Redesign the essential oil recipe finding experience to meet the needs of two distinct user groups

Company
Yuanxin Tech.
Time
3 months
Current State
Launched
Team
Product Designer, Product Manager, Front-end Engineer

Product Brief

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Dr. Mom is an app that specializes in helping users find the essential oils and recipes they need.

Dr. Mom is an app that specializes in helping users find the essential oils and recipes they need.

Dr. Mom is an app that specializes in helping users find the essential oils and recipes they need.

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What are essential oils and recipes?

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What are essential oils and recipes?

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What are essential oils and recipes?

old Version

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Final outcome

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Business Goal

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Increase the number of paid subscribers

Design approach

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Optimize the information architecture of current recipe-finding experience to provide detailed and clear information.

Design a straightforward and friendly recipe-finding experience that doesn't require users to have essential oil knowledge.

Imapct

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+22.6%

Number of Subscribers

+34.2%

User Satisfaction

problem Analysis

User groups

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Essential Oil Enthusiast

I'm not into learning about essential oils, but I'm excited to use them for a better life.

Aromatherapist

I know a lot about essential oils, and I use them to help people out.

Use cases

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User needs

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Enthusiast prefer not to have essential oil knowledge during decision-making, while aromatherapists seek additional information to aid their decisions.

How’s their current experience of finding recipe?

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Enthusiasts

Aromatherapist

Both of them

I found that each user group experienced

Information Overload

And based on their psych level curve, I found that…

Information overload impacts enthusiasts' experiences more negatively than it does aromatherapists' experiences.

WHY?

Aromatherapists:

  • The information in each page is disorganized.

  • Not sure the key goal of each page.

Enthusiasts:

Struggle to determine which recipes suit them best due to their lack of domain knowledge.

How can I craft an experience that meets the needs of two distinct user groups?

Firstly, I split flow for these two distinct user groups

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WHY: Aromatherapists' problems can be solved by redesigning the information architecture of the flow. However, enhancing enthusiasts' experience is challenging in the browsing interaction mode.

Old Flow

Old Flow

New Flow

New Flow

Then I choose the homepage to split flow

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Option A

Option A

Health Issue Page

Health Issue Page

Option B

Option B

Homepage

Homepage

  • Enthusiasts can access the feature designed for them easily and intuitively.

  • It has the least impact on the experience of aromatherapists.

and redesigned the homepage:

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Before

After

After conducting the user test, we found that our users loved it!


  • 78% of users understood the choices and easily navigated to their desired flow

  • Most enthusiasts found the new homepage more pleasant than the previous version.

Secondly, I used different design strategies for each user groups

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Optimize the information architecture of current recipe-finding experience to provide detailed and clear information.

Design a straightforward and friendly recipe-finding experience that doesn't require users to have essential oil knowledge.

aromatherapist flow redesign

The main problem happened in these two pages:

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Homepage

Search page

Search result page

Recipe detailed page

Search result page redesign

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Design decision

Add a new page for recipe choosing, so user only need to choose health issue in search result page

recipe detail page redesign

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Problem analysis

This page includes multiple tasks, which overwhelmed and confuse user.

Design decision

Redefine the page structure to separate the tasks clearly.

Before

After

Final design

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Essential Oil Enthusiast flow design

Essential Oil Enthusiast flow design

Challenge

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Enthusiasts lack basic essential oil knowledge to make decisions during the recipe-finding process.

How might we

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How might we guide enthusiast through a aromatherapy consultation-like flow?

How does aromatherapy consultation like?

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I conducted research through various methods, including interviews with experts, watching informative YouTube videos.

Aromatherapy consultation process

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Preparation

Assessment

Plan and Recommendations

Task flow

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which Interaction mode works best for enthusiast ?

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Browsing

PROS:

  • Information at a Glance

  • Self-Paced Exploration

CONS:

  • Not suitable for freshman due to the knowledge gap

Questionnaire-style

PROS:

  • Consistent layout lead to high efficiency

  • Progress bar can reduce user uncertainty

CONS:

  • Questionnaire-style feels like a test, lacks a human touch

Conversational

PROS:

  • Experience with empathy

  • Easy and engaging experience

CONS:

  • User has higher expectation of functionality

  • Low efficiency

A: Questionnaire-style

PROS:

  • Straightforward step-by-step experience.

  • Progress bar can reduce user uncertainty

CONS:

  • Questionnaire-style feels like a test, lacks a human touch

B: Conversational

PROS:

  • Friendly experience

  • Easy and engaging experience

CONS:

  • User has higher expectation of functionality

  • Low efficiency

Browsing

PROS:

  • Information at a Glance

  • Self-Paced Exploration

CONS:

  • Not suitable for freshman due to the knowledge gap

Questionnaire-style

PROS:

  • Consistent layout lead to high efficiency

  • Progress bar can reduce user uncertainty

CONS:

  • Questionnaire-style feels like a test, lacks a human touch

Conversational

PROS:

  • Experience with empathy

  • Easy and engaging experience

CONS:

  • User has higher expectation of functionality

  • Low efficiency

Usability test

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key findings

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Users appreciate the straightforward nature of questionnaire-style interactions. However, they also prefer conversational interactions for the friendly experience they provide

Users appreciate the straightforward nature of questionnaire-style interactions. However, they also prefer conversational interactions for the friendly experience they provide

Users appreciate the straightforward nature of questionnaire-style interactions. However, they also prefer conversational interactions for the friendly experience they provide

Final interation type

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A + B (Questionnaire-style + Conversational)

A + B (Questionnaire-style + Conversational)

Straightforward and friendly experience

Straightforward and friendly experience

lo-Fi Wireframe

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Final outcome

Takeaway

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Fully understand user needs and designing a coherent task flow are pivotal to the entire product.

Comparing product design to building a house, user needs are the foundation, while the task flow is the framework.