Design of Smart Household Beauty Apparatus Targeting the Young Consumers
Authors: Li Xinhui , Fu Jiong 
Published: April 2022

The Chinese daily cosmetics market has significantly grown in the past two years. Given the current climate whereby consumers have higher demands of external appearance, the apparition of instruments is a mere question of time. After conducting thorough interviews and desk research, it was assessed that there is a rapidly growing demand for skin care products and household beauty products amongst Chinese consumers. Simultaneously, with the advances in the development of smart technologies, smart products are penetrating the beauty apparatus market. The effect of beauty apparatuses has been widely recognized in China. This paper, therefore, delves into the improvement of user experience with household beauty apparatuses. Moreover, a new scheme has been proposed to design intelligent household beauty apparatus, thereby improving the pain points of current skincare products and devices. New beauty apparatuses are emerging in the market, and relevant technologies have been incorporated to assist the functioning of the appliances. Through a thorough analysis of the household beauty apparatus in the current market, the author summarizes their functions, features, effect, merits, and drawbacks. Moreover, after conducting a comprehensive user survey, the author determines that the pain point to be addressed is that the steps are too trivial in the use of household beauty apparatus.Based on the established pain points and existing intelligent technologies, the author proposed a new design scheme for beauty apparatus to be used in daily skincare. Furthermore, a Single Chip Microcomputer was used to simulate partial functions and established a model satisfying human-computer ergonomics. The main functional design of the beauty apparatus is as follows:(1) Smart sense of skin: After pressing the start button, the head of the apparatus comes into contact with the skin, and the apparatus will automatically detect skin and start working. (2) Automatic limit of liquid flow: When the apparatus comes into contact with the skin, the essence is automatically squeezed out on the skin. The ingredient of the essence will also vary with the position of contact. (3) Beauty auxiliary function: When the apparatus comes into contact with the skin, the auxiliary beauty function is initiated for skincare and penetration of essence, such as ultrasonic wave, red, and blue light. The shape of the product is determined based on the popular shapes of beauty apparatus in the market. The main shape follows the design philosophy of roundness, simplicity, and neatness to increase affinity with users. The handle is ergonomically designed to ensure comfort when holding. The product is also equipped with a charging base.The innovation of the structural design lies in that a certain space is provided within the handle for safe storage of the inner core of the skin moisturizer. This method obviates the hassle of application, and the process of skincare is directly completed with the apparatus.Finally, tests were conducted among five target users, and experienced experts in skincare were invited to evaluate the design skin. The results suggest that users gave positive feedback regarding the product, believing that it effectively solved some of their problems. The experts remarked that this was a meaningful, innovative attempt in the field of skincare apparatus.The principal significance of the study is as follows:The research discusses the pain points faced by users during skincare and studies the available innovative technologies regarding beauty apparatuses in use flows under the background of the evolving Chinese consumer markets and providing innovative thinking for the further development of household beauty apparatus.Furthermore, the proposed design scheme will provide solutions to trivial issues such as inadequate absorption and skincare, from the users’ perspectives.Therefore, this study is an innovative design targeting household beauty apparatus.