To improve Real Raw Shea’s website so that users can find products easier and better understand what they’re buying.

3 research methods were used in this phase. The first was a survey completed by 44 participants. The next were user interviews; I interviewed 2 out of the 5 participants. Finally there were 3 participants for a usability test of the slightly modified version of the original site.

Our synthesis involved breaking down the qualitative results of the surveys and usability tests, as well as uploading the recorded interviews and usability tests to Otter.ai for dictations. Highlights of the interviews and usability tests were pulled and placed on digital sticky notes for an Affinity Map on Figjam.

Together with my teammates, we each took our sticky notes and divided them into categories to better understand how users think and feel. The categories were Environment, Where They Buy, Price, Ethics, Ingredients and numerous others.

• Customers buy either online or in person depending on price and convenience.

• If a company can provide proof that their products are organic and sustainable and actually work then they support the business wholly. 

• Skincare is expensive, so they only buy what’s cheap yet reliable. 

• They like supporting companies that sell products with a mission and are transparent about their business practices and production methods. 

• They want products to be simple, moisturizing, have minimal ingredients, and to be supported by scientific evidence.  

• They follow a morning and night routine with products catering to their skin type. 

• Positive reviews are key to their purchasing. Skincare must have a good reputation with both the industry and customers. 

• They find products through online skincare groups, recommendations from friends and through advertisements. 

• For the overall experience and quality of the product, skincare must make skin look good, feel good, layer well with other products, and give the desired/promised results.

• For the site itself, participants were confused by the site’s content. Because the site focused so much on the women's collective who worked behind the scenes and less about the product they were selling, participants felt that RRS was more like a charity than an e-commerce website. 

• Participants also felt that the website was lacking information, such as what shea butter is and why it can be used for skincare.

Our persona was Daniella Cooper, a 29-year-old marketing professional from Boston, MA who’s learning how to develop a skincare regimen that’s organic, ethical, sustainable, and good for her skin. The products she uses have to be cost-effective, reliable, scientifically researched, and layer well with her other products. The problem for her is that so many companies are making false promises about sustainability and natural ingredients for the sake of marketing, aka “greenwashing”. She wants to find products and companies that are true to their word, that the product works well, and feel morally good about her purchasing decisions.

The journey map begins with Daniella happy and excited to start looking for a natural moisturizer. She searches online and is confused and curious as to why so many products are expensive and what ingredients are in them. She searches for a website with simple skincare and comes across Real Raw Shea’s site, but can’t tell if it’s a skincare site or a charity. She finds a product and adds it to her shopping cart, but is unsure if she should even use shea or if it’ll work for her skin because the website doesn’t go into enough detail on their product. Ultimately she decides to look somewhere else instead of spending her money on something she knows very little about.

Together we developed our problem statement and HMWs to best solve Daniella’s issue with buying into Real Raw Shea, as it’s the exact kind of business she was looking for and she didn’t even know it. To support this a user flow was created to map out what would likely be her preferred path when navigating an independent skincare site.