CutisCare

A comprehensive end-to-end mobile application designed to provide women with personalized holistic skincare routines

View Prototype

Role

UX/ UI Designer

Responsibilities

User Research

UI Design & Prototyping

User Testing & Iterations

Tools

Figma, FigJam, Discord

Timeline

Jun - Oct 2024

Background on the skin care industry

Skincare is growing faster than any other sector of the beauty and wellness industry, contributing to 44% of the total industry. The global skincare market, valued at $146.7 billion in 2021, is projected to reach $273.3 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 6.7%. Increasing investments in the research & development of skin care products, have encouraged manufacturers to launch new products.

With the growing number of products, personalization is booming as well. Around 72% of consumers seek products tailored to their unique skin types and requirements.

Additionally, as consumers focus more on their overall skin health, holistic wellness, including lifestyle, nutrition, and habits, has gained traction as people look beyond topical treatments.

Why CutisCare?

As the skincare market continues to grow, consumers are presented with an overwhelming array of choices, often leading to confusion.

While the trend toward personalization has given rise to skincare routine builder apps tailored to specific skin types and needs, most of these apps primarily focus on product recommendations. This narrow approach overlooks other critical factors that contribute to overall skin health. Additionally, many of these recommendations are tied to specific brands, limiting the variety of options available.

CutisCare aims to help consumers achieve their skin care goals by recommending holistic skincare routines and helping them achieve consistency in following them.

Additionally, having personally struggled with skin issues for nearly a decade without finding an effective solution, this challenge feels deeply personal and resonates strongly with me.

Business Goal

Create an end-to-end mobile application for women that provides personalized holistic skincare recommendations

Key Features

Personalized Holistic Skincare Recommendations

After completing the two-step onboarding process—which includes a quiz to assess user preferences and an AI Face Analyzer—the app generates a personalized list of product and habit recommendations. Users can then choose the products and habits that best fit their routine and lifestyle.

Some benefits of this feature are -

Users can get personalized holistic skin care routine recommendations
Users feel less overwhelmed in deciding which products and lifestyle changes will help them achieve their skin goals
Users are free to select products that work best for them from the recommended products, enabling them to make an informed decision

Skin Analysis Report

The AI Face Analyzer creates a detailed skin report, identifying areas for improvement in the user's photo. This helps users understand which areas require special attention and the potential causes behind them.

Some benefits of this feature are -

Users get a detailed report about their skin concerns and possible causes for it
Areas of concern are highlighted on the user’s photo so that the areas that need special attention are clear to the user
Users feel more confident in addressing their skin concerns and closer to achieving their skin goals

Routine Task List

Users can conveniently access their personalized routine task list via the "View Routine" tab. This acts as a quick daily tracker, helping users ensure they've completed all steps of their skincare routine and any newly established habits.

Some benefits of this feature are -

Users can be more consistent with their skincare routine and lifestyle changes
Users will be less likely to miss any steps in their skincare routine
Users can learn the importance and details about each step through the videos added to each step of the routine

Design Thinking Steps

Empathy

Research

To understand the current challenges and opportunities in the skin care industry, I performed primary (user interviews) and secondary (competitor analysis) research.

As part of primary research, I conducted user interviews, to understand user pain points and requirements from the skin care apps.

As part of competitor analysis, I looked into apps trying to solve similar problems. I then analyzed their strengths and areas of improvement.

Competitor Analysis

I conducted a competitor analysis on one direct and two indirect competitors, gathering valuable insights into current trends and patterns in beauty industry apps. This review included both skincare and hair care apps. This step was essential in understanding the competition and identifying features that would set CutisCare apart.

Direct competitor - TroveSkin
Indirect competitors - HairCare, ThinkDirty

TroveSkin

HairCare

THINKDIRTY.

Key Insights

User Interviews

For my primary research, I conducted user interviews where I had the opportunity to talk to five women in the age group of 25-60.

Some of them were new to skincare, while the others had a set skincare routine. Some of them believed more in lifestyle changes for good skin, while others believed using daily skin care products is equally crucial.

Overall, all the participants were interested in creating a holistic skincare routine.

The main focus of the interview was to understand

Existing tools to create a holistic skincare routine
Impediments and challenges in achieving skin care goals using existing tools
Role of community in selecting skin products
Existing tools used to stay consistent with the skincare routine

Key Insights

Define

Research Synthesis

After completing the research, I worked on creating two personas. These personas represent two user groups, one looking for holistic skin care recommendations which forms our primary user group, and the other interested in product recommendations which is our secondary user group.

