Livshows
September 2019 - June 2020
Product Manager & UX Designer
Proposal.
A reimagined men's section that integrates and introduces makeup to men as a viable product option while enhancing the assistance provided in an online cosmetics shopping setting to help customers make correct and satisfied purchases.
The people's beauty brand.
Clinique is an American skincare and cosmetics company under Estee Lauder Companies. We put an initial focus on researching Clinique's overall Brand in the aspects of their business model, market position and branding guidelines. This is to ensure any generated insights, opportunities, and proposals add competitive value to Clinique but stay on-brand.
Focusing on the diversity pillar in Clinique's brand identity.
Cosmetics domain insights.
Looking into the current domain space of skincare, beauty and cosmetics, research on trends, behaviors, customers and competitors were synthesized into three driving insights.
01 Shifting consumer behaviour in men: An increasing trend in recent years for men to maintain or correct their looks causes them to increasingly seek out new aesthetically enhancing products and treatments both in-store and online.
02 Clinique's current state: Clinique has gained traction towards targeting men through past campaigns and collaboration with GQ Men. They have a large existing customer base of men using their skincare products and a massive influx of new customers.
03 Online over physical: Customers tend to research and feel more comfortable shopping out of their comfort zone online compared to a physical store.
What is the experience of the current men's section like?
Clinique current men's section only displays products with little to no assistance leading to frequent dissatisfied and mismatched skin irritant purchases
An Opportunity.
Through our domain insights, we collectively saw an opening worth pursuing. Core questions that impacted our decision were "can this add any competitive value towards Clinique", "What value offerings is the customer receiving" and "Is there a level of unique differentiation from existing competitors."
01 Leverage clinique's all-inclusive brand to create a platform that digitally helps men instill confidence with their facial skin.
02 Offer and entice men that makeup can act as a temporary solution to pair alongside skincare acting as a permanent solution.
03 Enhance the assistance provided in an online cosmetics shopping setting to drive correct and satisfied purchases.
Men and makeup. A potentially sensitive topic.
Tackling a domain like this, we realized that it dove into enveloping topics of gender identification, feminine versus masculine and an overall stigma towards men using makeup. To ensure that our product and content strategy was not only empathetic but correct, we allocated extra time to research and talk to professional individuals to fully understand these sensitive topics better.
What kind of relationship do men have with cosmetics?
We sought out 21 interviewees (10 with skin concerns, 11 without skin concerns) from the target audience for long focused interview sessions. The questions dove into skincare, makeup, cosmetics and ranged from daily routines to their perspective on makeup. I encouraged participants to story-tell their answers and give real-life examples when possible.
Customer research insights.
Based on our synthesized interview answers, surveys and further secondary research, we generated four driving insights.
01 Men were more open to using makeup if they had real facial concerns.
02 The main reason men wanted to use makeup was to look good for important events such as interviews and dates.
03 Two driving factors that made men willing to buy makeup are knowing that the products are quick to apply and natural-looking.
04 17 out of 18 men who were willing to purchase makeup for the first time expressed that they would need guidance on how to use it.
Framing.
We established two important frames based on the research insights that guided the sprint process.
01 How might we convey to men that light makeup can be a not only natural-looking but quick to apply short-term option?
02 How might we effectively help men choose the right products catered to their skin goals and guide them through the process of learning how to use it?
Customer Persona.
Through our insights and frame, we crafted the 'customer with skin blemishes' persona to ensure we understood the customer's perspective when shaping our intervention strategy.
Re-shaping the customer flow.
Current Customer Flow.
New Customer Flow.
The new interaction flow adds two new entry points of a 'look your best' section and a personalized solution section while retaining the option to browse products immediately.
Recognizing that returning customers and customers that have already decided upon what to purchase on the same homepage space we're reiterating on, we retain browse products and adding to cart as an option throughout each new page. This is to ensure customers don't have to take unnecessary steps if they've made up their minds early.
The 'look your best' section aims to convince customers that makeup products can be a viable temporary option.
The personalized solution section aims to help customers digitally help them find the right products catering to their facial concerns.
Proposing Clinique For Men.
To digitally help men reinstill confidence in their facial skin, we propose a reimagined men's section that integrates and introduces makeup to men as a viable short-term option to pair alongside skincare as a long term solution. It also aims to help men choose the right products catered to their specific facial concerns and guide them through learning how to use them.
Enter + Discover A homepage that balances skincare and makeup.
The new men's homepage acts as a discovery point to first introduce makeup. A 'look your best' section leverages the research insight that men want to enhance their appearance for important events temporarily. Through this, we position our content strategy for the section to target occasions men have highlighted to want to look good for important events such as interviews, dates and meetings.
The "Look your best" section intro on the New Men's Homepage.
Explore + Convince: Informing men that light makeup can be a viable option.
Exploring the Look your best section aims to inform and convince men that light makeup products can be a natural-looking and quick to apply option. Interacting with the buttons and sliders shows the visual difference that makeup can make for various skin blemishes.
Clicking into the look your best section and interacting.
Engage + Choose: Smart product picks from a personalized journey.
The digital skincare journey looks to engage and help customers choose the correct products catered to their facial skin goals by gauging their current skin conditions.
Clicking into the look your best section and interacting.
Onboarding: A skin coach to help with those unknown "scary terms."
During our initial sprint prototype user testing, most men proclaimed that they had difficulty understanding skin-related terminology when navigating the personal journey section. We embedded a quick onboarding process within the journey to guide customers in understanding the context and language presented.
Onboarding helper embedded into the personalized journey.
Engage + Choose: A catered solution.
After completing the journey, a personalized product page is generated based on the customer's skin. The section aims to further engage and introduce makeup as a short-term solution that pairs alongside the long term solution of skincare.
Clicking into the look your best section and interacting.
Extend + Guide: Post-sale guidance through easy step-by-step visuals.
A post-sale follow-up email is sent and links to a personalized guide providing visual guidance on how to use each of the customer's recently purchased products. The instructions are designed to be easily digestible for an individual that's entirely new for both makeup and skincare alike.
Clicking into the look your best section and interacting.
The value proposition for Customers
Tangible Value: Assist in choosing the correct products relevant to their facial skin concerns while introducing viable options to help them address it both in the short term and long term.
Intangible Value: Increased comfort and confidence with their looks provided by makeup.
The value proposition for Clinique
Tangible Value: Drive increased revenue from the integration of makeup in the men's section.
Intangible Value: Improve customer loyalty, satisfaction and willingness to repurchase by helping customers choose products correct to them.
Takeaway.
This project was one of the most influential learning experiences for me as a designer as I realized just how important designer empathy, content strategy and understanding your current intervention's domain is when tackling sensitive or unknown topics. Since the project's intervention revolved around gender and an overall stigma towards men using makeup, a heavy investment was needed in first understanding the domain and then translating it into proper content strategy.