Olive
An all-in-one, personalized skin care assistant that helps people achieve their skincare goals.
Background
Olive serves as an all-in-one skincare assistant, guiding and empowering individuals to achieve their unique skincare goals.
Olive is a personal passion project that allowed us to delve into a captivating case study and elevate our UX skills.
My Role
I conducted interviews, surveys, created the Nadia persona, created the onboarding quiz and skin tracker wireframes and conducted usability tests.
Timeline
Sep 2021 - Dec 2021
Tools
Figma, Google surveys
The Challenge
Many people struggle with staying consistent with their routines, finding the right skincare products, and establishing an effective skincare regimen, preventing them from reaching their skincare goals.
The Final Outcome
Our team developed a comprehensive skincare assistant that offers a personalized and streamlined experience, addressing all skincare barriers. The app utilizes an onboarding quiz to capture user data, providing tailored product recommendations and routine suggestions. With features such as a skincare diary and analytics, users gain insights into product effectiveness and factors influencing their skin. The routine audit assesses the effectiveness of their current skincare routines in meeting personal goals and addressing skin type
Research Insights
Our research phase consisted of semi-structured interviews and surveys to explore the skincare landscape and get a deeper understanding of what people struggle with and what their motivations are. These insights will help determine our design direction and ensure that we create a product that addresses what our user’s needs are.
SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
So we know there is a problem but we are unsure what are the underlying reasons to why people struggle with achieving their skincare goals. Therefore, we decided to talk to real users to dive deep into their current experience to uncover some of these reasons. We explored people's experiences in discovering products, crafting skincare routines, and following through with their skincare regimens. To gain a comprehensive understanding, we intentionally engaged with a diverse group of participants, considering varying levels of experience, skincare interests, and lifestyles to capture the full spectrum of challenges and desires people encounter.
SURVEY
We wanted to validate the findings from our interviews, while also determining the priority of pain points, needs, and goals by analyzing the insights with the highest response rates.
Our team distributed surveys to 36 users to collect valuable insights regarding their skincare challenges, goals, and motivations. We utilized a mixture of close-ended and open-ended questions.
Main Findings
People don’t understand what the product ingredients are and what they do.
People want to understand what the ingredients in their products are and what skincare issues they target without having to search up each ingredient individually.
Challenging to create an effective, simple routine.
Many people want a straightforward skincare routine that works for them but find it difficult to choose the right products. As a result, they often buy a lot of items they never end up using.
Choice paralysis from overwhelming amount of information on skincare.
People often get overwhelmed by the flood of skincare advice online and have trouble deciding what to follow. Furthermore, they find that a lot of the information contradicts itself.
Difficult to commit to product, especially if they aren’t sure if it’s working.
People don't always know if a product is working as intended, which can make it challenging for them to stay committed to using it.
Humanizing Our Data
After finishing up our research, we wanted to humanize our data in order to create solutions tailored to. our users. We created four different archetypes that represented the users we spoke to. This provided more context surrounding the data and allowed us to use as a reference point throughout the design process.
Design Requirements
Extracting the commonalities from the research insights, 6 unique design requirements were then outlined to help focus down on what aspects the re-design would embody.
01
Onboarding Quiz
Create an onboarding quiz that asks people essential questions about their skin, current regimen, skincare goals, concerns, and product preferences. This brief quiz fosters a personalized experience, narrowing down choices and tailoring recommendations to meet individual needs.
02
Skincare Tracker
Users can add photos, notes, and product usage details to track their skincare progress, addressing their need to assess the effectiveness of their products and routine.
03
Product Profile Page
Our platform offers a comprehensive profile page, catering to users' specific skincare preferences and desires. This includes detailed information about ingredients and their corresponding effects, allowing users to make informed decisions about their skincare products..
05
Routine Audit
Our platform evaluates a user's current skincare routine based on its effectiveness in addressing their skincare goals, compatibility with their skin type, and alignment with their lifestyle. This assessment assigns grades to provide users with valuable insights into how well their routine caters to their unique needs.
04
Routine Builder
The routine builder seamlessly integrates new products t a user's current skincare regimen, suggesting product layering and personalized routine recommendations. Additionally, it proactively notifies users of crucial information relevant to their skincare, ensuring they stay informed and make the most out of their skincare journey.
06
Community Feed
Our platform facilitates a community-driven experience, allowing users to share personal experiences, interact with one another, and access a wealth of additional information. This sense of community enhances the overall skincare journey, fostering support and a sense of togetherness.
Quick Sketches
After figuring out what we needed for our design, each of us picked a feature and sketched it quickly. We wanted to get our ideas down fast to create a general concept and save time when we start making detailed wireframes.
