Objective

By expanding a single quiz product with a multi-feature dashboard, we helped Kinky Apothecary to build an MVP to realise its vision of becoming a textured hair expert.

Solution

After purchasing products from the quiz, users can save products, manage routines and get advice on challenging situations or from people with similar hair type.

My Role

I led client communication. I also conducted user interviews, research synthesis, sketching, wireframing and usability testing.

Client

Kinky Apothecary

Team

5 UX designers

Skills

User experience, visual design, wireframing, prototyping

Tools

Figma, Slack, Trello

Duration

3 weeks

The Problem

How can we help Danielle feel better about her hair and herself?

Danielle grew up not liking her hair at all.

It’s not straight, not flowy, not like what she saw on TV. She has no idea how to categorise it. She has experimented with all kinds of things including honey and egg, but still doesn’t know how to care for it. She never goes swimming. What will it do to her hair?

The Business Context

Kinky Apothecary is here to help but needed UX expertise to realise the vision

Nibi, founder of Kinky Apothecary wishes to extend the product and expand the market

Founded in Nigeria, Kinky Apothecary aims to empower women like Danielle as an expert resource.

Their vision is to provide a “hair guru in the pocket”. But the potential is not fully realised with only a product recommendation quiz. To demonstrate their vision to investors and expand their impact in UK, the client sought our expertise on their UK user base to extend the product beyond the quiz.

The Project Context

Against the tight timeline, it’s vital to tactically structure the team

The opportunity to build a MVP for a life-changing product greatly excited me. But soon I realised the challenge of the time constraint.

Based on my previous teamwork experience, discussions can be take majority of the time. To successfully deliver the work in 3 weeks, it’s vital to minimise unnecessary discussions and communication efforts. Therefore, I proposed that we set out a clear working structure at the beginning of the project.

Detailed planning & documentation

A gantt chart and a daily design journal were used to facilitate task collaboration.

Leads have the final say

We appointed leads for each task to avoid wasting time on discussions.

Task splitting, not as a design committee

We split the tasks and worked in pairs, which ensured speed and allowed room for discussion.

Clarifying the scope early

By clarifying the scope with client, I refocused the team from diversions on the existing quiz.

Problem Discovery & Definition

Prioritising 2 overarching aspects of user pain points

Within 3 weeks, what exactly are the most pressing pain points that we should prioritise?

First, we distilled insights from 15 interviews into nuanced categories.

Key insights

Despite trials and errors, users still couldn't find the right products.
Users feel overwhelmed when choosing products.
Users trust experts opinions and recommendations from people with similar hair.
Users stick with products that have worked.
Lifestyles changes like swimming can disrupt a well-working routine.
Issues with hair greatly impact self-esteem.

Then, from these insights I concluded 2 overarching questions to guide the ideation.

1. HMW address the most pressing needs - to find the right products in a simple process

While the product recommendation quiz logic will be determined by the data scientists from the client side, as UX designers we can still improve the following aspects of the quiz:

To help users choose the right hair type to increase accuracy of recommendations.
To present the quiz result in an easily digestible way.

2. HMW give users a further sense of control of their established routines

For users to fully have control over their hair and lifestyle, we need to further address the following needs:

To ensure that the products won’t run out.
To future-proof change of circumstances.
To make them feel confident about their progress.

Ideation and Design

How might we help users find the right products in simple process to build a reliable routine

I led the design studio and invited the client to vote for commercially and technically viable ideas.

HMW help users find the right products in a simple process

Easy-to-understand recommendation by category

Hair type info to facilitate deeper understanding

HMW give users a further sense of control of their established routines

Routine calendar to manage product and wash days

Hair journey to track and share results

Learn from community with similar hair

Help in place in areas of change

Prioritising the small-viewport to design the MVP

The time for design was extremely tight as the client postponed the design studio. To ensure quality, I approached the client and negotiated to only create the happy paths of the small viewport instead of a responsive site.

Usability Testing

How can the product feel holistic during usability testing?

I took charge of the usability testing to evaluate the ease of use and usefulness of the ideas. It’s the first time that I worked on a multi-feature project. How should I design the tasks?

The immediate idea was to have separate tasks for each feature. But the testing wouldn’t feel organic or reflect actual needs.

To replicate real-life triggers, I adopted a scenario-based approach. For each task, we asked 3 users to imagine specific situations where they might find one or more features useful.

Key findings & Iterations

Smoother signup to balance business priorities with intuitive flows

Signup was initially located at the top as we wished to push the added features. However, it disrupted the flow according to the users and was moved to the bottom with eye-catching visuals.

Simplified checkout to minimise physical effort

We enabled one-click checkout with preselected items as users found it repetitive to add individual items to the basket.

Alternative product options made more visible

We increased the feature visibility by replacing the carousel with a popup page triggered by an outlined button. The arrow button used before was neglected by all users.

Final Design

Visual questions for easier quiz choices

Guest checkout or sign in for more features

Manage products & routines carefree

Track progress, inspire & be inspired

Embrace lifestyle changes with confidence

In the End

The client was happy and I cannot wait to see the life-changing product coming out

Successful teamwork against tight timeline and incidents

Highly effective teamwork led to the successful delivery of the product in the end. Against the tight timeline and incidents like team members falling ill, we finished with a tested MVP and a brilliant client presentation.

Client was happy and offered freelance work

The client was beyond satisfaction, as we “took time to understand the business goals, as well as our target customer and got the needs spot on”

I learned the art of prioritising

Delivery results rapidly required us to prioritise in each stage of the process. We focused on key user needs, screens and viewports to strive for the most valuable design against constraints.