Wellness & Health · AI

AI skincare & wellness app

A mobile app pairing AI skin analysis with a connected laser device and supplements. I joined the live product as senior designer and own its AI layer (daily insights, explained skin results, wellbeing reports), written as rules the team builds against.

Client's country
UK
Platform
iOS-first
My role
Senior Product Designer
Duration
5 months · 2025–2026
Before/after comparison: the moment the product proves its own value

Overview

A mobile app pairing AI skin analysis with a connected laser device and supplements.

Starting point

I joined a live product mid-flight, and part of the design already existed.

What I owned

The AI layer (daily insights, explanations of skin results, wellbeing reports), plus Apple Health integration, onboarding and core-screen enhancements.

Team

Senior on the team; mentoring a middle designer along the way.

Context

01

Product

Daily skin routines (laser sessions and supplements), AI skin scans with per-metric scores, personalized recommendations, before/after progress.

02

Users

Owners of the brand's laser device and supplement subscribers: wellness-invested, not tech experts. Guidance must feel supportive, never clinical or alarmist.

Approach

Audit

Reviewed the live app's flows for high-impact, low-dev-cost improvements.

Define the logic

AI behavior written as explicit rules: triggers, priorities, limits.

Prototype

Walkthroughs and hint animations in Lottie and Figma Make.

The AI layer is designed as a rule system, not magic: every insight has a reason, a signal and a limit.

Process

UX auditCompetitor analysisDiscoveryUser flowsAI logic specificationLottie / Figma Make prototypingUsability testing

01 · live app

UX audit

A prioritized list of high-impact, low-dev-cost fixes: the improvement backlog the work started from.

02 · onboarding & health patterns

Competitor analysis

How other apps ask for health data: most force it at onboarding. Led directly to the moment-of-relevance decision.

03

Discovery

Wireframe explorations of the Apple Health connection and the insight logic, aligning the AI-feature scope with the team before any design.

04

User flows

Insight delivery, scan, Apple Health connection and quiz, mapped end to end.

05

AI logic specification

Trigger, selection and display rules plus the metric×factor matrix: the spec the team builds against.

06 · Lottie + Figma Make

Walkthrough prototyping

Hint animations that made new features discoverable.

07 · testing the app on device

Design review

The build checked screen by screen on a real phone (overview, scan loading and the dark-circle, wrinkle and redness overlays) against the designs.

Core functionality

01

Home & routines

Problem

Skincare is made of small daily actions, and without them nothing happens, yet those are exactly what slips.

Hypothesis

If the routine is the app's entry point, the daily actions get ticked off instead of remembered.

Solution

Daily routine tracking: laser sessions and supplements. The app's entry point.

Home: the day's routines, laser and supplement cycles at a glance

The app's core, enhanced, but not mine.

03

Account

Problem

The device, the subscription and the profile lived in different places, and support got the same questions over and over.

Hypothesis

If the service layer sits in one section, people sort it out themselves.

Solution

Profile, connected device, supplement subscription: the app's service layer.

Account: menu, personal details, profile photo

The service layer: device and subscription in one place.

04

Apple Health integration

Problem

Health access is asked for at onboarding, before anyone understands why, and gets declined.

Hypothesis

If it is asked when the data becomes relevant, with what and why spelled out, consent is given knowingly.

Solution

A three-step connection: entry card → what data is used and why → granular data selection. Surfaced when it becomes relevant, not forced at onboarding.

Apple Health sync and a stress-driven insight on home

No data, no insights, so it comes first.

05

AI daily insights

Problem

Skin depends on sleep, stress, activity and weather, and none of that connection is visible to a person.

Hypothesis

If today's context is explained from live signals, the advice stops feeling arbitrary.

Solution

Cards on the home screen explain today's skin context from live signals: sleep, stress, activity and recovery, weather and UV.

Home with the Apple Health card and three daily insights: stress, weather, sleep

Why → signal → impact → advice.

06

Contributing factors in skin analysis

Problem

A below-baseline score left a person alone with 'why', and sceptical about the score.

Hypothesis

If the likely reason sits next to the result, a score reads as an explanation rather than a verdict.

