Platform for cosmetic product information
Bling helps you make a better decision before you purchase a cosmetic product by giving you all the information you need. We make the information more accessible, efficient, and reliable.
My Contributions
User Research
Strategy
Interaction Design
UI Design
Prototyping
Usability Testing
​
Timeline
Tools
3 Weeks
Figma
Miro
Whimsical
Maze
Challenge
Currently, there is no platform for all the information consumers need when they try to buy a cosmetic or beauty product.
Goals
• Find out what kind of frustrations beauty product consumers are having and solve the problems
• Find out what kind of information people need before they make a purchase
• Build a platform for integrated information of cosmetic products
Process
01 Empathize
Market Research
Competitor Analysis
Survey & User Interview
We began the design process by conducting two research methodologies,
Market Research and Competitive Analysis.
Our research goal was to understand current market trends and analyze the major competitors to determine their strengths and weaknesses.
It helped us find out how we can improve the user experience of our product.
"Globally, the Cosmetic industry is strong and only getting stronger"
Market Research
How big is the beauty industry?
Up from $483B in 2020 to $511B in 2021 - and with an annual compounded growth rate of 4.75% worldwide - it’s predicted to exceed $716B by 2025. And $784.6B by 2027.
Presently, cosmetics have become an indispensable feature of the modern lifestyle of individuals
Growing consumer preference towards 'cruelty-free' and 'plant-based' products stimulated by ethical-led choices, involving personal care products. Consumers are drawn towards 'natural' , 'safe', and 'vegan' products
Several studies underscore the importance of customer reviews for internet sales. According to one source, 61% of customers read online reviews. Another source found that 90% of consumers read reviews before making an online purchase
Currently, there is no platform that provides all the information and functions that consumers need
Competitive Analysis
.png)
Insight
Currently, there is no platform that provides all the information and functions that consumers need before purchasing cosmetics.
There are platforms that provide similar functions, but they provide limited information and functions and are not responsive.
Also, in the absence of these services, there are other platforms that consumers currently use to obtain information. However, since these are platforms for selling goods or other services, information is limited and functions are significantly lacking.
Only 16.5 % of people are completely satisfied with the service they’re currently using
Survey
A survey was done to have a better understanding of customers’ needs, motivations, frustrations, and preferences. 95 people participated in the survey
Findings
• People use internet search when they’re looking for information about a beauty product
• The most used platforms are Youtube, Google search, and Sephora
• 76 % of people said they use these platforms looking for product reviews
• Only 16.5 % of people are completely satisfied with the service they’re currently using
Consumers want to make a better decision
User Interview
We interviewed 14 people who are consumers of cosmetic products to understand how the customers think and discover their pain points and needs.
​
12 out of 14 people said they've been disappointed in a cosmetic product they bought. They want to make a better decision
The result was very clear!
Consumers need more integrated product reviews
Understandable ingredients-information
Category for clean, safe, eco-friendly, cruelty-free
Overall Research Findings
User Problems
.png){kind=small}
How Might We Solve..?
.png)
Customers go to several platforms trying to collect a piece of information here and there
We could integrate everything in one place to make the whole process more Efficient
They find product information is not understandable because they can't recognize the ingredients by only their titles
We could make that information more Accessible, Digestible, and Understandable by giving analysis and grades for ingredients
Currently, there's only product category search on every website which makes it hard to search products consumers need
We could offer the Capability of a filtered search and categorized search by product, skin type, ingredients, and features
02
Define
Persona
Feature Roadmap
IA - Sitemap
User Task Flow
Creating a sense of empathy further
Persona
Based on our market research findings and user research takeaways, we created a persona that represents the goals and frustrations of our target audience. This persona helped us to understand our users better and create a sense of empathy further. When designing, we pictured the persona in our mind and wondered how she would react to our decisions.
.png)
.png){kind=small}
We found out :
​
• Users need a simpler and faster way to narrow down their purchasing options
​
• Users have different needs of product features such as cruelty-free or chemical-free
​
• Users want to know about each ingredient in a product
Representing users' goals and needs
Feature Roadmap
We created a feature roadmap to create a product that represents the users' goals and needs.
Our Decision
​
• Since this is a new platform, we'll use our landing page to explain our product, service, and function.
​
• Product search should be the key function, so we'll have a big search bar in the middle on every page
​
• We'll have 3 kinds of product categories, and they are 'by skin type' , 'by product type', and 'by feature'
Understanding how users will browse
Information Architecture - Sitemap
.png)
We created a sitemap to understand how people will browse and move through the linked parts of our design. The sitemap can help users understand how the information is structured on the site.
Our Decision
​
• Home is going to be a landing page that will help users to understand what kind of service we offer.
​
• There are going to be two navigation options 'products' and 'ingredients'.
​
• There is going to be a search bar and the search result will be shown on either the 'products' page or the 'ingredients' page.
​
• There is going to be an account page that will allow users to save items
Prioritizing pages and features
Task Flow
Based on our user persona, we created the persona's task flow and predicted how she would navigate the website and make actions and decisions. This task flow guided us on what kind of main pages and features should be prioritized.
Insight
• Filters should allow multiple selections
​
• Product detail page should have both product reviews and ingredient analysis
​
• To make it obvious, we should have a visual graph to show how many of ingredients are clean or bad
03
Design
Wireframes
Branding
UI Design
Showing brand identity
Logo Design
.png)
.png)
.png)
We created our logo that represents our brand identity our keywords : Efficient, Accessible, Capable
_gif.gif)
Visual Hierarchy
Sketch
.png)
We've made some sketches to check visual hierarchy, alignment, spacing, and visual elements
Key Features
Contents Design
.png)
.png)
Putting all of them together
User Interface Design
04
Prototype
Prototype
Usability Test
How it works
Prototype
We created a prototype on Figma. The flow is from the landing page to search a product by both product category and filtered search, save the item, and finally view it from "My items"
Let's hear from them!
Usability Test
26
testers participated in our usability test
100%
100% of testers completed the mission successfully
92%
92% of testers said it was easy to navigate
9.3
Overall experience rating from testers is 9.3
We were so glad to find out everyone loved the overall experience of our website.
​
Also, everyone was excited to see our product in real life. They said they would use such a product.
05
Validate
What's next?
Next Steps
Based on our usability test, we found out additional functions can improve the overall experience even more.
We've decided to add the 'barcode scan' function in the future