#OVERVIEW
When Dr. Shaista Kazi, a dermatologist and a mom herself, started Shai Kids, she envisioned a skincare brand for children that was both safe and joyful. With only a few carefully crafted products and more in the pipeline, the brand wanted its website to reflect its playful yet professional identity and ultimately reach more parents online. Despite the product quality, most new customers came through word of mouth or clinic visits. The website wasn’t converting visitors. Parents didn’t feel confident enough to buy kids’ skincare online. Our goal was to change that.
STAKEHOLDER'S WISHLIST
Visibility & Communicating
Shai Kids wants more parents to know about the brand both online and offline and to build lasting brand recognition. They aim to stand out clearly in a market where many skincare products look and feel the same. A key part of this is ensuring that users instantly understand what makes Shai Kids unique which is the only dermatologist-developed skincare brand for children in India, built on natural ingredients and rooted in medical expertise and parental care. This core message needed to be clear at every point in the online journey from the first visit to the checkout page.
Building Trust
Trust is absolutely critical for parents when choosing products for their children’s skin. The brand needed a warmer, more human website that reflects its caring identity and sets it apart from generic skincare sites. A major goal was to highlight the founders’ story: both dermatologists and parents who created these products after seeing the gap in the market for safe, effective, natural skincare for children. Making this story front and center helps parents feel connected to the brand and confident in its expertise and values.
Optimized Experience
Shai Kids wants to transition more customers from in-clinic purchases and WhatsApp orders to a seamless, trustworthy online shopping experience. The old site created friction that discouraged online conversions. A key design goal was to make the checkout process as easy and fast as possible, reducing barriers so that users feel encouraged to complete their purchases directly on the website. The new experience needed to match the ease of ordering through WhatsApp, while building greater trust and brand engagement.
Discovery & Engagement
Beyond converting visitors to buyers, the brand wanted to create a more engaging online experience that encourages parents to explore the full product range, discover new items, and feel connected to the brand over time. The goal was to move from “visit and leave” behavior to ongoing brand engagement and loyalty.
#USER INTERVIEWS
Behaviors, Feelings, and Pain Points
To better understand the needs, concerns, and behaviors of our target users, I conducted user interviews with 5 parents (3 mothers and 2 father) of children aged 2 to 8 years old. The goal was to explore their attitudes toward purchasing skincare products for their children, both online and offline, and to uncover their expectations, preferences, and pain points regarding product choice and website experience.
#AFFINITY DIAGRAM
Similarity and Relevance
To make sense of the patterns and hidden connections in their responses, we used an affinity diagram. This method helped us move from raw interview data to clear design directions by visually grouping related insights. We sorted feedback into categories such as Trust, Purchase Patterns, Product Preferences, and Usability. These themes helped us understand where users were aligned and where pain points or expectations overlapped.
"WHEN IT COMES TO MY CHILD, I DON'T WANT TO EXPERIMENT."
Purchase Patterns
Parents are cautious about buying skincare online for their children and prefer familiar pharmacy experiences where they can ask questions. When they do buy online, it is usually for products they already trust. Ingredient awareness is high, many parents carefully check labels, especially for allergens or sensitivities, and often rely on doctor or pharmacist recommendations before trying something new.
Trust
Trust is a major barrier for first-time website visitors. Parents won’t buy unless a product feels safe, dermatologically tested, and professionally endorsed. While drawn to Shai Kids’ natural positioning, trust was lost when products appeared synthetic or unclear. Seeing the founder is a practicing dermatologist helped restore confidence.
Product Preferences
Parents are highly selective and value minimalist formulations, clear ingredient lists, and trusted labels like “Bio” or “Dermatologically tested.” They also prefer clean, simple packaging over colorful or childish designs that feel untrustworthy and don’t fit their expectations for high-quality skincare.
Usability
Navigation is confusing, and first-time users avoid the search bar, opting to explore manually. The checkout process caused frustration, with UI issues (such as a fixed WhatsApp button) blocking the cart. Product pages lacked key info (age suitability, ingredients), and poor image quality and color mismatches created further distrust. The lack of reviews was a critical blocker, as parents rely on peer validation before making purchases.
#00
Meet Mira
Mira Bauer is a 34-year-old marketing specialist and mom of two (Lina, 2 and Noah, 8) living in Hamburg. She is a careful, research-driven buyer, especially when it comes to her children’s skincare. While she shops online for herself, Mira prefers buying skincare for her kids from trusted pharmacies, where she can ask questions and get expert advice. For Mira, trust is essential.
