A client came to us in 2022 with a cool idea. However, in essence, that's all we had. Just an idea to improve the organization of work for beauty masters. We had worked with a similar topic before and developed ideas from scratch. In this project we also took over partially the product part (the discovery phase - the very first, important and obligatory phase). The team started by gathering the information we needed to understand the industry. We also analysed user problems to come up with a useful and user-friendly app. The client on their part helped in evaluating how much a particular feature would be useful for the users.
First, our team analysed the existing problems in beauty salons to understand what really bothers potential users and how these problems can be solved through our mobile app. The next step was to analyse competitors (direct and indirect) and identify competitors' strengths and weaknesses. This helped in finding product gaps and identifying potential opportunities. Based on the analysis, our team developed the backlog of the future product from scratch and got to work.
The application has two main sides - the master's side (salon administrator) and the client's side. The application acts as a communication space for the master and the client, so it was necessary to develop functionality for both sides. Also, the mobile application is a feature of a variety of categories, so that not only the salon could use the product functionally, but also the independent master.
The most important thing on the client's side is the appointment for the procedure. Users can look at different masters in different areas, see their work, choose a master, read reviews and make an appointment. The client will also receive notifications about the appointment (reducing the risk of postponement or cancellation of the session, which are common in the beauty industry).
The side of the master or salon administrator has more functionality and is essentially a full-fledged CRM to organize and automate processes. That is why we needed to provide the master or beauty salon with a full range of functions that would cover each of the spheres of their activity:
- clients (created from registered users, but it is also possible to add a client manually);
- bookings (without the risk of double bookings);
- full schedule of appointments (without the risk of assigning two clients to the same window);
- financial management (managing not only the income from clients, but also the costs of materials and other nuances);
- professional profile of the master or salon (with work demonstration, rating and comments);
- push notifications for you and your clients;
- ability to manage roles and access for beauty salons;
- data collection for your analytics (client history, financial statistics, load per month or other period).
Of course, before the release we filled the app with content and as always we tested the app by fixing bugs. We also collect feedback from existing users so that we can meet their wishes in the updates of the mobile app.
An app for the beauty industry simply has to be beautiful. Therefore, the design was under special scrutiny. We chose signature beautiful shades: from pink to purple. Pink and purple are colours that are traditionally associated with femininity, tenderness and beauty. All screens and visual elements of the mobile application were rendered in the same shades.
A simple and functional UX design was also important, so we designed it in such a way that the interface was intuitive to the employees of the beauty industry. Using the app is simple from the start. The user registers with a mobile phone number, selects a role (client, master or beauty salon administrator), fills out their profile and can use the functionality of the mobile app. In this way, it is easy and fast for both the master and the client to use the application.
In just 8 months, Super Assistant Katia was born - a universal assistant in the world of beauty and self-care. It's a digital friend who will find the best master for the client, and the master - the ideal client, and will bring order to the chaos of records and notes. We continue our co-operation, as there are many more updates and improvements to come.
