Your Personal Virtual Closet
View your clothes, plan your outfits, and learn more about your clothing, all within the palm of your hands.
View your clothes, plan your outfits, and learn more about your clothing, all within the palm of your hands.
Self-directed with feedback from mentors and peers
Market Research
Competitive Analysis
User Interviews
Personas
Brainstorm
Sitemap
Task Flows
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Moodboard
UI Components
High Fidelity Wireframes
Findings
Iterations
"Major brands across the fashion industry are starting to pay attention to the demand for more sustainable practices. Companies like Adidas, that recently announced a range of trainers made from ocean plastic. High street retailer Zara also announced in 2019 that it would be using only sustainable materials by 2025." — BBC
"In July of 2022, a lawsuit was filed against Swedish fast-fashion giant H&M in New York federal court, accusing it of “greenwashing,” or engaging in false advertising about the sustainability of its clothing." — The Cut
"So while recycling and more sustainable fabrics will be a key part of the solution, consumers too will need to change their behavior if we hope to lessen the impact that the fashion industry is having on our planet." — BBC
Design a way for user's to learn more about clothing material and how to maintain the longevity of clothing items to reduce the speed at which textiles get thrown out.
I explored three competitors that want to provide users with quality products. Although each has their strengths, it's evident that they don't make it easy for users to find full product information.
Utilizing a scanning feature that is able to process clothing item's product information will simplify the method of gathering data and allow users to easily access all the products information.
I will be targeting the audience that consumes the most fast fashion and engages the most with clothing trends: women between the ages of 18-35. Therefore, I conducted 5 user interviews with women of various occupations between the ages of 23-26 so that I can get a better understanding of what they may need or want in their clothing experience, focusing on their shopping and cleaning habits.
Users unanimously indicated that finding the buying an item is dependent on whether it looks good on them and if it’ll last them long enough.
“The fit of clothes are really important to me. In the past I would buy it and never end up wearing it because I hate the fit.” — Interview Participant
Most users reasoned that they currently take care of their clothes based on how their clothes turn out from previous washes -- whether that be good or bad.
“I still have the same bad habits in taking care of my clothes like washing and drying all colors together on the same settings.” — Interview Participant
All users shared various spaces where they learn how to best take care of their clothing -- from their family to a google search to online influencers.
“I look at fashion influencers, there’s one on Tiktok who talks about different brands and construction of clothes and why a piece would be worth it or not...” — Interview Participant
Most users indicated that while quality is important, it’s equally important to have clothing that can’t be easily ruined, otherwise it deters them from investing in more.
“I ruined this silk skirt I got from Turkey by accident because I didn't realize how easily it stained...”— Interview Participant
Based on the user interviews, I'm able to create two distinct personas that capture their needs and pain points that will help guide me to appropriate potential solutions.
A direct solution would be implementing a feature that provides full information about clothing items, however, it doesn't guarantee user consciousness in the long run. Therefore, prioritizing an indirect solution, that intersects our users goals and environmental problem will likely have a greater impact now and into the future.
Since I have two different personas, I posed two questions where I'm able to come up with potential solutions. Since the application is an MVP, I decided the best approach is to prioritize what should be included rather than unique features. This way, I can develop the main features with the intention of including other components that are just as essential.
With the top solutions in mind, I'm able to visualize how they can come together to resolve and work for my users needs and pain points when moving on to the next part of the design process.
Since this is an MVP, I won't be able to use all solutions that I come up with, especially with the time constraints. I need to prioritize what makes the product unique while also keeping in mind what resolves most of my users needs and pain points.
After considering the potential solutions, I've narrowed down the unique features into sections to design to create an MVP. Each of the sections will include the other solutions that were listed.
Thinking back to my persona's needs and pain points, I prioritized using 3 tasks that will capture the functionality and purpose of the feature's. Each task uses a specific path which will lay the ground work for understanding what areas of the design is or isn't working with it's intended purpose.
Scenario: You’re new to the app and you want to add a t-shirt from your closet to the app and add it to your outfit of the day.
Scenario: You finished completing your outfit for the day and you want to plan your next outfit for tomorrow. You know you want to add your light wash jean jacket and your white t-shirt and you want to see what items the app suggests to pair with it.
Scenario: You just bought a silk skirt that was really expensive so you want to know more about the material.
Since the scan section is limited with only one function, I thought of including another section to develop in the future: For You. This section would be a recommended page for new clothing items to shop for.
The goal of this app is to bring a personalized experience with clothing and building a habit for a more sustainable future. These goals translate to key terms that we want to evoke in our branding.
After designing the navigation, I felt that the terminology for the AI chat did not meet the branding and can be confused as social chatting rather than an automated system. Therefore, I changed the chat feature label to 'assist.'
I conducted the test with 5 participants who are within the age range of 20-30. The good news, there was a 100% completion rate for each task. However, there were moments of hesitation that need to be addressed to improve user confidence level.
3/5 users slipped and choose the 'add to outfit' button on the suggested pairings instead of the item itself. Once they recognized it wasn't the right step, they eventually realized that the 'add to outfit' button on the recently added t-shirt was the correct path.
“It confuses me because I'm not sure what outfit I'm adding it to...I don't know what outfit I'm creating.” — Interview Participant
In order to minimize user error and improve learnability, removing the 'add to outfit' button on suggested pairings on item details will decrease the choices users have to decide on what the next step should be.
Although they were able to complete the task, 3/5 users hesitated on when they chose the items to add to their outfit.
“...it's just not totally clear to me. I might just want a plus or something to add it to the outfit.” — Interview Participant
In order for users to have a clearer indication that they have selected an item, adding a checkmark will confirm that it's chosen. Users will also have to confirm that the items they selected will be saved to their outfit.
4/5 users weren't clear on why they had to click a link to get the information they asked for and whether it would take them to another place.
“I am curious about the link though, is that external or made by the app? ” — Interview Participant
In order for users to get the information they're looking for, adding the text in the message will minimize the necessary steps. Adding the external link will also give the user the option to view more if interested.
While users were able to complete the tasks, it's important to value color contrast for those who may find it difficult to interpret.
In order for users to interpret that a button is a selected, improving the color contrast will improve the learnability.
This project started as a way to solve the overwhelming amount of textile waste, however, it's not easy to fix something that is a global problem especially with just one app. As I began the process of ideating solutions, it stumped me that there was not one solution to fix it. The hard truth is that I can't, but what I can do is find an indirect solution that could improve the problem little by little. At the end of the day, a small improvement, is still an improvement.
Since this is an MVP, the features are limited. I'm excited to explore the possibilities of developing new features that can take Clove to its full potential. With that, these are the next steps in the project:
Conduct another usability test to confirm if my iterations are successful and understand what areas need further development.
Do users understand what Clove provides?
Do users find it useful?
Explore the 'For You' Page.
What do users expect to find in that section?
Are users interested in having that be part of the app?