#01
Behaviours
Mira is highly cautious when buying skincare for her children online. She relies on personal recommendations, especially from her doctor and rarely experiments with new products. Once she trusts a product, she tends to stick with it. She checks ingredients carefully and prefers efficient, clear buying experiences that fit her busy life.
#05
Pain Points & Frustrations
Mira avoids products that lack clinical or expert validation. She gets frustrated when important information (like age suitability or ingredients) is hard to find. She dislikes having to create new accounts or download apps just to complete a purchase. The absence of customer reviews lowers her trust. Every purchase reflects her care for her children, so anything that undermines trust is a deal-breaker.
#04
Needs & Expectations
Mira needs to be certain that products are safe, dermatologist-tested, and appropriate for her kids. She expects clear information about ingredients and usage and wants the option to ask questions easily. Peer validation and expert endorsements are key to building trust. She values a simple, fast buying process and the ability to reorder trusted products easily.
MISSION: UX
POSSIBLE
How Might We…
After analyzing the insights from our stakeholder and user interviews, we used the How Might We (HMW) framework to help reframe our findings into actionable opportunities. The goal was to turn challenges and pain points into design questions that could guide our ideation and ultimately help us define a more focused and meaningful problem statement.
Problem Statement
While Shai Kids offers a truly unique product and the existing website was not successfully communicating this value to parents. It lacked visible trust signals, clear messaging, and a warm, human tone. As a result, many parents hesitated to purchase online. Parents with young children need to find a way feel confident and safe choosing skincare products for their children because they have a hard time trusting the brand and their product quality.
HOLD MY COFFEE!
After defining the problem, we moved into the ideation phase. The goal was to explore how we could address parents’ trust concerns, support their natural buying behavior, and create a more reassuring and engaging online experience. We focused on ideas that would make the website feel more like the familiar pharmacy experience parents trust that offers clear information, human interaction, and visible credibility. We also looked for ways to introduce warmth and curiosity, so parents would feel excited about visiting the site and learning about new products.
BECAUSE MOM SAID SO…
Building Trust
One of the most important trust factors for parents is knowing who is behind the product. The original site didn’t fully leverage this. In our redesign, we made the story of Dr. Shaista Kazi, a practicing dermatologist and a mom herself, central to the brand narrative. We placed her and her children presence clearly on the homepage and product pages, using her voice to speak directly to parents. This helped reassure users that the products were formulated with professional expertise and genuine care.
Product Discovery
Parents didn’t feel any particular reason to revisit the old website or engage with the brand beyond a one-time transaction. We addressed this by adding a Little Labs section to give a sneak peek into upcoming products and showcase the ongoing creativity behind the brand. We also elevated brand storytelling across the site, making it feel more dynamic, warm, and alive by inviting parents to check back, stay connected, and feel part of the brand’s evolution.
Testimonials
Parental peer validation is one of the strongest trust signals. In the original site, the lack of reviews and real-world validation was a blocker for many users. We addressed this by integrating parent testimonials prominently on the homepage, product pages, and checkout flow. Real voices from other moms and dads helped new users feel they weren’t alone in their purchase decisions. Seeing that other parents trusted and loved the products was essential in building credibility and encouraging first-time buyers.
Personalized Experience
Parents don’t want to gamble on skincare for their children. They want reassurance and a personal touch. To support this, we redesigned the experience to feel more conversational and human. We introduced chat-first, allowing parents to ask questions easily before purchase (mirroring the pharmacy experience they trust). We simplified navigation and content so parents could quickly find exactly the right product for their child.
THIS WASN'T RANDOM
The visual direction of this project was guided by one core goal: to make parents feel safe, reassured, and warmly welcomed, while giving the brand a modern and professional edge.
The moodboard reflects this balance. Soft natural elements evoke trust, purity and safety for building confidence in skincare for children. Light textures and rounded, clean imagery mirror the softness and gentle formulations of the products themselves.
Images of parent-child interaction and playful moments highlight the emotional connection we wanted to bring to the experience and reminding parents that this brand is created by and for people who truly care.
A palette of soft pastels, grounded greens, and calming blues was chosen to reflect nature and dermatological care while avoiding the typical overly bright, childish aesthetic seen in many kids’ products. The visuals aim to resonate more with modern parents (especially mothers), who want products that are safe but also thoughtfully designed and credible.
AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER (WITH BETTER UX)
This project was about more than redesigning a website, it was about creating a space where parents could feel safe, supported, and confident when choosing skincare for their children. Through deep user research and close collaboration with the founders, we identified the key barriers to trust and usability that were holding the brand back. By highlighting the founder’s story, making trust visible, simplifying the shopping experience, and bringing in real parent voices, we transformed the site from a transactional storefront into a warm, credible, and human experience.