Detailing Architecture
After determining the features of our application, we wanted to have a clear visualization of how user’s would navigate throughout the application. In order to do this, we created a sitemap that shows how different pages and content are related with one another. This site map allows us to make smart decisions about page hierarchy and layout, understand where users will go and how they will use our app, and save time and resources when making the wireframes.
Medium - Fidelity Prototypes
We implemented the findings from our usability test and leveraged the existing Get Green Style Guide to create the interactive medium-fidelity prototypes.
ONBOARDING QUIZ
A personalized experience offers customized product recommendations and skincare regimens to assist individuals in achieving their specific skincare goals and creating a simple, effective routine. An efficient onboarding quiz efficiently gathers all the essential data required for personalization.
SKINCARE TRACKER
The skincare tracker features a daily prompt that asks individuals about their skin condition, the products they have used, hours of sleep, water intake, and other pertinent details. Based on this information, a concise analytics summary demonstrates the impact of each factor on the person's skin. This enables individuals to identify what works and what doesn't, while also motivating them to maintain consistency by showcasing their progress.
COMMUNITY
The platform includes a community page that serves as a gathering place for individuals to discuss their skincare products, regimens, recommendations, and the challenges they encounter. Creating a sense of community not only makes the skincare experience less intimidating but also offers alternative sources of information and support. Users can connect, share experiences, and seek guidance from fellow skincare enthusiasts, fostering a collaborative and empowering environment.
PRODUCT PROFILE
The product profile provides users with the most sought-after information about their skincare products, such as details on key ingredients and their respective benefits.
ROUTINE BUILDER
Users can effortlessly add a product to their skincare routine by simply scanning it, ensuring proper layering and addressing the challenge of knowing when to use each product.
ROUTINE AUDIT
The routine audit evaluates the user's current skincare regimen to determine its effectiveness in addressing their specific skincare needs and goals. It offers valuable insights into what is working well and areas that require improvement. Additionally, the routine audit provides recommendations for any missing products that could enhance the overall routine.
Usability Testing
We came up with our features based on what we thought would best solve our users' problems. But we wanted to make sure they actually liked and found them useful. So, we reached out to five people from our user group and had them try out each feature by doing some tasks. Afterward, we asked them questions to get their thoughts on how easy it was to navigate, how everything looked, and if the features actually worked. We also kept track of how satisfied they were, any big mistakes they made, and just general observations. With all that feedback, we made some tweaks to our fancy prototypes.
Key Insights
ONBOARDING QUIZ
Term’s like “Clean Beauty” were unclear to some users. Make terminology more user friendly.
Ethnicity options were not inclusive (i.e South Asian vs East Asian). Expanded the ethnicity options.
COMMUNITY
Adding posts did not seem intuitive to some users.
SKINCARE TRACKER
Made daily check in multi-paged rather than having it all on one screen, per user's complaint around scrolling.
Add Period Tracker for user’s who menstruate since menstruation cycles affect skin.
ROUTINE AUDIT
User’s wanted more clarity on why they received the score they did. Offer more detailed information on the reasoning behind score.
PRODUCT PROFILE
Icons were unclear to users. Add labels to icons.
User’s desired more information on product like expiration date and volume.
What I would do next.
This project helped us identify the pain points and needs in users' skincare experiences, which was crucial for developing a product with the right features to tackle those challenges. But here's the thing, we can't assume that users will behave exactly as we expect. For example, will people actually keep up with the daily skincare prompts or will they lose interest after a couple of weeks and give up on the app altogether? How can we offer alternative solutions for users who struggle to stay consistent?
To find answers to these important questions and truly cater to our users' behavior, we should consider conducting a diary study. This would allow us to observe how the product fits into their daily routines since it requires daily engagement to be effective. By understanding their interactions, uncovering hidden patterns, and addressing their unmet needs, we can create a tool that seamlessly integrates into their lives and helps them achieve their goals.
UX is an ongoing journey of learning and improvement. It's not just about creating a product and hoping users will stick with it. We want to deeply understand our users and design an experience that truly resonates with them.
What I would have done differently.
When we embarked on this project, our UI experience was limited, and we relied on design systems from the community feature in Figma to create the UI elements. In hindsight, I recognize the importance of dedicating more time and thought to the UI aspect. If given another opportunity, I would consider starting with an atomic design system template and customizing certain UI elements to align better with our objectives. I would also conduct research on common UI best practices and guidelines, paying close attention to details such as the appropriate usage of primary and secondary buttons, grids, headers, and ensuring consistency in color choices. These refinements would contribute to a more cohesive and polished UI. I am currently working on a re-design of the U