" How might we improve the haircut selection process with digital tools?"
Role
Project Manager
Timeline
6 weeks
Nov 2024 - Dec 2024
Team
1 Project Manager
3 UI/UX Designers
Tools & Skills
User Research
Design Systems
Usability Testing
Physical Prototyping
Overview
This project was developed as part of an upper-division Prototyping course at UC San Diego, which focuses on the intersection of design and innovation for the greater good. For our final project, we designed a physical solution to transform the haircut salon experience by addressing communication challenges between clients and stylists.
Our research, including online analysis, fieldwork, and user interviews, informed the development of a user-friendly kiosk that streamlines preference communication and enhances the check-in process.
The Challenge
Many salon clients, especially those with language, skill, or cultural differences, often face challenges in effectively communicating their desired styles, which can lead to dissatisfaction.
❌
Communication Barriers
Clients often struggle to clearly communicate their desired haircuts due to language, skill, or cultural differences.
❌
Inefficient Check-in and Consultation Processes
Current check-in and consultation processes can be slow, causing wait times and reducing styling time.
❌
Lack of Personalization and Consistency
Salons can struggle to provide consistent, personalized service, as preferences aren't always tracked effectively.
We want to create a kiosk to help customers communicate preferences accurately before meeting with a stylist. This self-service tool also speeds up the check-in process, ensures consistency in style requests.
Interface
Customize your haircut preferences
The user can choose their desired hairstyle, specify haircut details (length, layers, color), and upload inspiration photos to ensure their individual needs and preferences are met.
User control and clarity
Per usability principles, we ensure the user has control of their consultation, whether they want to review past styles or modify their current selections to ensure clarity.
Efficient communication with stylists
After finalizing their preferences, the interface prompts users to print a detailed ticket, providing stylists with a clear summary of the desired haircut to ensure accurate execution
Kiosk
Communicate, customize, create
With a more approachable digital interface, users can better define their desired haircut, ensuring the stylist understands their needs.
Outcomes
How did our users feel?
✅
Consultation time reduced by 20%
From initial observations of salon workflows, we identified inefficiencies in the stylist consultation process. With the introduction of the kiosk, we observed a significant reduction in the time spent on initial consultations.
✅
90% of users reported increased confidence in their style selection
By providing an interactive platform to explore and visualize various hairstyles and comprehensive user testing, our kiosk resulted in a 90% increase in self-reported confidence during the consultation process.
The Research
Fieldwork Observations
Addressing Salon Communication
To observe interactions between stylists and clients, one of our group
members visited a salon for a haircut and payed attention to patterns of
communication and challenges that may arise.
People use physical motions/verbal cues to show what they want
Customers often show inspiration photos from their phone
Stylists often check their phone to ensure their work is correct
Primary Research
User Research
To gain firsthand knowledge of client and stylist experiences, we conducted salon visits and user interviews. We conducted qualitative research through salon observations and user interviews.
Communication
How easy or difficult do you find it to communicate your desired haircut/style to a stylist?
Communication
What aspects of communicating with a stylist are most challenging?
Overall Experience
Have you experienced a miscommunication with a stylist that affected your satisfaction with the haircut?
Usability
How useful would it be to upload your face photo to visualize different styles?
Key Insights
Existing consultation methods are not always effective.
Through salon visits, we observed that stylists and clients often struggle to communicate effectively, leading to misunderstandings. We also discovered that reliance on visual aids like phone photos is common but not always sufficient.
45.5%
of participants reported difficulty in explaining their desired style to stylists due to social anxiety.
"I ended up with a hairstyle I didn't ask for… I think it could be improved with better communication or a ticket with instructions and clear details of what was asked and desired."
63.6%
of participants experienced a complete miscommunication with a stylist
"A haircut kiosk would be useful, it'll make communication faster since we can upload pictures to the kiosk and look for hair inspiration."
User Personas
Gaining User Perspective
Based on our research, we developed user personas to empathize with target users. These personas represent current and potential salon clients, detailing their backgrounds, goals, and obstacles.
Mission Statement
Our aim with this kiosk is to improve the salon experience by providing every client with personalized, accessible tools to communicate their desired hairstyle, preferences, and unique needs. This kiosk will allow clients to explore styles, customize details, and eliminate language or cultural barriers that may affect their salon experience. These kiosks will be located in salons, helping clients feel confident in their choices and satisfaction by ensuring their vision is understood and achieved.
Ideation
User Flow
Mapping out the user journey
Given that clients may feel anxious or uncertain when consulting about their haircut, ease of use is especially important to create a stress-free experience.
Wireframes
Low-Fidelity Designs
We started by creating low-fidelity wireframes to outline the app's core features, focusing on content and functionality over visual design.
Design Systems
Style Guide
We created a color palette to define the tone, mood, and personality of our design. We also selected typography to ensure readability and establish a clear visual hierarchy.
Kiosk Design
Conceptual Rendering
How did we bring our kiosk to life?
We designed our kiosk on Inkscape to be cut out with the lazer machine.
Behind the Build
See how we built and decorated the kiosk at UC San Diego's Makerspace with paint and woodworking tools!
The Final Product
Kiosk Features
iPad Holder
Our screen is attached on the top surface of our hexagonal kiosk. Its created with a triangular prism to ensure ease of use and ergonomics.
Front Cutout
These framed cut-outs serve as the scanner when uploading inspiration photos from your phone and the slot where the style ticket gets printed out.
Both of these features are accompanied by prompts in our screens to ‘scan phone’ and ‘get printed ticket’ in order to interact with them.
Mirror
Based on the user setting of hair salons, we wanted to visually implement a ‘vanity’ into our kiosk. This allows for the kiosk to be displayed seamlessly
with other elements of the salon while also having the mirror serve a
practical purpose for the VR feature.
Printed Ticket
Here are two styles of the ticket simulating haircut preferences that we will use to prototype in our showcase. A translation is included that matches the language of the stylist for easy communication.
After finalizing haircut. preferences, users prompt the printing of a ticket to hand to the stylist to efficiently communicate what they want.
Reflection
New Opportunities
Further usability testing with the Shear & Style kiosk could refine user satisfaction and expand its application to address a wider range of communication needs in the beauty industry, wherever clear and efficient communication is essential. For example, UI enhancements like clearer titles and minor salon ambiance tweaks were suggested that we hope to improve on if we decide to pick up this project once more.
What did I learn?
Design Beyond the Screen
The challenges of streamlining communication in a complex environment like a hair salon demanded a structured and analytical approach. I learned to break down intricate problems into smaller, manageable components, and to identify the core needs that our design needed to address. I've come to appreciate that embracing this iterative dialogue is essential for producing truly effective and resonant design solutions.
I truly enjoyed collaborating with my team to bring this project from initial concept to a functional prototype. ✿
Here's how we redefined the haircut consultation experience. 🌱
We redesigned the salon consultation process for clearer communication and greater client satisfaction, adding a digital kiosk for streamlined preference input and efficient stylist workflows.