DFA + MELÉ Summer Accelerator
Design for America (DFA) partnered with Unilever and their brand MELÉ, a science-based skincare product line designed specifically or melanin-rich skin.
My role:
UX Research
Wireframing
Design
Team:
Junning Liu
Bridget Ho
Jackieline Kiener
Tabitha Leonard
Soya Han
The Client:
MELÉ (Unilever)
Timeline:
June 2022 - August 2022
Discover: competitive analysis, user interviews
To gather a framework for the market standards, an analysis of competitors was conducted, including Buttah Skin, Plantkos, Glory Bronze, 4.5.6 Skin, Ustawi, Rose Ingleton MD, and Kinlō.
Most of the brands developed products with a licensed cosmetologist, pharmacist, or dermatologists
Many of the stakeholders of these products, (founders, co-founders, developers) have melanated skin
Most are brands have clinically tested their products
Competitive analysis:
User interviews
Needs & pain points:
current products don’t address hyperpigmentation
trying products can get expensive and don’t always work
difficult to know which products to try and which ones work because there are so many ads out there
Define: Affinity mapping, persona creation, HMW
From the information we retained from the user interviews, we created Grace Chan: a young woman who has problems with hyperpigmentation and acne scarring.
HMW:
At the beginning of this project, we started off with several how might we statements and had trouble narrowing it down to one. However, we noticed our statements were falling into two different themes: what product to use and what brand to choose/use.
We created a HCW statement to connect both themes: How can we establish trust in the brand and educate users in choosing the right product for their needs?
Develop: Define MVP, lo-fi prototype creation
After having spent time ideating possible product ideas, we were able identify key areas to develop to best serve our target audience.
The product we emphasized are pamphlets with information about the brand and their products. Another feature we emphasized was the QR code for users to scan to take them to MELE’s website where it lists the ingredients or each of the products as well as the benefits of each.
Deliver:
After deliberating as a group and creating a storyboard, we designed these pamphlets to give out on college campuses during events such as welcome week, or during finals week so students can take care of their skin after a stressful week. We kept it simple, but also sleek, trying to match it to the product packaging.