/ Digital Design

SkinCare App

SkinCare App

With SkinCare App in just a few taps, everyone with a smartphone can check the skin for the most common skin diseases, including the most harmful ones. The app will offer skin care products based on the person’s needs. If the skin problems are a severe and potential hazard to life, SkinCare will detect them and offer a person to make an appointment with a doctor.

With SkinCare App in just a few taps, everyone with a smartphone can check the skin for the most common skin diseases, including the most harmful ones. The app will offer skin care products based on the person’s needs. If the skin problems are a severe and potential hazard to life, SkinCare will detect them and offer a person to make an appointment with a doctor.

Skills Needed:


Categories:

Project URL:

Detailed report

About the App

SkinCare App uses advanced AI technologies and therefore saves people’s time. That means there is no need to fill in tons of information manually. All the person needs to take a picture of the problem area, and the AI ​​will provide the necessary treatment. SkinCare progress can be easily saved to track the records. Daily/weekly recommendation pop-ups are based not only, but also adapt on the actual treatment but also adapts to the geolocation and weather conditions.

Design Process (User Centred)

Timeline

General Problem

Millions of people around the world suffer from skin disorders. Most skin conditions can be effectively controlled with inexpensive creams and periodic visits to the doctor. In most cases, a person can live long without any signs of illness. However, most people have never consulted a doctor to diagnose and receive appropriate treatment. According to a small study conducted in Munich, 58% of the respondents never underwent a skin cancer screening (Tizek et al., 2019). Almost 60% of these people were diagnosed with skin disease due to an examination by a dermatologist. More than 40% have never visited a dermatologist. Half of these people were diagnosed with skin disease due to an examination by a dermatologist during the study. More than 25% rarely or never self-examined their skin. This report covers a relatively small amount of people and cannot be considered representative. However, it shows a general trend.

The results of another study are no less impressive, because of it is the largest ever undertaken in Europe (Say Communications, 2021). Data was gathered from 44,689 people in 27 European nations, including the EU’s member states and the UK, Norway, and Switzerland.

According to preliminary data, out of 21,401 general population participants, 47.9% of those 18 years or older self-reported having at least one skin problem. In addition, those affected reported an average of two skin disorders.

When these numbers are extrapolated to the 408 million adults in the NEUKS (Norway, European Union, UK, and Switzerland) population, it becomes clear that more than 195 million adults in Europe self-reported were having at least one skin ailment.

Fungal skin infections are the most prevalent skin ailment among individuals surveyed (9.07%), affecting nearly 1 in 10 people. Other prevalent disorders included atopic dermatitis (eczema) (5.34%), alopecia (5.22%), and acne (5.49%), each of which affected more than 1 in 20 adults.

According to the statistics, eczema, acne, warts, contact dermatitis and psoriasis are the most common skin diseases in the UK. To be precise, 20% of children are affected by eczema, and about 50% of teenagers have acne, while psoriasis affects about 1.7% of the British population (The University of Manchester, 2019).

On the other hand, detecting some diseases in time is crucial. The most prevalent type of cancer among Americans is skin cancer. In the United States, skin cancer diagnoses surpass all other cancers, such as breast, prostate, lung, and colon cancer (American Academy of Dermatology, n.d.).

Furthermore, According to the American Academy of Dermatology, more than 3 million Americans are infected by BCC or SCC each year. It is more likely for a person to develop skin cancer again after receiving one diagnosis, but there are steps to take to lower the risk.

Namely, melanoma is the most dangerous kind of skin cancer. The reason is that the same skin cells that produce moles here are where it grows. Melanoma is especially harmful because of this.

However, when it first appears, it may resemble a benign mole.

Compared to BCC or SCC, melanoma affects fewer people. According to the American Cancer Society, it only accounts for 1% of all skin cancer incidences. However, the bulk of deaths are caused by it (Healthline, 2019).

According to data compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO), 17,852 instances of melanoma skin cancer were identified in the United Kingdom in 2018 (Melanoma UK, 2020).

