Background

Vish is a product inventory management system operating in the hair care industry. I began working with Vish to analyze and improve the user experience of their flagship product - an iPad app that pairs with a Bluetooth scale to record and adjust product use in hair salons. Working with the business and development teams, our primary aim was to streamline the onboarding process and to make a product our end-user would champion for.

User Journey Mapping & UX Research

My first task was to get to know the user inside out. I headed to the salon to see how customers were interacting with Vish, and to map out pain points in the system. To get a thorough understanding of the process, I created user journey maps of each task flow within the application. I conducted interviews, surveys, and training sessions to inform personas and identify gaps in functionality. It was important to view users in a salon setting to truly understand their frustrations. Patterns began to emerge, such as issues connecting to the Bluetooth scale, using the customer list, and confusion around selecting a formula from a customer’s history.

IMPACT

• Onboarding time reduced by 50%, making it faster and easier for new salons to get up and running
• Increased user adoption across salon locations following the redesign of core app flows
• Salon owners gained a clearer picture of the app's ROI, improving long-term retention
• Direct input into the product roadmap led to the addition of new features including inventory monitoring and a user registry
• Design decisions grounded in real user research created a stronger feedback loop between the business and its customers