SkinQuest, A Conceptual Mobile Skincare App for Men
Timeline
2 Weeks, Aug 2020 (Remote)
Team
Maher Khadim | Bonny Ma | Abigail Nanquil
My Role
Research, Experience Design,
Visual Design
Methodologies
Agile Method, Screener Surveys, User Interviews, Competitive Brand Matrix, Persona, Journey Map, MoSCoW Map, Sketching, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing
Tools
Figma, Miro, Keynote, Zoom, Photoshop
Overview
What is SkinQuest?
SkinQuest is a conceptual skincare mobile app designed to help men start and maintain a skincare routine. There is a gap in the market for that since skincare is predominately catered towards women as their primary audience. Men who want to start a skincare routine feel alienated from the options available and feel overwhelmed when doing research.
Proposal
We focused on a problem space in which we were going to solve for and then present it to internal stakeholders.
This project gave our team the chance to identify an opportunity within a problem space, select an appropriate platform and design a solution for it. We were given a brief in which we acted as the UX design team at an agency. We presented our research and final prototype to internal stakeholders in our agency and they decide if our idea is ready to be green-lit for development.
We made a competitive brand matrix to show where our app would fit into the current market landscape of skincare apps. Our app lives in the area of being informational as well as being personalized for our user.
We chose the iOS mobile platform as it is convenient for the user to use anywhere such as when shopping for skincare products, in the bathroom using those products, or when traveling. It is faster to design because of the available design resources.
Our opportunity statement: We will improve the experience of starting and maintaining a skincare routine for men. The user struggles today because many different options on the market are geared towards women, with confusing lingo that makes them unsure if it’s the right product for them and their skin.
Research
Screener surveys helped us get the right users to interview for. In our interviews, we were seeking to understand men’s experience with skincare and mobile app usage.
We used Google Forms to send out a short screener survey to a total of 30 people. This would allow us to select the people that matched our criteria for interviewing which was:
They had to be male
Have some interest in skincare.
From 30 survey responses, we reached out and interviewed 10 people.
In our interviews, we were looking to understand men’s skincare routine, as well as their experience and frustrations with the process. We also went back and asked our users additional questions about app usage on their mobile devices.
We synthesized data from our interviews by affinity mapping on Miro. This allowed us to identify themes and trends that were common amongst all the people that we interviewed. These insights helped us to develop our persona. This is important because it helps guide our decisions about the product we are building and who we are building for.
Redefined problem: The skincare industry today is predominantly catered towards women as their primary audience. Men who are interested in starting a skincare routine feel alienated from the options available, and feel overwhelmed when doing research. How might we help improve Jake’s experience of starting and maintaining a skincare routine?
Design
We used the MoSCoW and Design Studio method to help us ideate solutions for our app.
We utilized the MoSCoW method to prioritize features that are the most valuable for our user as well as take into consideration the most important metrics on the business side of development for our app. We ideated potential features that address our user’s pain points that we identified in our research.
We focused on features in the ‘Must’ and ‘Should’ quadrant for our app:
Simple onboarding: provide a simple and easy way to onboard user
Skin quiz: give a personalized routine for user and do the research/work for them so they don’t have to spend so much time and effort and feel frustrated as they try to figure out a skincare routine that’s right for them
Reward system: provide deals/discounts and keep them coming back to this “game” experience
Routine builder: show them exactly what to do and what to use and check off their routine as another way to earn points
Daily reminders: provide accountability for user
Tiered pricing model: users are budget-conscious so offer them 3 different price points
Reviews: provided as a way for user to read other’s experience with a product who have similar skin type as him
The top priorities coming out of this map helped us in the next step for design studio.
We used the design studio method as a way for product innovation through a collaborative design process. We rapidly generate as many solutions and focus our design around our users’ specific problems.
Usability Testing
Our mid-fi prototype gave us feedback on how usable our app was.
We made mid-fi wireframes and prototyped it for usability testing. This shows the structure and content hierarchy so we can test how easy and intuitive it is to use the app. We tested with 4 users and all of them successfully accomplished all tasks with feedback for improvement.
Changes to make:
• Make check boxes bigger on the homepage so it is easily clickable.
• Make a more obvious distinction for AM and PM section in routine builder page by tweaking copy.
• One user suggested adding the reminder time to the home page as well.
• Half of the users accessed the rewards page through the bottom navigation and the other half accessed it on the homepage in the ‘My Rewards’ box.
• Users mentioned the rewards feature caught their attention as a cool way of showing progress.
High-Fidelity Mockups
We iterated on our wireframes and made a high-fidelity mock-up for the app to bring our designs to life.
We prototyped and usability tested in the hi-fi and 5/5 users were successfully able to accomplish all tasks.
• Two users expected the “My Products” photos on the home page would bring them to the Products page to view more information
• Two users expected to edit the morning/evening routine from the home page cards (pressed sun/moon icons or wanted to click on the time)
Outcomes and Takeaways
Our team presented privately to two stakeholders in a professional conversation format and got the green-lit approval for development.
I learned that design sprints are a good way to minimize risk and test if a new product/idea works in a short amount of time.