This indicated that 2,764 people passed away from melanoma skin cancer. According to the WHO, by 2025, there will be 9% more cases of melanoma skin cancer (19,513) and 13% more fatalities (3,119).

By 2040, nearly 22,886 people will be diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer, a 28% increase on 2018 figures, while 3,968 will die from the disease 44% increase.
Globally, the incidence of melanoma skin cancer was found to have reached epidemic proportions.

Cases of melanoma skin cancer are predicted to rise from 287,723 in 2018 to 340,271 in 2025, an increase of 18%. By 2040, cases will reach nearly half a million (466,914), an increase of 62%. Deaths will rise 20% from 60,712 in 2018 to 72,886 in 2025 and reach 105,904, a 74% increase, in 2040. 92% recognise that sun exposure can cause health problems, but 61% believe that having tanned skin is attractive.

Although modern medicine can fight various types of cancer effectively, skin cancer, being diagnosed too late, can kill a person in just a few months. On the other hand, detecting tumours in the early stages can save lives.

Due to the high pace of life, expensive medicine, and inability to get to a doctor’s appointment on time, people tend to ignore their health. Today, thanks to the rapid development of technology, and especially the development of AI, an ordinary phone camera can detect problems with the skin. It has already become a common practice for dermatologists around the globe to use expensive technologies specifically developed for their needs to detect harmful skin conditions.

While complex technologies have become accessible to everyone, a person can effectively receive treatment advice in just a few seconds using a mobile device, whether an ordinary cream or an alert about an urgent visit to the doctor.

Technologies change people’s attitudes to various things, but it is still an ongoing process to change the perception of one’s health. The field of healthcare apps is in active development, and the biggest competition is still to come.

SkinCare App is an effective solution for those, who suffer from skin diseases. It is designed to help both target audiences: those with minor skin diseases and those with severe health conditions.

User Perspective and Research Approach

Understanding the user perspective is essential for gaining insight into their motivations as potential customers of the product we are developing. To support this, several acquaintances were interviewed during the discovery phase. All participants had experienced skin-related issues at some point in their lives. Additionally, some had dealt with serious skin problems affecting their family members, which gave them a deeper understanding of the topic.

Interview Questions Included:

  • Have you experienced problematic skin in the past ten years?
  • What skincare products do you use for treatment?
  • How do you track progress and observe changes in your skin after treatment?
  • Do you consider skincare to be critically important?

Given that health-related information is highly personal, all respondents agreed to participate in the short survey anonymously.

Market (Competitor) Analysis

Beauty fixers & make-up editors are popular in the market of mobile applications. They mostly use AR technologies but, at the same time, are generally used for entertainment purposes.

Similar to the SkinCare app, the niche is relatively small and undeveloped. Very few applications combine healthcare capabilities (detection of skin diseases) and recommendations for effective methods and means of treatment. Moreover, applications that select care products allow buying them immediately and, in the case of serious diseases, arranging an appointment with a doctor, if any, is generally unpopular. Another problem for the end user is the price to be paid for use.

Several dozen apps directly or indirectly related to skin care are available in the AppStore. However, none of them is the undisputed market leader, as both the number of downloads and the rating of each are low.

Therefore, the field of skincare is promising for improvement, especially considering the latest advances in AI and AR.

Pros
  • Daily recommendations for skin care.
  • Apps are creating a photo database of photos through different periods to track facial skin conditions.
  • Apps have convenient interfaces and navigation (TroveSkin, Charm).
  • Some apps have a full-fledged online store for skin care products (TroveSkin).
  • Some of the apps are well-designed. Meet standards and are consistent.
  • Some of the apps are easy to use.
Cons
  • Too many steps during onboarding. One of the market leaders, the Charm app, has ten screens with personal information to fill in.
  • Daily recommendations are based on information entered by the user. They do not consider, for instance, location, weather conditions, and air quality.
  • Most apps work as facial skin condition trackers that can capture photos and save them in the calendar.
  • However, all the textual information about the current skin condition must be entered manually.
  • Almost all apps are free to download, but full functionality becomes available only after an expensive monthly (1-30 GBP/month) subscription.
  • The textual recommendations for skin care are too long – some are stretched over 5-8 screens.

