Hair Circle
Overview
The goal of Hair Circle is to create a niche platform of the hair community where users can interact and find all hair related content in a single mobile app.
This project was a semester long project for my senior capstone in my Product Development & Management class where we were tasked to develop an idea for a new product.
Responsibilities
Product designer - product strategy, user research, testing, & prototyping
Team of 4 - marketing plan, product strategy, market research, & product design
Duration
September 2022 - December 2022
Identifying the opportunity
Over the past few years, there is a growing expenditure on personal care, including hair care, as information has become more accessible and fluid with social platforms like YouTube and TikTok. However, with the variety of information and multitude of perspectives that concern different hair types, figuring out one’s routine can become difficult and unsuccessful.
Problem
When seeking hair related concerns and solutions, it can be very costly and time consuming for consumers until they find what works well for them.
Solution
Introduce a personalized hair care app called Hair Circle where users can interact with one another in the hair community and find all hair related content on a single platform.
Understanding the users
To understand our problem and target market better, we conducted casual interviews with 15 participants asking about their hair and how they seek information on new or current products they are using. I created two personas based on the research gathered that represents the users Hair Circle is hoping to reach and build a positive experience for.
The the top persona represents inexperienced users that is seeking hair information and inspiration from others, hoping to interact with other users, and familiar with social media.
The bottom persona represents more experienced users that can use the app for sharing hair knowledge to others, connecting with other hair professionals, and posting their own content.
User Pain Points
After compiling user research, there were three main user pain points that were identified:
Information overload
There is no central location or platform as an authority for information on haircare, so users can become confused with conflicting information on the Internet.
Too much time and money
Users spend a lot of time in trial and error when finding products that actually satisfy their needs and hair concerns. Overtime, it can become costly.
Lack of personalized hair care routines
Users can feel unsure about which products and routines work best for them due to limited discussion or access to direct information.
Wireframes
I created a low fidelity prototype from the sketches to outline the flow of the hair quiz and a user’s personalized hair profile. The main goal of creating Hair Circle is to address the concerns for finding information, keeping track of routines, and interacting with other users for inspiration and expertise.
Wireframes of the log-in screen, homescreen, and hair quiz user flows
Low-fidelity wireframes of the social platform, user’s hair list, and hair routine
Usability Testing
Before focusing on transferring the designs into a high-fidelity prototype, I conducted one round of usability studies using the low-fidelity prototype to ensure we were addressing user pain points and gaining insight on the user’s intuitive process.
The second usability study was done using a high-fidelity prototype where I focused more on visual design and if design iterations met their needs.
Key insights gathered from the first usability study
Key insights gathered from the second usability study
Design Iterations
Based on the feedback we received from the usability testing, I made changes to address the users’ frustrations by improving the main navigation, the personalized hair quiz, and the hair routine.
Low-fidelity
High-fidelity
High-fidelity
High-fidelity
Low-fidelity
Low-fidelity
Low-fidelity
Final Product
Final Product
Final Product
Final Product
“My Posts” tab to view + track the user’s previous uploads
“Post” located in the navigation pane for easy access
Clear indicator to show users their progress when taking the quiz
More personalized options for selecting hair type to account for more users
Added visuals to help users identify their hair type
Added more hair identification questions to cater towards user’s unique hair type
Supporting descriptions to help users easily identify hair length
Added the edit icon and the plus icon so that users can easily make changes to their routine without multiple taps
Next Steps
Hair Circle can continue to improve functionally with more research on the platform’s product database to continue to grow and stay up to date with newer products:
How can Hair Circle expand its product database to recommend the right products for users?
How can we personalize the hair quiz further to accurately represent the user’s hair?
We’ve explored some solutions where users can submit product information that is not already found in the database. Thus, further user research and usability testing on this feature will be necessary to expand on the app’s continual improvement.