Personas

I created two personas, Alisha and Jennifer to represent users who use a skin care app to create a holistic skincare routine. Alisha and Jennifer represent two key user groups for my app.

Jennifer represents older women looking for a holistic skincare routine that focuses on both, internal and external factors to improve their skin.

Alisha represents young office-going professional women looking for skin care products that best suit their skin.

Dressing up, keeps me motivated, keeps me going!

Alisha Sen (she/her)

Alisha is a 26-year-old software engineer living in Seattle, Washington. She commutes daily to the office for work. Alisha believes grooming and being presentable is very crucial in boosting her self-confidence. She is new to skincare and wants to start investing in it. Recently she has started noticing some pigmentation on her face. Given the plethora of products available in the market, Alisha feels overwhelmed and confused about what would suit her skin type and requirements. Additionally, she also has highly sensitive skin and very few products work for her.

Motivations
1. Is highly growth-oriented and likes to consistently work on herself
2. Is a problem solver and likes to get to the source of the issues 3. Believes strongly in taking care of herself to maintain her physical and mental well-being

Needs and Expectations
1. An app that can help her get started with skincare and achieve her skin goals
2. An app that would educate her about skin, skin care, products, lifestyle changes, etc.
3. An app that would create a skin care routine personalized to achieve her skin goals

Goals
1. Get personalized product recommendations for her skin to reduce pigmentation
2. Start practicing skincare routine to maintain a healthy and glowing skin
3. Feel beautiful inside out and boost self-confidence

Challenges
1. Feels overwhelmed to select from a large number of products available online
2. Due to sensitive skin, feels unsure and anxious to try new products

Beautiful skin is a sign of a healthy mind and a healthy body.

Jennifer Wang (she/her)

Jennifer is a 34 year old content creator based in Redlands, California. She is a lifestyle vlogger and creates videos daily. Being a public figure she wears makeup regularly to look well groomed on the camera. in her early career, she experimented a lot with different skin care products. However, she now believes in adapting a more holistic approach to improve her skin health. As most of the apps today focus solely on recommending products for skin care she often feels disappointed. She has a busy schedule and does not get enough time to research about lifestyle changes and clean beauty products for a healthy skin.

Motivations
1. Feels motivated to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle for her son
2. Wants to maintain a healthy and beautiful skin as she is a public figure and wants to age gracefully

Needs and Expectations
1. An app that would create a holistic skin care routine personalized to meet her goals
2. The app should recommend lifestyle changes along with clean beauty products for her skin
3. The app should help her stay consistent with the skin care routine and lifestyle changes as she maintains a very busy schedule

Goals
1. Get personalized holistic recommendations for her skin
2. Recommendations that have lesser products and more lifestyle changes
3. To maintain a glow and healthy skin and look glamorous on camera

Challenges
1. Feels exhausted to do all the research needed for creating a holistic skin care routine
2. Finds it difficult stay consistent with new routines or habits

Affinity Mapping

To synthesize my findings from user interviews I worked on affinity mapping. It helped me find common patterns and themes in user pain points, challenges, and preferences.
It consists of two main steps -
1. Gather insights and information from the user interviews
2. Identify common patterns in user pain points, challenges, preferences, etc., and cluster them into different themes

Link to all the insights

Problem Statement

After listing 3 core problem statements and understanding the priority on them, I decided to focus on the following problem to start with

POV
As a woman, who wants to take care of her skin, I want an application that helps me create a holistic skincare routine so that I don’t feel overwhelmed exploring new products and lifestyle changes that don’t suit my skin

HMWs
1. How might we create a personalized holistic skincare routine for women?
2. How might we educate users about skincare without overwhelming them?

Feature Set

I then worked on listing down various features needed for the first MVP. Using the MoSCoW prioritization technique, I grouped the features into different levels of priority. Some of the factors I considered while deciding the priority of the features are user requirements, the overall impact on the business, and the time and effort needed to develop these features.

MUST HAVE

Onboarding Quiz
Login
Sign Up
Face Analyzer
Daily Check List
Products/ Lifestyle Recommendations

SHOULD HAVE

Daily Insights
Resources (Videos, DIYs, Articles etc.)
Community
Reminder for daily checklist
Accountability Tracker

COULD HAVE

Settings
Profile
Daily Skin Logs

WILL NOT HAVE

Journaling
Product Purchase Workflow
Appointment with Dermatologist Workflow

Ideate

Low Fidelity Wireframes

In this step, I sketched key screens for the app, focusing primarily on the home page layout and skincare routine screens—both central to CutisCare. I explored various design options to address the user problems and requirements identified during research.