There are also plenty of web solutions on the market, and some have pretty powerful functionality, according to the description. However, a superficial analysis suggests that these are highly specialized programs created for private companies rather than for the average user. The critical difference from mobile apps is that doctors interpret the results directly, which explains the extremely high price.

Pros
  • Precise results are subject to review by doctors in addition to computer evaluation.
  • Custom prescriptions are based on profoundly personal scanning.
  • Self-sufficient Web Solutions are not only for diagnosis but also for entertainment (e.g. Make Up functions included in prescription).
Cons
  • Web Solution.
  • Slow diagnosis process.
  • Poor functionality. Skincare AR from Perfect solutions, for example, can only detect several skin conditions and is not serving the purpose of the powerful diagnoses app.
  • Costly (300+ GBP/month), thus only available for some people.

Persona

Experience Takeaways

Behaviours
  • I need an app that can track my skin condition and warn me if there is something I need to fix.
  • I need an app that will recommend trustworthy products to purchase.
  • I need an easy way to contact my doctor if my skin condition needs therapy.
Key Goals
  • Keep skin in top condition
    Cure light skin conditions without visiting a doctor
  • Prevent or early diagnose severe skin conditions
  • Save time and money
Partners
  • Receive valuable feedback on recent products from the target audience.
  • Receive a consistent income from the relevant products advertised in the app.
  • Significant spreading of an advertising campaign in collaboration with the App owners and the product brand itself.
Think
  • I am not the only one. There are lots of people who suffer from skin diseases, and they are taking care of their health. I should do too.
  • Successful stories encourage me to take care of myself. There are plenty of really effective products, and I can use them with the guarantee of the result.
Feel
  • I can trust the results.
  • I want to feel confident that the results of my therapy are available only for myself and my doctor.
  • The app supports me but not annoying with the frequent adverts of products. I receive only relevant and valuable notifications.
Do
  • I can share my experience with purchased products with others.
  • I should perform checkups periodically because it’s easy and doesn’t require much time.

Problem & Solution

People often do not know that they suffer from skin diseases.
Provide an easy-to-use mobile app for convenient self-diagnosis.
Due to the pace of life, especially in big cities, people are too busy to go to doctors for check-ups.
The app detects all the major skin diseases using advanced AI technologies in just a few seconds.
People suffering from skin diseases often do not know that it is possible to cure or at least hide the symptoms thanks to the cream sold around the corner of the house.
Depending on the detected skin disease, the app suggests a list of oils, creams and liquids to treat the disease. Those can be purchased online or booked in advance to collect from the nearest pharmacy.
People do not believe if the effectiveness of creams and oils because there is a lack of user feedback.
Provide product reviews from real people who purchased the items before.
Available apps in the market require too many actions from users to perform and do not benefit from AI possibilities.
Simplify the user journey to the app’s main features to speed up the process of checking the skin.
Available apps in the market require a user to pay for a subscription. Therefore they are not available to everyone.
All functions are free for everyone. However, the partners (pharmacy companies) pay expenses for the app maintenance.
People do not diagnose serious skin problems in time, which leads to expensive and long-term treatment, and sometimes death.
SkinCare app can recognise serious skin diseases like cancer and notify the user to book an appointment with a dermatologist. This can be quickly done in the app.

Information Architecture

Sketches

At the initial sketching stage, the goal was to understand how the main sections would look – the primary (home) screen (non-personalized as well as personalized), the store selection, the doctor selection and the progress tracker. The app’s core is camera analysis and AI, so it was also essential to understand how the real-time skin condition tips and the interim diagnosis screen would look.

Wireframes (HiFi)

HiFi wireframes show more details and connections between elements and include irregular design patterns. Most of the assets were created at this stage, and the icon set was already chosen.

