioning of this app.
Design Thinking Process
UNDERSTAND
Taking a deeper look into the skincare consumer
I started off with an assumption that people who are interested in skincare would find a need to track their routines and products so I initiated my design process by launching a 13 question survey and conducted a couple 1-on-1 user interviews with skincare enthusiasts to get to know a little bit more about their relationship with skincare to help validate this idea.
By asking open-ended questions, I was hoping to receive general feedback on user habits, needs, wants, motivations, and frustrations surrounding their skincare journey:
With a study on over 55 participants, I was able to uncover these high-level insights:
people don't find a need to track their routines because of the nature of a routine– already ingrained in their memory for what steps to follow
reviews are the most important thing people look at when in market for a new product, followed by the effectiveness of the product on particular skin types
people are motivated to try a new product or routine if recommended by family/friends/others with similar skin type and concerns
majority are occasionally engaged within the skincare community when they're looking to discover new products
majority stay engaged through friends & family, and social channels: YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, and TikTok (top 5 in order)
people find the ingredients used in their products too confusing and complex to understand and don't know what ingredients improves what
peopledon't find a need to track their routines because of the nature of a routine— steps to follow are already ingrained in their memory
reviews are the most important things people look at when in market for a new product followed by the effectiveness of the product on particular skin types
people are motivated to try a new product or routine if recommended by family/friends/others with similar skin type and concerns
majority are occasionally engaged within the skincare community when they're looking to discover new products
majority stay engaged through friends & family, and social channels:YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, and TikTok (top 5 in order)
people find the ingredients used in their products too confusing and complex to understand and don't know what ingredients improves what
Target audience, trends, viable opportunity for this app?
Next, I moved into secondary research to understand the current skincare market to help further validate the opportunity and market for a skincare app. I found that:
skincare market continues to grow YoY (year over year), estimated to reach $200.25 billion in 2026 with Asia Pacific holding the largest market share and fastest growth rate
rise of 'skinfluencers' with a growing younger consumer base and Gen Z & Millennial generational groups that are heavily influenced by YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok
widespread notion of maintaining healthy skin with more focus on skincare and self-care routines as a result of spending more time at home due to COVID-19
growing demand for personalized skincare with companies now recommending a personalized set of products to consumers and targeting consumers more personally
I also wanted to understand the competitive landscape to get a sense of design patterns and features other brands are offering as potential possibilities for this app to include or opportunity to fill in any gaps.
DEFINE
Redefining the problem and crafting the job statement
Through these research findings, the initial idea of curating an app solely for routine/product tracking and incorporating an educational 10-step routine process didn't quite fit the bill. People didn't find the need to track their routines or motivated to switch up their routines and if they did, the 10-step trend was not among the answers.
Instead, it was important for users to be able to, at a minimum, receive recommendations aligned to their skin type and read trusted reviews to make a well-informed decision prior to their next skincare product purchase. I created the following persona of June to re-define the problem space and identify key features to expand on in the app.
Meet June
June is in her 20s and is conscious of the types of products she uses on her skin as someone with a mix of dry and sensitive skin. She's motivated to try new products if they're recommended for her skin type and concerns, especially if it's from her friends and family who have similar skin troubles. She would like to be able to understand the ingredients, but finds it difficult to understand the scientific names and how the ingredients are beneficial for her. She understands that everyone's skin is different, so reading reviews are a must for her prior to purchasing any new products. She likes to discover new products or tips/trends to try through social platforms like YouTube and Instagram.
IdeatION
Path to the solution from HMW to wireflows
Based on June's job statement and JTBD features, I began to ideate solutions that could address her needs through the HMW methodology.
How might we...?
How might we enable a way to share and receive product recommendations geared towards her specific skin type?
How might we enable a way to showcase reviews?
How might we make it easier for June to understand the benefits of certain ingredients for her skin type?
How might we enable June to discover new products?
Solution attributes:
Incorporate a series of onboarding questions that can personalize the home screen to each user that serves as a discovery point for new products suitable for their skin type alongside other discovery aspects– brands, ingredients, and latest from skinfluencers
Implement a seamless share and receive recommendation process by including a share with a message button for each individual product and include an entry point to receive and read the messages
Include a product search option for users to discover products
Highlight ingredient details in a more digestable way by separating out what ingredients are beneficial for what skin type and skin concerns
Provide users with the option to save down product recommendations
For a more detailed look behind each of the features on the wireframes, check it out here!
Seamlessly integrate onboarding questions that can help personalize product recommendations and directly incorporate a share feature for each product
Beyond a 5 star rating, include skin type, age, length of time used, pros and cons of product
Use visual icons to represent what concerns the ingredients addresses and how that is compatible to your skin type
Incorporate an onboarding question that asks what type of content the user is interested in to help curate a selection on the homepage
I focused on designing a a couple key flows to guide the user from:
log in to onboarding to adding a friend
searching a product and sharing to a friend
opening up a message recommendation to stashing the product to wishlist
Branding and UI
I wanted the overall brand to be soothing, inviting, and reliable to use since it's grounded on the concept of sharing and receiving trusted recommendations. Based on these attributes, I kept to a color gradient of blue and orange with the intention of leaning more gender neutral.
I liked how the name Yori flowed nicely with your, and tied in nicely with the concept of personalization and how everyone's skincare journey is unique in their own way, which eventually led to the catchphrase of 'Your Skin. Your Way.' Inspired by Matisse's coral and line abstract paintings, I created the logo to showcase a face shape and Yori. If you look very closely, you'll see Yori spelled out!