This step was pivotal in refining my initial concepts, allowing me to think through raw ideas and streamline them as they took shape on paper.

User Flow

To understand the end-to-end user flow for the core app functionality of creating a skin care routine, I created a user flow diagram that shows a set of decisions and actions users will have to take before finally getting skincare routine recommendations. It helped to get a good understanding of the different scenarios and screens I would need to design to handle all use cases.

View User Flow

Site Map

Organizing the content hierarchy and navigation, through a site map helped me get a clear understanding of how the different components of CutisCare would be integrated to give a uniform seamless experience. It helped to lay the foundation for a logical information architecture.

View Site Map

Mid-Fidelity Wireframes

I then digitized and refined my low-fidelity wireframes to create mid-fidelity versions, ensuring greater clarity for user testing.

Testing with low-fidelity wireframes can sometimes confuse participants; unclear sketches may lead users to interpret the designs differently, resulting in less accurate feedback. The refined mid-fidelity wireframes addressed this issue, providing a more precise foundation for testing.

Added below are a few samples for mid-fidelity wireframes.

1) Home (pre onboarding)

This is the home screen layout before the user completes the onboarding process. It consists of 3 key parts - CTA for onboarding, daily skin care tips for educational purposes, and accountability partner to motivate users to be consistent with their routine.

2) Face Analyzer

On this screen, the user is requested for a selfie which is then sent to the AI face analyzer.

3) Skin Analysis Report

Once the AI-based face analyzer has analyzed the skin, it will generate a detailed report on the skin concerns and potential causes.

4) Daily Check List (Habits)

This screen acts as a handy check list to ensure that users feel motivated and stay consistent when building their new habits

5) Routine Saved Confirmation

Once the user completes selection of products and habits to create their holistic skin care routine, the user can save the changes. This confirmation dialogue will show up once the changes have been successfully saved and the skin care routine has been created.

6) Home (post onboarding)

This is the home screen layout after the user completes the onboarding process. It consists of key parts like daily skin care tips, your skin goals, a daily checklist, and accountability partner updates.

7) User Selfie

Once the user has taken a selfie, on this screen the user can choose to retake it if they sense issues with it or submit it for analysis

8) Daily Check List (Products)

This screen acts as is a handy check list to ensure all the steps in the routine are followed and consistency is maintained.

9) Product Selection

On this screen, users can select products that best suit their skin from the recommended products. After selecting all products, they can save the selection. Similarly, users can also select the habits they would like to inculcate and add them to the routine.

Style Guide

After reviewing some existing skincare apps and exploring various color themes for my branding, I decided to keep the overall tone of my app fresh, soothing, warm, and feminine.

I have used a monochromatic color scheme with peach (#ffdac1) being the brand color.

For selecting a brand name, I was looking for a name that conveyed the meaning of the app. I came up with 2 names - CutisCare and GlowDerma. I went with the name CutisCare where cutis means skin in Latin.

High Fidelity Wireframes

After conducting user tests on the mid-fidelity wireframes, I thoroughly analyzed the feedback to identify areas of improvement and implemented changes to enhance usability and functionality. Building on these insights, I transitioned to designing high-fidelity wireframes. I totally worked on two iterations as part of creating the high-fidelity wireframes. This process involved leveraging the established style guide to ensure consistency in typography, color schemes, and component styling while refining the structural layouts from the mid-fidelity wireframes. The high-fidelity wireframes were crafted to provide a polished and visually accurate representation of the final design, incorporating both user feedback and branding guidelines for a seamless user experience.

Testing

Usability Testing Findings

I conducted usability testing on the high-fidelity wireframes, with four participants from the 25-35 age group. Three of the participants were completely new to the app and one of them had participated previously in user interviews in the research phase.

The participants were given three tasks. The main task was for participants to show how they would generate a holistic skincare routine using CutisCare. The remaining tasks were around testing other features of the app like daily checklist etc.

Overall, participants completed all the tasks with or without some guidance.

Key Insights

Priority Revision

Final Prototype

View Prototype in Figma

Next Steps

Another round of usability testing on the final prototype would help immensely to measure if the changes made were successful in solving issues users faced in the usability testing.

Additionally, from my findings in user research, adding the following features as future enhancements would be highly impactful for the users

Dermatologist Appointment

Users trust dermatologists more to address specific skin concerns. Having an in-app option for users to be able to book dermatologist appointments could be an impactful new feature.

Resources Section

Adding a resources section that contains DIY skin care, articles and videos providing detailed information on skin care topics will help to expand the user base further.