Brand Identity

Screens

Prototype

User Feedback

The prototype in the Figma preview was shown to three people with different professional backgrounds to receive feedback. They were not involved in the development process of this app at any stage. The goal was to define weak points for further improvement and determine which ideas work well.

Good
  • I like the colors, they’re sort of soft, so work well with the skin care app.
  • Selecting body parts before photographing is a good idea. The results are supposed to be more accurate
  • Summary after taking pictures looks well. It is good that a return button to the Home screen is present.
  • The store is generally well designed. There are convenient filters, such as selection by product type and ingredients.
  • The whole process of ordering the product is decent.
  • There is everything I need on the screens with doctor selection and on the screen with booking an appointment.
To be improved
  • I’d really like the option to sign in with my Google account or Apple id.
  • I’m not sure why I need to give my phone number at this point. I do not really trust the app right now, so it would be great to be able to add a phone (if required for booking a doctor) later. Plus it would help me get to home screen faster.
  • Filling in a short form as the first option on the personalised screen must be clarified. It would be better to use the skin check option in the first place.
  • The personalisation screen is complicated. It would be beneficial to simplify it.
  • I want a screen with my summary details. For instance, how long I use the specific drugs etc. My skincare profile tab would be great to have.
  • It would be a good idea to upload an existing photo for analysis.
  • The leftovers bar needs to be presented better. Add review button needs to be clarified.
  • The daily routine is the first thing I want to see on the personalised screen. Also, add new tools not necessarily bought in the store.
  • The yellow container with personalised location-based recommendations should be redesigned. It now resembles the weather program.
  • Article search would be better to move from the home page to the blog’s home page.
  • The doctor’s profile page. A list of the current and previous workplaces would be beneficial.
  • An information screen appears after the doctor is selected. Users can be transferred immediately to the appointment booking page.

Ivanna Skuba,
Product Marketing Manager, Lutsk, Ukraine, 28 years

Good
  • Intuitive interface.
  • Good functionality.
  • The ability to communicate with a doctor and an internal calendar are the advantages of the app.
To be improved
  • Interaction with the marketplace.
  • There is a lack of a clear and easily accessible menu with products added to the cart.

Yurii Stupen,
Project Manager, Kyiv, Ukraine, 24 years

Good
  • I like the design, the soothing colours.
  • The idea is engaging. It’s interesting to scan all the parts of your body
  • The pretty broad functionality of the application. You can not only check your skin but also book an appointment with a doctor or even buy some medicines.
  • Pleasant reminders and articles about hydrating or using SPF.
To be improved
  • I like the design, the soothing colours.
  • The idea is engaging. It’s interesting to scan all the parts of your body
  • The pretty broad functionality of the application. You can not only check your skin but also book an appointment with a doctor or even buy some medicines.
  • Pleasant reminders and articles about hydrating or using SPF.

Pavlo Konovalov,
Motion Designer, London, UK, 34 years

The Future of the Project

After conducting thorough research, user interviews, identifying key pain points, and shaping user-centred design solutions, we began pitching the project to investors. At the same time, we collaborated with developers and AI specialists to explore ways of bringing the concept to life—at least to the MVP stage.

However, we discovered that the biggest challenge was not a lack of funding, but rather legal and regulatory barriers, particularly regarding access to medical data. Additionally, obtaining a sufficiently large and diverse image dataset to train the AI for accurate skin condition detection proved to be a significant obstacle. At that time, several labs around the world were already working on similar AI-driven solutions, with some achieving up to 80% accuracy.

Taking into account the potential risks and high resource demands, we decided to pause active development and continue monitoring advancements in AI and healthcare regulations. This will allow us to reassess the project’s feasibility at a later stage with a stronger foundation.

Resources

Home

Read Next

  • Wandershot

    A travel-based photography platform that connects aspiring photographers through affordable, mentor-led international trips.

  • Out of the Box Solutions

    A brand identity and responsive website developed to establish the company’s credibility and strengthen its digital presence in the UK consulting sector.

Check categories

Digital Design

Brand Identity

Communications

Print & Data Visualisation