User Research, Contextual Inquiry, Competitive Analysis, Heuristics Evaluation, Info Architecture, Prototyping, Usability Evaluation
Creators: G. Moradzadeh, A. Leung, M. Heins, J. Clapper
Build a fashion-related mobile app that will help the both men and women that are interested in apparels.
My team and I had three months to create this mobile app from ideation to high-fidelity prototype.
I was the UX Designer and Product Manager in this project. I was responsible for getting all four team members on the same page, as well as maintaining the product vision. I was also responsible for the information architecture and the prototyping for PermuStyle.
My team and I made some tradeoffs in order to fit the project timeline. We had to limit our user requirements (from user research findings) and give up the number of times we could test and iterate our prototoypes (and therefore eliminated medium-fidelity prototyping/testing).
I drew a storyboard to illustrate what a user would go through from looking at her wardrobe (exposition), to deciding what she wants to wear (conflict/problem), to opening our PermuStyle app (rising action), to creating her favorite outfit using our unique feature (climax), to saving her outfit (falling action), to finally being one happy user because she has PermuStyle to help her choose her clothes (resolution).
PermuStyle is a mobile app that aims to help both men and women who would want styling ideas that would closely match their taste. Current available apps let users select different outfits; however, they are limited and are not based on user’s taste.
Our app learns about user preferences by asking them to select any individual items they like. Based on the collection of these individual items, our app provides different outfits by generating random combinations of the clothing and accessories that the users already chose.
The main difference of this app is that users have full control of choosing styles they like with assistance from the app to put together different outfits for users to visualize.
Goal
User will experience an intuitive and easy to use application that is effective at navigating through the app.
Measure
This would be a quantitative measure that determines the effectiveness of the app, which will be measured by the following:
Positive Findings
Negative Findings
Positive Findings
Negative Findings
Positive Findings
Negative Findings
Most participants mentioned that for reasons such as time, laziness and efficiency, they prefer online shopping. However, some participants stated that they rather go to store physically because they would like to feel the texture of the clothing. Users also mentioned that the return policy is not clear on some apps.
Our participants stated that they get influenced by other people such as friends and family members.
They also pointed out that they get inspired by popular social media apps such as Pinterest and Tumblr.
When we asked participants what motivates them regarding fashion and online shopping, the majority mentioned discounts, deals, and designer brands. Several participants stated that they prefer to buy something that is on sale and the price is reasonable.
One participant mentioned that an app that offers free shipping is what makes her considered shopping online. Additionally, several participants mentioned clothing brands and said they would pay more for particular brands.
Most participants showed their interest in an algorithm that could matchs their clothing items and create an outfit for them. They expressed their concerns about the difficulty of purchasing items individually that go well together.
One participant stated that fashion websites are targeted towards special audiences that she does not identified with. Additionally, regarding the app features, most mentioned they would like an app that enables them to filter the options based on price or other criteria so they can view the results that are more appealing to them.
Based on our interviews, we created Brad Franklin, the professional accountant who is hard-working, determined, passionate. He is a fashion lover which would fit our target profile perfectly. He constantly follows the latest styles of styles, but doesn't have time to match clothing with his busy schedules.
We also created Annie, the super mom, who can do anything. She is dependable, observant, intelligent, caring, capable and humble. She fits our other target profile because she, like other mothers, take well care of her family and always tries to find fashionable clothing for her husband and son.
We used OptimalSort to understand the different categories of where each page should be.
Visit OptimalSort ->We analyzed the card sorting results, and came up with the information architecture that makes the most sense.
The site map is documented as a living document for current and future changes of the parent and child pages.
0.0 - News Feed (Homepage)
1.0 - Browse: to favorite clothing pieces
2.0 - Stylist: algorithm-based
3.0 - My Collection: Digital wardrobe that stores all the clothing pieces or outfits that users favorited.
4.0 - My Account: section that includes user's personal details
5.0 - My Friends: section that connects with friends and share outfit ideas with friends.
Positive Findings
Negative Findings
Severity Definitions:
Positive Findings
Negative Findings
Severity Definitions:
User will experience an intuitive and easy to use application that is effective at navigating through the app.
One of the main reasons that we could not achieve our goal for ease of use was because we did not have enough time to iterate our prototype and test. We jumped directly from low-fidelity prototype/usability testing to high-fidelity. Some navigational concerns could have been fixed between the two fidelity prototyping/testing.
Here are the next steps to what we would do to further optimize our designs: