Glowwie Skincare Platform
A platform to share your experiences, connect with others who have similar skin concerns, and learn from their routines to discover what truly works for you.
Team: Trushaa Ramanan, Sean Guevarra, Claire Ong, Sanaa Syed, Kelly Wang, Xenia Capcan
Timeline: 9 months
The Problem
Encountering rapid skin changes during their formative years, many teens and young adults struggle with low self-confidence and feelings of isolation. However, there is a lack of comprehensive resources to help them feel more educated, supported, and confident in their journeys with skin health.
What Competitors Lack
Community Ability to connect with others who share your exact skin type and concerns.
Customization Despite inputting skin details, apps failed to truly adapt to user's specific needs.
Affordability Advice often came from platforms aiming to sell products, creating pressure.
User Interview & Survey Insights
People struggle to find the right skincare products, routines, and lifestyles that work best for their skin type.
Skincare advice is most trusted when coming from people (friends, online sources, professionals) with similar skin attributes like race, color, and age.
Most people experience fatigue from repeatedly trying different skincare solutions that don't match their skin type. This wastes money and leaves professional help as the costly last resort option.
One's skin plays a major role in self-perception - when facing skin issues, it can take a toll on mental health and severely shake confidence levels.
So we asked ourselves…
How might we design a skincare app for adolescents and young adults that empowers them to receive guidance from and build community with others to support their skincare journey, ultimately reducing the feeling of isolation, enabling informed choices, and allowing them to save time and money on their skincare routines?
Meet Riley
Riley (23) has battled acne since age 12. Frustrated with treatments and feeling alone, she craves a supportive community focused on skincare and mental health.
Needs
A trustworthy and reliable community of people with similar skin profiles to learn from
Products that work with her skin type
Motivations
Feel less self-conscious about their skin and view their imperfect skin in a more positive way
Goals
Seek emotional support from peers regarding their skin confidence
Create a consistent skincare routine after many trial-and-error experiences
Pain Points
Has already spent hundreds of dollars on skincare products and treatments that turned out to be ineffective for them
Feature Ideation & Design Decisions
Fostering Community
Sharing experiences to create a community
Giving and receiving advice
Establishing Routine
Journaling for physical and mental health
Product tracking
Informing Choices
Personalized insights based on weekly journals
Profile matching to learn from similar experiences
Wireframes
Fostering Community
Sharing experiences to create a community
Giving and receiving advice
Establishing Routine
Journaling for physical and mental health
Product tracking
Informing Choices
Personalized insights based on weekly journals
Profile matching to learn from similar experiences
Usability Testing
Dashboard
After
Improved hierarchy
More personalized look and feel
Suggested connections
Journal
After
Weekly view
Mood tracker
Quick links
Journal prompt suggestions
Navigation
After
Higher contrast
Easier access to make an entry
Improved icons and labels
Presenting Glowwie!
Lessons Learned
Feature Prioritization At every stage of the process, we revisited our problem statement to ensure our features aligned with it.
Inclusivity We wanted to ensure that all users felt comfortable and included when using our app.
Design Consistency We struggled with to make our design consistent, but a design system helped with that.
Next Steps
Ongoing Research Conduct more interviews and usability tests with a more diverse range of age groups.
Community Interactions Implement features that allow users to engage in even more meaningful interactions with other users who share similar skincare journeys.
Personalized Recommendations Integrate an AI-driven system that provides personalized product recommendations and skincare routines based on user feedback and skin progression.
App Development & Launch
Our next step is to begin the technical development phase, focusing on creating a responsive and user-friendly interface for both iOS and Android platforms.