UX/Ui Design | Branding | Viasual
UMON - Beauty APP & Branding
Smart choices for an easy beauty
About the project
Umön is a brand created specific for a graduation project at IADE, Lisbon. The class was divided in groups and our goal was to create any type of product that could resolve problem of our choice. Umön is an APP created to help people take care of their skin.
The Brand:
Umön was designed to solve one problem: finding beauty products and treatments for the skin and how to use them on a daily routine.
It was concluded through research and interviews, that many people go to a dermatologist consultation but remain unsatisfied with the products prescribed, either because they are too expensive, or because they do not receive a longer-term treatment plan. Umön was born to solve these daily skin problems and make life easier for people.
Challenge:
Umön is a learning, sharing, interaction, and dialogue platform that offers personalized beauty routines for real people, making user's daily lives easier and happier. The main belief is that real beauty comes from within, and intelligent routines made with products of natural origin can collaborate to increase beauty. The main challenge was to understand people's skin routine problems and solve them with a simple APP.
My role:
I was involved in all phases of the project, from mapping out the problem to delivering final designs. The challenges assumed by me were mainly
- Customer research
- Define real problems and create strategies to solve
- Market research
- Naming, Branding, Brand Universe, Visual Communication and Marketing plan
- User Flow based on customers needs
- Low-fi and High-fi Wireframes
- Business Plan
Tools:
- Sketch
- Illustrator & Photoshop
- Invision
design process
Empathize
User Research Competitor analysis Persona Creation
Define
Branding, User Flow, Gathering Requirements, Job Stories
Ideate
Brainstorm, sketches
Prototype
Mid-fidelity Wireframes, High-Fidelity Wireframes
Test
Usability Test
Understanding the problems
As a Design Thinking process, Double Diamond was used to map our work, where we seek ideas within the creative process. The first phase is "Discovery" where we had insights into the possible problems and desires people have with skin treatment. In this step, we chose to do brainstorming, where each member of the group researched and wrote their insights on post-it, and afterwards we made a cloud with the main ideas that the group defined.
Understanding global tendencies
Studies carried out by Mintel, a global trend consultancy, pointed out the main behavioral key drivers that lead the consumer market in 2018. From this analysis, we could identify opportunities for the implementation of our beauty project, through the pillars: Sustainability; Self-image; Data Sharing; Transparency and Simplicity.
Z Generation - The New Consumers
Valuing diversity in all forms, with social media providing greater exposure to evolving global conversations, Gen Z is rejecting the conformity of gender identities and rooting for diverse representations. Sustainability is deeply linked to them, as they grow at a time when our impact on the planet and other species has become increasingly visible, according to Nielsen's global survey in 2018. They are self-learners and seek information before buying, using sources like Beautypedia, which features reviews for over 45,000 products, and sharing advice on cult Reddit forum, Skincare Addiction, which boasts more than 875,000 members.
Personas
The consumer profile consists of young people, aged between 20 and 35 years, with interest in beauty, aesthetics, art, health, and well-being. They are concerned with their appearance and want to convey their personality through the clothing and brands they consume. The public in question is environmentally responsible and collaborative, and hyperconnected, coexisting in a hybrid way between digital and offline media.
Daniel, 25yo
NYC, Social Media
He takes the subway and sometimes taxi, no pets because his apartment is too small. His dream is to work as an art director, he watches RUPAUL drag race, don`t exercise often but look for ways to be healthy, feels great about himself.
Lisa, 34yo
Madrid, Lawer
She just got better financial stability. Single, workaholic, she has acne spots because she always had pimples. She is insecure about her appearance, uses uber, has a cat, exercises to reduce her waist, and uses Louis Vuitton.
Marina, 22yo
São Paulo, works in fashion
She has a strong list of followers on Instagram, spends a lot of money on beauty products. She assumed her natural curls recently, works too much, and is looking for a more natural way to live her life.
Marta, 19yo
San Francisco, student
Vegan, marketing student, Yoga passionate, has a rich lifestyle because of her heritage and her parents being successful business owners, she is into sustainability and trying to use products that don't cause big impacts on the environment. .
Definition
After the team's insights, global tendencies research, and user research, we started the definition stage. Our three main insights within our discovery were:
- The lack of time and the demand to be always socially presentable.
- The stress and losses generated by ineffective product choices and beauty rituals.
- Waste and pollution from cosmetics, especially those that do not meet consumer needs.
In order to obtain information about the relationship that people have with personal care, an online questionnaire was conducted, with a sample of 28 respondents.
By analyzing the responses it was possible to identify that:
- Insight 1: People are increasingly looking for solutions to beauty issues that are accessible and that can be performed by the consumer at home, to the detriment of services that involve spending time and money.
- Insight 2: The interviews show that people are increasingly looking for more natural beauty solutions, consisting of vegan beauty products and without chemicals or natural beauty solutions made at home.
- Insight 3: The biggest source of information for purchasing beauty products and routines comes from the internet or referrals from friends. Dermatologists end up offering products that are not very pleasing to the interviewees.
Branding
User Flow & Wireframes
Application features
Beauty Tech
Each user have to do a skin scan, using the phone front camera and answer a quick lifestyle and routine questionnaire before receiving the tips
Adapted Routine
The creation of a new beauty routine adapted to the user's preferences, time, and budget.
Smart Selling
Besides helping the routine and product recommendations, the APP will intermediate the sale of natural products and cosmetics. Umon is integrated into brands/stores stocks.
Visual Design
After finishing the wireframes our group started designing some visual high-quality mockups for the app. Since this was a master class project, with only studying purposes, we didn't have the chance to finish all the screens and interactions.
What I have learned from this project
Deep research is extremely important to create a project 100% based on the users' needs. This project made me realize that having a good market, tendencies, references, and customer knowledge can make your product succeed when launched with custom strategies.