Solution

For below-baseline scan results an inline “contributing factors” hint explains the likely why: dark circles ← short sleep, redness ← cold, dry weather. One primary factor at a time, never for good results.

Contributing factors: sleep behind dark circles, weather behind redness

Support, never diagnosis.

07

Wellbeing check-in & comparison report

Problem

Wellbeing is wider than skin, but asking about it daily burns people out on questionnaires.

Hypothesis

If a short check-in across four areas runs every two weeks, the trend is visible without survey fatigue.

Solution

A biweekly quiz across four areas (physical, energy, emotional, social) maps answers to named states and comparison charts with AI summaries. I restructured the entire question system.

Wellbeing check-in: overall state, the four areas measured, results over time

Cycle insights wait for reliable data.

08

Calendar enhancement

Problem

Routines, scans and insights lived as separate lists and never added up to a picture over time.

Hypothesis

If they come together in one calendar, a person sees the link between what they did and what changed.

Solution

The bigger picture: routines, scans and insights across time.

Calendar: the week strip expands into the full month with routine cycles

Routines, scans and insights across time.

09

Onboarding & feature walkthrough

Problem

Some features were simply never found, because nothing pointed at them on first open.

Hypothesis

If the key places are highlighted with animated hints, the features get found without a manual.

Solution

First-open highlighting of key features; hint animations built with Lottie and Figma Make improve discoverability.

Feature walkthrough: step-by-step hints for the timer, progress widgets and weekly overview

Hints on first open: short animations, not a tour.

10

Scan a friend

Problem

The app is hard to describe, because its value only lands after your own scan.

Hypothesis

If you can run a scan for someone else, the product sells itself.

Solution

Run a skin scan for someone else to show them the app: a growth loop designed into the product.

Scan a friend: a guest scan with the report sent by email, nothing saved in the app

A growth loop: the report goes by email, nothing is stored.

Key decisions

01

AI insights as a rule system, not a black box

Problem

“Show AI tips” easily becomes noise that erodes trust, especially in wellness, where alarmist or random advice is harmful.

Hypothesis

Insights keep trust only if every card can explain why it appeared: a rule system, not a black box.

Solution

Wrote the product logic as explicit rules: max 3 insight cards a day (+2 on refresh, then a close icon); insights only when a clear signal exists, never without a reason; signal priority runs limiting factors → environmental → positive reinforcement; every card carries reason → skin impact → gentle recommendation; a calm, non-medical tone is codified. Built the full metric×factor matrix: which signals may explain which skin metrics, primary vs secondary.

Proof

The logic shipped as the spec the team builds against.

02

Apple Health at the moment of relevance

Problem

Typical apps force health-data connection during onboarding, before the value is clear, hurting both conversion and trust.

Hypothesis

Users connect health data more willingly once the value of personalization is already visible, not at onboarding.

Solution

Connection lives as a dedicated card that appears when personalization becomes valuable; the info screen explains exactly which data is used and why; granular per-signal selection respects control. The card is styled white to align with Apple Health's visual language.

Proof

Competitor analysis of onboarding patterns plus the shipped flow.

03

Fixing the check-in's scoring integrity

Problem

Quiz questions mixed directions (some best-first, some worst-first), scales varied from 3 to 6 options, and negative phrasing put the best answer last, so users mis-tapped and scores couldn't be averaged cleanly.

Solution

Standardized every question: positive phrasing, best-to-worst order, consistent option counts per category, each answer mapped to a named chart state (“Very much” → “Energised”) so language stays consistent from question to result. Reverse-scored items handled explicitly.

Proof

A before/after question set; clean state mapping (e.g. 1.0–2.3 → Strong) now drives the comparison charts.

Outcome

  • AI insight rules: max 3 cards a day, each one reason → skin impact → advice
  • A metric × factor matrix behind 8 skin metrics: which signal may explain which score
  • Check-in restructured: 4 areas, one scale, every answer mapped to a named state

The insight system, the Apple Health flow, the check-in and the walkthroughs all shipped as the spec the team builds against. The AI layer explains itself.

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