AskHelen
the app for bundled tips & tricks in wellness & beauty
Beauty knowledge without overload: With Ask Helen, I have designed an app that bundles expert advice, routines and inspiration.
From research to wireframes to prototypes, a user-centered design was created that creates clarity and accompanies users in their everyday lives - in the bathroom, on the sofa or on the go.
Concept
As part of my final UX design project, I developed Ask Helen: an app that bundles beauty and wellness knowledge and offers users direct access to experts and collective routines.
The starting point was the observation that the market for self-care and beauty is booming, but users are often left with information overload and uncertainty.
The aim was to create a reliable, personalized and easily accessible platform that provides orientation and at the same time builds trust.
Mobile Demo-Prototype
Special features &
Challenges
User research: Interviews and personas revealed key pain points: information overload, costs, lack of trust.
Contextual inquiries: Observations in everyday life showed when and where the app is used (e.g. in the bathroom in the morning, on the sofa in the evening, on the go). These findings were incorporated directly into the navigation, amount of information and mood of the interface.
Design Language: Warm color palette, minimalist illustrations and a friendly tone of voice deliberately positioned Ask Helen as a companion rather than a "professional authority from above".
Iterations & Testing: From wireframes to prototyping to multiple feedback loops, every stage of the process was user-centered to create a clear, intuitive experience.
Competition and SWOT-analysis
User interview evaluation
User Test Reports
Sole responsibility for the entire UX process, accompanied by mentor feedback.
Concept development, information architecture and creation of wireframes.
Development of prototypes at various fidelity levels.
Iterative tests and continuous adjustments.
Development of a coherent design language system as a basis for later scaling.
Process
Erste Mid-fidelity Wireframes, Mobile
Result
The final product is an intuitive app that focuses on clarity and confidence, but also emphasizes the fun of beauty and self-care.
By focusing on context, everyday relevance and warmth, Ask Helen conveys a user experience that is both personal and professional.
Learnings
& Impact
This project showed me that iteration is at the heart of UX: what seems obvious to designers can be incomprehensible to users. Testing is the only way to see how intuitive a product actually is. The contextual inquiries in particular made it clear to me how strongly mood, environment and timing influence usage and that good UX design takes the context of its users' lives into account.
Today, I would modernize the design visually (more whitespace, more contemporary patterns etc.), but the basic idea remains strong: Ask Helen shows that knowledge doesn't just come from "experts", but also from the collective passing on of tips, routines and traditions.
Screenshots Mobile Wireframes