Clearify

Born out of a collaboration at Creative Labs, a student-led design organization at UCLA, Clearify aims to solve a common dilemma in the online skincare market: the overwhelming task of understanding and comparing product ingredients.

As part of the Clearify team, I contributed to the design system, surveys, and wireframing, ensuring a seamless and intuitive user experience for the Chrome extension.

The skincare industry, with its rapid growth and vast product offerings, often leaves consumers feeling overwhelmed, particularly when shopping online. Users frequently struggle to understand complex ingredient lists and discern which products are suitable for their specific skin types and concerns — such as sensitivity, acne-proneness, or allergies to ingredients like sulfates or parabens.

This complexity is heightened for those new to skincare, who find navigating through the options confusing and time-consuming.

We conducted an in-depth competitive analysis spanning API resources and existing skincare analysis products to identify opportunities for innovation and differentiation.

We surveyed 22 respondents — primarily university students — to understand their skincare shopping behaviors and preferences.

Develop a browser extension that streamlines the skincare product selection process by providing immediate, personalized ingredient analysis and recommendations.

This Chrome extension was designed to demystify skincare shopping, making it personalized and accessible for every user. Clearify scans and analyzes product ingredients across various e-commerce platforms, turning a daunting task into an informative and user-friendly experience.

We crafted a streamlined user flow to serve as the backbone of our Minimum Viable Product. This allowed us to deliver a functional product quickly, focusing on core features to meet primary user needs with the potential for iterative improvements based on feedback.

Clearify's visual language was crafted to embody security and foster confidence within the digital skincare space. The design was guided by the goal of establishing a serene and dependable environment, where users could feel assured in their skincare choices.

The library features a modern aesthetic, employing a soothing green color palette and clean typography to convey reliability and ease. Strategic use of space enhances readability, while consistent UI elements promote a seamless, intuitive experience.

In our mid-fidelity wireframes, we honed in on a cohesive visual design that enhances user experience. A unified input field maintained clear visual hierarchy, while actionable prompts guided users through the ingredient analysis process.

We conducted an internal round of usability testing with our team due to time constraints, creating tasks to test navigation and gather first impressions. This provided key insights for changes within our initial user flow.

The final extension brings together all research and iteration into a polished, approachable product. Three core screens carry users from the welcome moment through ingredient input to personalized results.

Clearify is available now as a free Chrome extension. Install it from the Chrome Web Store and get instant, personalized ingredient analysis while browsing any skincare product page.

Embarking on the Clearify project was a true test of agility and user-centric design. It taught me the importance of being adaptable, as user feedback often led us down new and unexpected paths. The biggest takeaway? Design with empathy, and be ready to pivot when user insights demand it.

With more time, I would delve deeper into enhancing the educational aspect of Clearify — a feature to evaluate and ensure the reliability of user-generated content would maintain platform integrity. Long-term user engagement is also a priority, with a personalized ingredient learning system that introduces users to one new ingredient each day.