User Research: Interviews

During the ideation phase of the project, I conducted user interviews to build new personas and to inform the design. I prepared an interview script with 9 open-ended questions, focusing on our target audiences’ values, motivations, and daily routines. In 2 days, I recruited and interviewed 6 users remotely. I referenced the user interview findings throughout the entire design process.

Interview Questions

• How often do you wear make-up?

• What are your opinions of the Fenty Brand?

• Walk me through your content creation process.

• How do you decide what content makes it to your social media platforms?

• Do you take brand deals? If yes, how do you decide what brand deals to take?

• Have you ever wanted to create content but ended up not doing it? What was the reasoning behind it?

• Do you engage with the beauty influencer community at all?

• Are you a member of any space dedicated to beauty influencers?

• How do you feel about a community to connect with other beauty influencers, creators, and enthusiasts?

User Research: Findings

My interviewees were 3x more likely to be inspired to make the best content quickly when they could get into the minds of others in the same field as well.

Having someone in their community to encourage them boosted their confidence tremendously.

User Research: Key Insights

There seem to be 3 relevant themes in the beauty influencer community: Motivation, Support & Community.

User Story: “As a beauty creator, I want a supportive community so I can be more productive in creating better content.”

Sketches & Lo-fi wireframing

I began the design process with low-fidelity sketches and wireframes to accelerate decision-making through visualization without losing time. My sketches were based on the initial user interviews, the business goal, and the heuristic evaluation. They each pointed to the fact that there were too many distractions in the flow. We came back to the sketches throughout the entire design process to make sure that we don’t lose sight of our primary goals and ideas.

UI Design

I moved on to design the final screens in Figma. My goal was to create a visual identity that’s aligned with the brand’s values and message. Also, I’ve checked the competition and took a deep dive into my catalog of references for inspiration. Here are some key points:

• I followed a bright, colorful and modern visual style to reflect the Fenty brand.

• How does your final design reflect your learnings about your users?

Learnings

This was my first UX design research project. I learned how important it was to have a diverse pool of candidates for user research in your projects as they have insights that could vastly improve the trajectory of your project.