Collectively Hued

Role: Research & UX

Timeline: 11/03/2021- 11/22/2021

A mobile app promoting inclusivity in finding accurate skin toned products.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Women need an accurate way to identify their true skin color online so that they can expedite their purchase decisions on products that are ideal for their skin tone.

BACKGROUND

Hypothesis

Create an app that allows users to assess their skin tone and provide an inclusive marketplace that easily enables the user to find products with their skin tone in mind.

Why

There is a lack of diversity in skin tone products. Only recently has there been an emergence of brands representing a wide range of skin tones, making skin tone products increasingly a market that’s on women’s radar. Yet , still women find this an arduous journey to find the brands and choose the products that best match them .

**A chart of nude color choices in retail stores From nude color options stock over the past six months, by The EDITED Market Intelligence Platform 2021. Retrieved from** **https://blog.edited.com/blog/lingerie-market.**

**Here are a few clear examples of the lack of variety in shade ranges especially on polar sides of the spectrum.** https://www.voguebusiness.com/beauty/beauty-blind-spot-inclusive-luxury-colour-cosmetics , https://www.insider.com/beauty-blogger-is-analyzing-foundation-shade-ranges-2021-4

Business Opportunities

Promo : This mobile app will be a great opportunity to increase clientele for various brands that cater to skin tone products. Users will be introduced to a plethora of brands, some of which they may not have previously had on their radar.

Trust: Users will have positive (first) impressions with brands having been conveniently color matched to products that accurately match the users skin tone. Making it likely they will be a happy returning customer.

RESEARCH

Competitive Analysis

Before my team had the chance to meet with our stakeholder ;‘Ruth Adu-Gyamfi’, we were given the opportunity to look over a slide deck she provided. Ruth listed two cosmetic apps to research in her slides. We noticed the apps have functions to identify users skin tone and match them with the right cosmetic products. Ruth also mentioned in her slide deck that she wants to include skin tone shoes and tights. So we conducted competitive analysis on 7 cosmetic websites and 1 shoe website that sells skin toned products.

An example from the brand '“Fenty Beauty’s” color matching quiz.

An example of AI on the color matching cosmetic app '‘ Microskin”.

We found that there are two ways of assessing users’ skin tone. The first way is Using camera to scan user’s face and the AI will determine their skin tone. The second way is through a written quiz with pictures or shade swatches for users to use as references.

At the end of the assessments, the websites suggest products that match the assessment result. All assessments lead to a specific type of product. They either help users find makeup or shoes, but never all of them at once. We saw an opportunity to create an app that assess users skin tone and help them buy all skin tone related products

User screener survey

We surveyed 32 women who either purchase or are interested in skin toned products.

After gathering interview candidates and data from our survey we formulated research questions to guide us in asking the right interview questions .

Project Scope

Who are the target users?

What are the most common product(s) that people are shopping for with their skin tone in mind?

How are people currently shopping for products with their skin tone in mind?

Are people shopping for nude products? If so, what challenges do they face when searching for nude products?

We interviewed 11 women who met the requirements above and range from light to dark. At the end of each interview we carried out usability tests on competitive sites including ; ‘Kahmune , Maybelline, Nude Barre, and Nubian Skin’. All of which provide a color matching to their products

Insights

Users feel frustrated by a lack of variety in color swatches provided while taking quizzes
Users shop for nude undergarments and makeup more than they shop for clothing and shoes.
Users are unhappy with the amount of time it takes shopping for products that match their skin tone.

PERSONAS

CONCEPT

User Flow

Style Guide

Sketch Evolution

Testing & Iteration

A simple yet important iteration we made was adding a “Show me examples” to one of the questions we had on the quiz. A lot of users emphasized how difficult it is for them to determine their vein color so we added a “show me examples” button that would show users some real life examples of what the veins would look like on a human wrist.

**Users were confused when the favorite button couldn’t be found on the card so a favorite button was added to the top right corner of each product card.**

When users were asked to identify the location of where they would find their shade library, their first thought was that it would lie in the “collections” tab, just because of the name itself. To reduce the confusion, we renamed the navigation tab to favorites.

One of the main iterations we made was the appearance of the shade swatch users will be using to drag around their picture. We originally had a circle that users would need to place their finger over to drag around which the user will not know where it would end up on the screen. To address this issue, we added a draggable circle below the shade swatch so that users would be easily be able to tell where their shade swatch is going. In addition, empty space was included in them middle of the shade swatch so that users can more easily compare their shades to the swatch color.

**The first screen made it seem like the individual shade swatches were clickable so we came up with a solution to provide a single bar gradient.**

Another iteration we made was to the shade library where users can refer back to their shade results from the shade finder quiz. Instead of having the Instagram story circles up on the top to view shades, we decided to convert them into clickable cards because for the first iteration, if the name for the shade was longer, users would not be able to quickly tell the name of the shade.

OUTCOME

Deliverables

Design of a hi-fi clickable prototype Illustrating the concept of a mobile app.
Thorough research and testing reports to support prototype designs.
A presentation to pitch the design.

Summary

We live in a time where women are more beauty conscious. Women want to feel and look their best in confidence. This project highlights through thorough and empathetic research how convenient and comprehensive color matching and shopping can be from the comfort of your phone. Giving the user various options to determine their skin tone:

whether they want the product(s) to match a foundation shade they have already been matched to.
take a quiz asking about their unique undertone and offering various shade swatches to identify with .
Or using the camera feature to compare swatches side by side to their skin.

FUTURE ROAD MAP

Gamification (rewards for posting reviews, filling in profile details, etc.)
Complementary color matching service
More advanced AI/camera
Virtual try on
More usability testing
More interviews