Skinsei was born out of the insight that while two people may have similar skin types, factors such as climate, UV exposure, air quality, exercise, stress, and what you eat can greatly affect skin.
With a deep understanding of what impacts skin, Valentina Ciobanu (Skinsei Founder & Global Brand Vice President of New Skincare Brands at Unilever) and the team at Unilever developed Skinsei as a way to assess skin types, along with dietary, mood and lifestyle factors to provide a personalized skincare regimen.
The power of the Skinsei diagnostic
To provide users with a rigorous science-based skin analysis they need to answer a 28-step user diagnostic questionnaire. Aside from personal data, there are a number dynamic inputs being used to pull in location specific information around climate, air quality and UV, as well as facial recognition technology to ensure you are not misdiagnosing your own skin.
A complex and unique algorithm is then used to be able to identify skin strengths and weaknesses and recommend a skincare regimen. The challenge, in a digital world where customer expectations are high and attention spans short, was to ensure the extensive diagnostic was as user-friendly, friction-free and enjoyable as possible for potential Skinsei customers.
Our user experience team began by evaluating the assessment and associated designs, making small yet significant changes to the layout and organization, accounting for the way typical users behave on mobile. Careful consideration was given to interaction design, the positioning of buttons and the clarity of each step of the diagnostic.
We knew performance was critical to user experience and completion of the 28 question diagnostic. Through exhaustive testing we identified and tackled browser and device nuances. We enhanced performance with optimized assets, a single submit form and CSS controlled SVG graphics.
With a plussed up user experience and high-speed performance we were able to make the diagnostic assessment not only friction-free but fun and interactive.
“There’s no skin like yours”
As a revolutionary skincare concept, Skinsei attracted the attention of skincare influencers who were eager take the diagnostic, try their personalized regimen and share their experience.
To really showcase these “Skinsei in Action” stories, we needed to build a structure within the Shopify Plus framework which accommodated for large amounts of complex content.
Each story features a different influencer, tells their skincare story, analyses the data points that affect their skin; be it high pollution, poor sleep or an extreme climate. Plus serving up their resulting personalized skin care regimen; and why these products were picked.
An intuitive ecommerce experience
Once a user completes the diagnostic they’re served up their personalized regimen kit, with the option to select a set of 3 (core kit) or set of 5 (complete kit) products. There is also the ability to make a single one-month purchase, or save money by opting for a monthly subscription package.
We created a simple, user-focussed UI which allows customers to easily switch between purchase options within a single screen. The design clearly communicates the offerings along with their associated costs. A sticky button is applied to the bottom of the screen as you scroll to identify your chosen selection, and acts as a continuous driver in the path to purchase.