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Ask The Ordinary:
Skincare ChatBot

Chatbot experience designed through conversational UX principles to simplify The Ordinary’s products and guide users to navigate product recommendations, ingredient education, and their personalized personalized skincare routines, all while staying true to The Ordinary's approachable, science-focussed brand voice.

Team

Myself + 1

Duration

3 Weeks

Tools

VoiceFlow, Figma, Miro, Google Suite

VoiceFlow, Figma,

Miro, Google Suite

Skills

Research, Training Data, Sample Scripting, Bot Personality Design, Prototyping

Research, Training Data,

Sample Scripting,

Bot Personality Design,

Prototyping

The Challenge

Skincare can feel overwhelming, especially for beginners unsure how to choose products or combine ingredients safely. The Ordinary offers affordable, clinical-grade products but users often struggle to:

Understand how to build a routine
Learn about ingredient benefits and side effects
Find products for specific skin concerns

How might we help users confidently navigate The Ordinary's product line and build routines that feel personalized, while staying true to The Ordinary's science-driven voice?

The Solution

Design a chatbot that:

Educates users in clear, brand-aligned language
Handles diverse user questions
Feels informative and trustworthy without being overly friendly

Design Approach

An end-to-end process was employed, combining research, brand insights, and iterative design techniques.

Brand-Aligned Persona: Defining a chatbot voice that’s friendly, professional, and reflective of The Ordinary’s science-focused identity.
Conversational Flow Design: Mapping user journeys and crafting dialogue flows for personalized recommendations and ingredient education.
NLU Training Data: Curating user utterances and intents to improve the chatbot’s ability to understand varied user queries.
Prototyping & Iteration: Building a functional prototype in VoiceFlow, conducting user testing, and refining flows for clarity and usability.

The Process

Defining the Chatbot’s Personality

Interaction goals
Provide information on the products offered by the brand, about the ingredients in their products, and suggest ways to effectively use these products, in an effort to promote their products and help users understand how to use them to their full potential.
Level of Personification
The bot provides helpful skincare tips and recommendations in a straightforward manner without overtly human characteristics. Some of its character traits are 'informative', 'knowledgeable', 'professional', and 'inclusive'. It has a basic visual representation, in the form of an icon (Ordinary logo), to accompany its messages.

Mapping Use Cases and Flows

Use Cases

Core use cases were defined based on research into common skincare challenges, especially among beginners navigating The Ordinary’s products. The 3 primary use cases were:

Addressing Skin Concerns

Users can seek advice from the bot regarding various skin concerns, such as acne, hyperpigmentation, rosacea, eczema, and dryness. The bot can provide product recommendations to manage these concerns.

Building a Skin Care Routine

Users can gain knowledge about The Ordinary’s popular “Prep, Treat, Seal” method and be recommended products according to what fits them best.

Ingredient Information

The bot can educate users about common skincare ingredients, their benefits, and potential side effects.

Addressing Skin Concerns

Building a Skin Care Routine

Users can gain knowledge about The Ordinary’s popular “Prep, Treat, Seal” method and be recommended products according to what fits them best.

Building a Skin Care Routine

Users can gain knowledge about The Ordinary’s popular “Prep, Treat, Seal” method and be recommended products according to what fits them best.

Ingredient Information

The bot can educate users about common skincare ingredients, their benefits, and potential side effects.

Ingredient Information

The bot can educate users about common skincare ingredients, their benefits, and potential side effects.

Conversational Flow

A conversation flow chart was then developed to bring these use cases to life, mapping how users navigate key scenarios. This flow chart served as the blueprint for building the VoiceFlow prototype and ensuring the chatbot felt structured, helpful, and easy to navigate.

The diagram illustrates:

Entry points and user choices
Bot prompts and follow-up questions
Conditional logic guiding conversations
Error handling for complex or unsupported queries

The diagram illustrates:

Entry points and user choices
Bot prompts and follow-up questions
Conditional logic guiding conversations
Error handling for complex or unsupported queries

The diagram illustrates:

Entry points and user choices
Bot prompts and follow-up questions
Conditional logic guiding conversations
Error handling for complex or unsupported queries

Training Data for Natural Conversations

Beyond mapping flows, the chatbot needed to recognize the many ways users talk about skincare. To support this, training data was developed for Natural Language Understanding (NLU).

Defining User Intents
Key topics were identified, like skin concerns, ingredient questions, and building routines.
Writing Diverse Utterances
Multiple ways of phrasing similar questions were created. For example:
“I have dark circles,” “How do I fix under-eye shadows?”
Crafting Brand-Aligned Responses
Responses were written to be clear, factual, and reflective of The Ordinary's approachable tone, offering explanations rather than just product lists.
Managing Complex Queries
The bot was designed to gently guide users to focus on one topic at a time when multiple concerns were raised.

Developing this training data ensured conversations felt natural, accurate, and aligned with The Ordinary’s voice, laying the groundwork for building the prototype in VoiceFlow.

Defining the Chatbot’s Personality

What are sample scripts?

Sample scripts in conversational UX design are pre-written dialogues that simulate user interactions with a chatbot or voice assistant. They are crucial for planning, testing, and refining the user experience, ensuring natural and effective communication.

While crafting the scripts for the chatbot, it was important to keep in mind 3 main things:

The Personality of the Bot
The personality of the chatbot should reflect in the conversation to bridge the expectation of the bot to the pre-existing image on the brand.

Training Data for Natural Conversations

Beyond mapping flows, the chatbot needed to recognize the many ways users talk about skincare. To support this, training data was developed for Natural Language Understanding (NLU).

Defining User Intents
Key topics were identified, like skin concerns, ingredient questions, and building routines.
Writing Diverse Utterances
Multiple ways of phrasing similar questions were created. For example:
“I have dark circles,” “How do I fix under-eye shadows?”
Crafting Brand-Aligned Responses
Responses were written to be clear, factual, and reflective of The Ordinary's approachable tone, offering explanations rather than just product lists.
Managing Complex Queries
The bot was designed to gently guide users to focus on one topic at a time when multiple concerns were raised.

Developing this training data ensured conversations felt natural, accurate, and aligned with The Ordinary’s voice, laying the groundwork for building the prototype in VoiceFlow.

Defining the Chatbot’s Personality

What are sample scripts?

While crafting the scripts for the chatbot, it was important to keep in mind 3 main things:

The Personality of the Bot
The personality of the chatbot should reflect in the conversation to bridge the expectation of the bot to the pre-existing image on the brand.

Defining the Chatbot’s Personality

What are sample scripts?

While crafting the scripts for the chatbot, it was important to keep in mind 3 main things:

The Personality of the Bot
The personality of the chatbot should reflect in the conversation to bridge the expectation of the bot to the pre-existing image on the brand.

Turn-taking Cues
The chatbot should be able to guide the conversation and provide cues to the user on what to do next. This results in a successful interaction.

Responding to the User's Needs
The chatbot should be able to understand the user and provide answers. If there is no suitable response, it should guide the user on what to do next.

User testing

What are sample scripts?

While crafting the scripts for the chatbot, it was important to keep in mind 3 main things:

The Personality of the Bot
The personality of the chatbot should reflect in the conversation to bridge the expectation of the bot to the pre-existing image on the brand.

Defining the Chatbot’s Personality

What are sample scripts?

While crafting the scripts for the chatbot, it was important to keep in mind 3 main things:

The Personality of the Bot
The personality of the chatbot should reflect in the conversation to bridge the expectation of the bot to the pre-existing image on the brand.