Introduction

In collaboration with Procter & Gamble (P&G), my team developed a skincare product packaging solution that promotes purchasing at shelf and proper usage in home for skincare products. 

Through user research, synthesis, prototyping, and testing, we discovered user tensions and insights that lead us to our design decision. This project is under NDA and therefore detailed information about this project will remain confidential. 

Problem 

How might we design a skincare package that nudges a new target customer to buy certain products at shelf and then continues to nudge them into the proper usage of those products at home?

Solution

We 3D printed a final prototype with a clean packaging that is very innovative in the field of skincare packages. Our final solution incorporates 5 design requirements and  10 design features that meet the functional and emotional requirements of users. 

Team

Sophie Lancaster

Zicheng Gu

Lily Smith

Brandon Washington

Scope

Client Project

User Research

Product Design

Tool

Solidworks 

Adobe Dimension

Pen and paper

Post-its

Personal Contribution 

User Research: Interviewed 2 consumers for in-home visits 

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Synthesis and ideation: created journey map to demonstrate consumers’ process of buying and using the product

Prototyping & Testing: created 8 low-fidelity prototypes and interviewed 16 consumers for on-site visits

Design Research

We conducted in-home ethnographic research at the beginning. We visited 8 consumers and conducted interviews about their skincare experience. The open-ended questions we asked were related to their purchasing decisions and also about their using habits at home. We also asked them to demonstrate their skincare routine/regiment under the context to find the actual tensions. Through in-depth interviews and observations, we built empathy with our consumers and learned about their behaviors and habits which facilitated us the finding of insights and design opportunities. 

Synthesis & Ideation

After research, we downloaded our findings and constructed frameworks such as a  journey map that mapped out the consumer behaviors, emotions, and tensions to highlight the design opportunities.

From there, we narrowed down to 5 key tensions that we decided to focus on. We started to generate all sorts of prototyping ideas based on these 5 tensions. 

Prototyping & Testing & Iteration 

We have two rounds of prototyping and testing. In the first round, we created 14 low-fidelity prototypes using foam core and had one round of prototype testing with 8 consumers. We asked consumers questions about our prototypes to understand how they see our prototypes from their point of view and we asked open-ended questions about consumers’ skincare routine for details that we might miss during in home visit. We focused on answering questions and understanding the values and reasons behind consumers’ feedback, instead of choosing the best one of our prototypes. 

Based on the feedback, we created 10 more new low-fidelity prototypes and improved some of the prototypes from the first round of testing during the second round. We also created contexts for consumers encouraging them to interact with our prototypes in a more natural way: we set up a shelf and created a bathroom setting. 

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After two rounds of testings, we interviewed 16 consumers in total. We downloaded all the insights and did another round of synthesis and ideation to narrow in on our final solution. 

Final Solution and Deliverables

After all the research and testing, we came up with a solution with 5 design requirements that met consumers’ emotional and functional needs. Under these 5 design requirements, we incorporated 10 distinctive design features. The final solution evolved from one of the prototypes we created but all of the features were based on the insights we got from research and testing. 

We used Solidworks to build the model of our solution and 3D printed it. We also used Adobe Dimension to do the rendering works.  The final deliverables contained an executive summary, a consumer pitch video, branding and shelf present, presentation and a mid-fidelity prototype of our final solution. 

Reflection

01: Converge stage

After interviews and testings, findings were all over the place. The shining insights and design opportunities were hidden. So synthesis was essential before move on to ideation or a solution. The synthesis was a tough process that needs group efforts, but after it you could see the light. 

02: Diverge stage

Prototyping was actually a diverging process, I learned how to build and use low-fidelity prototypes to learn about consumers need and want. Prototyping was a way of thinking that helped me opened my mind. 

03: Storytelling

Making your design process as a story always helps flow your presentation and make your design decision more solid and clear. 

Special Thanks

To my dear teammates: Sophie Lancaster, Zicheng Gu, Lily Smith, and Brandon Washington. 

To professors: Jim Wicks and Helen von den Steinen.

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To the sponsor: Procter & Gamble (P&G). 

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To all the customers we interviewed.