Prototype
An intuitive flow to meet your skincare needs
Onboarding
Users are presented with various options to log in and allows for FB log in to help easily sync with friends to tie in sharing aspect of the app & to increase level of trustworthiness. For onboarding, users are presented with 5 different questions regarding their skin type, skin concerns, product attributes, skincare content, and ingredients they care about.
Onboarding
Users are presented with various options to log in and allows for FB log in to help easily sync with friends to tie in friend sharing aspect of the app & to increase level of trustworthiness. For onboarding, users are presented with 5 different questions regarding their skin type, skin concerns, product attributes, skincare content, and ingredients they care about.
Home Screen
June's home screen is partially personalized based on her answers from the onboarding questions, specifically on the sections related to product recommendations and the 'latest from skinfluencers' content. To help users store their product recommendations (if they desire to), users have a 'my product stash' section where they're able to save any products they've been recommended into curated lists of their choice.
Search Product
Users can easily search for product through the product tab on the bottom nav bar accompanied by products icons for a quicker product category search
Search Product
Users can easily search for product through the product tab on the bottom nav bar accompanied by products icons for a quicker product category search
Share Product
Each product is accompanied by a product detail page that includes a more digestible layout to the ingredients that breaks down what ingredients in the product are beneficial for what skin types, concerns, and attributes in products users may be looking for. Reviews, as indicated from research, plays a big part in the consumer journey towards purchase, so each page includes an option to leave a review and read reviews from others. Users have the choice to stash or to share the product to others.
Receive and Stash
Once users receive a recommendation from other friends, the messages tab will indicate the user has a message. Each message is accompanied by a product image and CTA to view the product. If users like what they see and want to try the product out for themselves next time, they can stash into a list for view later.
Receive and Stash
Once users receive a recommendation from other friends, the messages tab will indicate the user has a message. Each message is accompanied by a product image and CTA to view the product. If users like what they see and want to try the product out for themselves next time, they can stash into a list for view later.
TEST
Validating designs through usability testing
I conducted a total of 12 usability tests both in-person and unmoderated via Maze. The app was well-received with all participants finding the onboarding questions helpful in personalizing the home screen and felt that the current experience was mostly seamless and enjoyable. Participants also expressed positive sentiment surrounding the friend share feature, product stashes, ingredient details, and the use of icons.
However, there were some usability confusions surrounding the home screen, product detail page, and the stash CTA button, in which I prioritized with revisions below.
Before
Improved HomE ScreEN
The home screen was reorganized to prioritize the personalized matches and to clearly indicate the discover aspect of the app. The new overarching discover section houses all the various sub-sections such as friends (bringing it higher up in priority as users felt it was hard to locate earlier), included a notification on how to use the new stash'em heart button (users were confused by the 'stash' verbiage) and weaved in an entry point to view friend profiles to see friends' product stashes as users expected that to be a feature.
After
Improved HomE ScreEN
The home screen was reorganized to prioritize the personalized matches and to clearly indicate the discover aspect of the app. The new overarching discover section houses all the various sub-sections such as friends (bringing it higher up in priority as users felt it was hard to locate earlier), included a notification on how to use the new stash'em heart button (users were confused by the 'stash' verbiage) and weaved in an entry point to view friend profiles to see friends' product stashes as users expected that to be a feature.
Before
After
Before
INTUITIVE Buttons
Users were confused by the original 'stash' button as 'stash' is not a commonly used term. To fix this and to reprioritize share as the primary function, share was expanded to the full width of the screen and the stash button was changed to a heart as it is more universally recognized as a way to add to favorites or to save.
After
INTUITIVE Buttons
Users were confused by the original 'stash' button as 'stash' is not a commonly used term. To fix this and to reprioritize share as the primary function, share was expanded to the full width of the screen and the stash button was changed to a heart as it is more universally recognized as a way to add to favorites or to save.
Before
After
Before
Added VIsuAL Feedback
Users were slightly confused by the lack of visual feedback after adding a product to their stash. To help combat this, a done button and post-interaction snackbar was added to signal to the user that the action has been completed.
After
Added VIsuAL Feedback
Users were slightly confused by the lack of visual feedback after adding a product to their stash. To help combat this, a done button and post-interaction snackbar was added to signal to the user that the action has been completed.
Before
After
Final prototype
Closing thoughts
Two of the biggest takeaways I learned from this project was learning how to combat your cognitive bias on an initial idea and to pivot when your research tells you otherwise (that your assumed solution might not be as useful as you think). Because this was an end-to-end app that involved additional branding and positioning, learning what areas to prioritize and to streamline was important in order to meet the established time constraint for this conceptual project.
Through usability testing, I was happy to see the positive reactions from participants and their direct input on the usefulness of the features that helped validate this app's proposition, but it also revealed other aspects of the app that fell short and were non-conclusive. If I was to expand on this project, I would have liked to ideate and do more testing on:
price point and where to purchase the product (this was mentioned by users during usability testing as an important need and expectation, but did not prioritize as a revision due to complexity around it)
friend suggestion and adding process beyond Facebook integration
discovering products through the curated content feed on the home screen
option to view friend profiles and what they're using (I touched on this by adding a my profile and friend's profile screen in the enhanced prototype as an initial exploration)
At times, this app felt like it could have gone many different directions (and still can) and I felt lost in the possibilities, but I've learned that similarly to skincare, there's no one-product-solution fits all and you can't be everything to everyone. Being able to this build this app from scratch was quite the experience and fun passion project that sparked from a place close to home.
