SunCare

Like many people in quarantine with access to social media, TikTok, and Target I developed a slight obsession with sun and skin care; not only for the latest trends but also for figuring out what ingredients separate the gimmicks from the good stuff. I found that the more I learned, the more products I’d find with a mix of good and not so good ingredients. After receiving a customized hair care system over the holidays I was curious to see what options there were for customized sun protectant, better yet customized sun protectant with skin care benefits. While there were quite a few options for skin care, some even offering sun protectant qualities in their products, I found that none of the products would protect against broad spectrum, UVA and UVB light. This is where my project began; is it possible to make a customizable sun protectant line that can shield users from the sun while simultaneously delivering skin care benefits?

I’d been looking for a project to allow me to stretch my creativity and employ the UI / UX skills I’d been learning on my own time for months when this idea popped into my head. While between freelance projects and my full time job I sketched, prototyped, user tested, (almost rage quit), user tested again, and designed to my hearts content to bring you SunCare.

Timeline 2 months

Tools Sketch, Invision Studio, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop

Role CEO, unpaid intern, and everything in between

Market research

Is anyone else feeling this way? 

Brands like The Ordinary, Versed, and Kosas have had a huge spike in popularity during the pandemic which indicate an increased interest in no fuss packaging and ingredient transparency when it comes to a product line. I surveyed a few close friends to see how viable a customizable suncare line would be following this trend and how satisfied they were with already available suncare products. My survey yielded the following results- 

• Do you currently use sunscreen daily or in your beauty routine?

• Is there a reason you do not to use a sunscreen in your daily or beauty routine?

• Do you check ingredients in sun care products before you buy them?

• Would you gift someone a personalized sun-care product?

• Have you purchased or gifted other customizable products (ie hair care or skin care?)

• Did you know the FDA only considers 12 active ingredients “safe and effective” for sun care products? (https://www.ewg.org/sunscreen/report/the-trouble-with-sunscreen-chemicals/#:~:text=The%20most%20common%20sunscreens%20contain,oxide%20and%2For%20titanium%20dioxide.)

While the majority of people I interviewed weren’t dissatisfied with suncare products already out there, they were open and eager for new opportunities.

Is there already a solution?

Although there are companies that specialize in customizable hair care and skin care, I haven’t found companies following the same approach for the sun care industry. A few sites such as Function of Beauty (hair care) and Y’OUR (skin care) both utilize a test for the user to find their perfect ingredients- this doesn’t solve my specific problem. Prose also offers a sophisticated design and user experience for custom hair care- but still isn’t in the industry I’m looking for. Most of these sites also cater to a specific audience, whether that be race or gender- I want Company name to be accessable to anyone interested in the products.

The concept behind these sites (bold, transparent information) did inspire the theme for Company name.

Identifying users and their pain points

There are several use cases to chose from

To better understand the needs of my audience, I developed two user personas. 

Building SunCare

Laying out the features

I created two sitemaps based on my ideal user journey to plan out how the app would flow. Users needed to be able to create their own suncare.