Steve Kim

INTRO

We live in a world where technology is evolving day by day, and some people literally spend hours in the digital world daily. With the growth of SNS, many people become “online-celebrities”, also known as “influencers” through various content.

Although I personally have little relatability with beauty, fashion, and fame, I noticed that a good chunk of influencers are in the beauty genre.

Although the platform may differ for each genres (twitch for gaming, for example), most beauty influencers are the most active on YouTube and Instagram - then I began wondering, why aren’t there any apps designed specifically for these beauty/fashion influencers and followers? Why aren’t men as active in these genres? Men often need styling help as well, why isn’t there any platform that promotes this for both men and women?

With these thoughts in mind, I decided to plan a project that would address the following design question:

How can I design a beauty/fashion SNS app that is more successful than other apps that people use to follow their influencers?

IDEATION & CONCEPT

Some initial thoughts I had on originating, top-used apps (limited to beauty genre for now):

• YouTube: Great for video content - like tutorials and product reviews. There is a limitation when it comes to social connection and sense of community with followers.

• Instagram: Good for social connection with followers. Video content is fairly limited due to viewport sizes (square crop), video time limitations, etc.

Next, I began to concept out exactly what it is that I wanted to design:

• I wanted to make sure that this app will be gender-free. As the majority of male users are likely to be not interested in the “beauty” genre, I decided this app must not rely only on beauty, but fashion as well.

• This app needs to be able to house all functions and tools useful for both influencers and followers; I had to make sure content will not be limited, as well as ensure social connection between users and influencers.

RESEARCH

After organizing my initial thoughts and concept of this project, I conducted user research by interviewing people through a survey-styled questionnaire.

GOALS & MVPS

Based on the above research, I developed 3 main goals and MVPS for this project.

• Provide a catered beauty/fashion experience - including beauty/style guidance, sharing, feedback, communication, etc - to all end users

• Promote a community and connection between influencers and followers

• Break the common misconception that beauty/fashion is intended for women, and that men aren’t interested

• MVP: User Profile

  • As a user, I want to create a personal account and connect with other users and influencers

  • As a user, I want to be able to set personalized settings to which content will be catered to

• MVP: Gender-free Beauty/Fashion Content

  • As a user, I want to be exposed to different beauty/fashion related content

  • As a user, I want to learn from influencers

• MVP: Style guide & improvement

  • As a user, I want to be able to improve my self appearance

  • As a user, I want to view different styles and the specific products used for that style

END USERS

End users for this application will have two situational, fundamental goals they want to achieve:

• Scenario 1 - Users looking forward to improving their self appearance through connecting with other users

• Scenario 2 - Users that want to become an active influencer and use the application as a platform to connect with followers

FLOW CHART

Before jumping onto any designing, I organized my ideas and research into a flow chart first, so that I could map out the project in detail.

WIREFRAMES

I began developing wireframes based off of the above flow chart. Necessary revisions were made during the previous low and mid-fidelity wireframes, as well as these high-fidelity wireframes.

USER TESTING & REVISION

Before finalizing the designs, I got a round of user testing done just to make sure everything looks okay from a user’s perspective. I found out a couple of critical pain points that needed to be resolved.

First of all, the “style suggestion” function in the style guide page didn’t make too much sense. Although many appreciated the idea of fashion recommendations according to weather and location, they simply didn’t find it too useful. Most answered that they never had the weather change their style too drastically, because of occasions. No matter the weather, it’s always the occasion that matters. I decided to completely remove the “style suggestion” function, and instead improve the look book. Instead of showing only “top picks”, it would show different occasions as categories, and would be filterable.

Next, I noticed that many users have mentioned they would appreciate being able to see product information in anyone’s posts, rather than the curated “top picks” section of the style guide. This was also critical as it would be one of the most used functions for unfamiliar users.

FINAL MOCKUPS

STYLE GUIDE

INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPE

CONCLUSION

This project in overall was a very fun challenge to tackle. Being a male that never looks at beauty influencers, I had to dive into a field that I had no real knowledge of. I learned how to think in a user centric way all throughout the process of research and design in order to determine the needs of a consumer group that was unfamiliar to me. This mindset was an excellent practice that forced me to walk outside of my shoes and be out of my comfort zone. Although there are definitely more room for improvement, I feel pretty happy with what I learned through this project, and how it turned out.