Lucy Zhang

Skintel

Pocket sized skincare expert - A product that helps users build a safe and effective personal care routine by analyzing ingredients and compatibility.

Tools: Figma

Team: 1 UX/UI designer (myself)

My Role: UX research, Concept, Wireframe, Prototype

Timeline: 10 weeks (Research 4 weeks, Design & Testing 3 weeks, UI & Branding 3 weeks)

Overview

Problem

Cosmetic and personal care is a multiple billion dollar industry and consumers are now more conscious about the contents of the products they use. Yet, people often face issues such as allergic reactions and unsure if the products are actually safe and effective.

Solution

A product that provides safety and effectiveness analysis on the cosmetics/personal care products you use everyday and help you find better alternatives. 

Outcome

A mobile app that helps users find safe and effective personal care items.

Skintel can help address common concerns regarding cosmetic and personal care products:

  • Scans personal care/cosmetic products
  • Provides ingredient safety and effectiveness analysis.
  • Detect incompatible ingredients and products in your routines.
  • Suggests products suitable for individual skin types (dry, acne prone, sensitive).
  • Educate consumers on the scientific analysis of ingredients in their products rather than succumbing to mass marketing influences.

Discover

Understanding the Problem space

Introduction - Problem Space

To understand more about this problem space, I employed two different research methodologies:

Secondary Research

Searching for news articles and online blogs to gain a deeper understanding of how the issue is directly impacting specific groups, its current state, contributing factors and potential improvements.

User interviews

Interviews as a primary research method to gather more qualitative data, uncover insights, capture diverse viewpoints and also to understand existing behaviours.

Secondary Research

3X

Multiple chemical sensitivity has increased by over 300% in the past decade.

68%

68 percent of those surveyed believe it is important to consider the ingredients in their cosmetic and personal care products.

81%

Yet…81 percent of consumers said they often do not recognize ingredients on the label. 

53%

53 percent would be willing to switch to a different personal care product if they understood the ingredients in that product better.

Fun Fact

Did you know? Unlike food and drugs, the FDA provides minimal oversight to cosmetics, banning the use of only 11 ingredients compared with 1,400 ingredients prohibited in Europe. 

Problem statement

Consumers are now more conscious about the contents of their cosmetic and personal care products, yet, people often face issues such as allergic reactions and unsure if the products are actually safe and effective.

How might we?

How might we help mindful consumers understand the ingredients in their cosmetic and personal care products, avoiding products that are harmful and cause negative reactions?

User Interviews

I conducted user interviews with friends who were consious about the ingredients in their cosmetics/personal care items. 

Participant criteria

Criteria defined by Secondary Research

20-50 years of age.

Mindful about personal care or household product ingredients.

Have experienced some sort of negative effects using a personal care or household product in their lifetime.

Synthesizing Data

To understand the problem better, I organized the responses to my interview questions according to the participants’ pain points, motivations, and behaviors. Through this process, I identified compelling patterns and discovered common themes that resonated among the participants.

Define

Finding the right problem to solve

Key Themes

After categorizing the insights into pain points, motivations and behaviours, I discovered the commonalities and grouped them into themes.

The theme generated was Lack of ingredient awareness, Personalization and individual needs, and Overwhelming choices. I decided to focus on the theme of “Personalization and individual needs” because it has the most pain points from the user interview participants.

Lack of Ingredient awareness

Limited knowledge about ingredients can lead to confusion and difficulty in making informed choices. Consumers desire increased awareness of the specific ingredients in their personal care and household products.

Personalization and individual needs

People often struggle to identify which products align to their specific needs (skin type, allergies, sensitivities, preferences). Understanding which ingredients are beneficial or detrimental to ones personal needs is crucial for selecting suitable products.

overwhelming choices

The market has an overwhelming array of personal care and household products, leaving consumers in search of easier ways to find suitable options.

Persona

Who am I designing this for? Emily Davis is a persona I crafted from the insights gained from the user interviews. Emily is the embodiment of the pain points, motivations, and behaviors I gathered from the user interviews. She represents my app’s target user. 

Emily's Goals and Pain Points

User stories capture and communicate requirements from the perspective of end users or stakeholders. Using Emily’s goal and paint points, I chose 3 user stories to focus on:

1.

As a mindful consumer, I want to be able to scan the products for the list of ingredients so that I won’t have to search for the ingredients one by one.

2.

As a mindful consumer, I want to the know ingredients that are in my personal care products, so that I will be more informed to buy products with mostly good ingredients.

3.

As a mindful consumer, I want to know if the ingredients in the products of my routine can be used together so that I won’t create harm to my skin and body if two ingredients can not be used together (because of chemistry!)

Task Flow

Then I created a task flow diagram to visualize what screens and actions I was designing for. It captures the needs of all 3 user stories. 

Develop

Exploring solutions to solve the problem

Sketches

After gathering some UI inspirations from other similar apps, I started doing some exploratory sketches exploring potential ideas for the pages of my task flow. Then I went on to draw my solution sketches which are the final sketches of what each screen in my prototype will look like. 

Initial Wireframes

The next step was making it digital! Using Figma, I converted the sketches into mid-fidelity wireframes.

I wanted to make sure that I created mid-fidelity wireframes so that during my usability testing, users would focus on the functionality of the application rather than the look of it.

View above prototype externally

User Testing

As part of the Skintel design process, I plan to conduct usability tests with about 5 users in order to obtain practical, real-time feedback that can be incorporated to improve the design, in order to provide a more optimal user experience.

Testing Outcome

Changes based on answers from user testing:

UI & Branding

Making my app come to life

Moodboard

I first explored colors for my app and my brand. I put together a series of images to capture and communicate the overall feel, style, and aesthetics I wanted for my app before it was fully developed. Also, to source inspirations for my color injection. 

I wanted my app to feel:

  • Revitalizing
  • Refreshing
  • Calm
  • Fresh
  • Clean
  • Relaxing
  • Radiant

Final Colors Picked

After trying out different sets of colors extracted from my mood board coupled with the application of color theory, these are the colors chosen for my app. 

Brand Colors:

I chose to go with a monochromatic color scheme for the brand color to make it look simple, clean and cohesive. Because there will be a lot of semantic colors and pictures, a monochromatic color scheme for the branding stands out as the optimal choice to create a clean aesthetic. 

Periwrinkle: I choose the different shades of periwrinkle blue which is a soft blend of blue and purple, often associated with springtime, calmness, peace and serenity.

skintel colors

Wordmark Explorations

To emphasize the “Intel” aspect of Skintel, I wanted the “in” to stand out to enhance its visibility. I then began exploring wordmarks using different fonts and narrowed it down to my final wordmark. I selected my final wordmark because I believe it gives a feeling of elegance. 

App Icon Explorations

I started off creating many different variations of app Icons. The final app icon I chose features a white backdrop with a gradient logo. The teardrop design, reminiscent of skincare, is enhanced by embedding the same “S’ from my wordmark, aligning with my brand identity. 

High-fidelity prototype

Applying high-fidelity vidual design elements to the prototype using the chosen color palette and product brand.

View above prototype externally

Concluding Remarks

By leveraging user research, we identified pain points such as ingredient confusion and the need for identifying individual needs. Through iterative design, we crafted intuitive interfaces that simplify product scanning, ingredient analysis, and personalized recommendations. User testing validated our approach, ensuring accessibility and clarity for users. A design library helped to ensure the design stays consistent thoroughout the app. Ultimately, this process helped me create a thoughtful and useful solution for users.

Future Thinking

Tarot Cards of Tech

What social norms, etiquette, or traditions could change because of your product?

Skintel’s goal is to empower mindful consumers for healthier and more informed personal care/cosmetic choices, bypassing mass marketing influences. Some cultural norms that might change due to my products could be the misconception that expensive always means better, but that’s not always true, especially in the beauty and skincare industry. It could also educate about the potentially harmful effects of beauty trends. For example, in many cultures, people use products to whiten their skin, often containing toxic chemicals. Skintel aims to inform people about the potential harm these products could cause to their bodies and intends to shift cultural trends towards personalized, informed, and healthy personal care routines.

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Drop me an email at [email protected]

© 2025 Lucy Zhang All Rights Reserved

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