Problem
Most websites and mobile apps provide users with vague reviews and not enough incentives are provided to entice users to leave useful reviews. Thats why here at Retrospect, a picture is worth a thousands words. How might we make the search of finding your right size online a refreshing task instead of a daunting one?
The Solution
I designed a new but familiar shopping experience where users can shop from their favorite brands and browse reviews that aren’t vague. The app design features trending pages, a “Creators” tab, and easy-to-use “FitMe” buttons to make the process of looking at reviews for specific body types easier and quicker with just a click.
Research & Insights
Primary & Secondary research was conducted for this project in order to gain insights on the shopping habits of online clothing shoppers & the reasoning behind why it is so difficult to find the right size online.
Secondary research
I read through a variety of peer reviewed articles on what current research says about the current shift from tradition in-store shopping to online clothing shopping. An article by Kim H. & Damhorts written in 2013 had interesting points that confirm assumptions about the difficulty of shopping for accurate sizing online.
Reference: Kim, H., & Damhorst, M. L. (2013). Gauging Concerns with Fit and Size of Garments among Young Consumers in Online Shopping. NC State Wilson College of Textiles. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
Primary Research
User Interviews
I conducted remote 30-min. user interviews via Zoom with 5 participants who passed a screener survey. The purpose of this research was to explore the shopping habits of people who shop online for clothing, what they look for to make an informed decision on what size to buy, and the current pain points experienced while online shopping.
The types of questions asked to help with my research included:
Tell me how you currently feel about the experience of shopping for your right size online.
Can you share with me, if you can recall, the last time you had a great experience buying the right size of clothing online?
Can you recall a recent experience shopping for clothes online that didn’t turn out well? Does that happen to you often?
Do you have some favorite apps or websites that you usually gravitate towards when shopping online for clothes?
Tell me about a particular time when you used customer reviews to inform yourself about a decision about what size to buy.
What are all the steps you have to go through to come to a decision on what size you’ll buy?
Insights
The main insight gathered by my user interviews is that users use pictures as visual aids since model pictures don’t represent most online shoppers.
“Having more representation of different body types, heights, and weight would be more helpful for customers, however, I know it may be diffiuclt to put so many different models on one product page.”
Affinity Mapping
Theme 1:
Shopping Experience
Reoccurring codes were “Options/Range”, “Convenience”, and “Calm Environment”.
Theme 2:
Things That Help
Reoccurring codes were “Previous Purchase/Experience”, “Body Representation”,“Pictures As Visual Aids”, and of course, “Customer Reviews”
Theme 3: Pain Points
Reoccurring codes were “Inconsistent Sizing”, “Lack of Body Representation”,“Deceptive Product Pictures”, and “Self-Doubt”
So… what do users want?
Personas
Testing & Iterations
After conducting guerilla testing on my low fidelity wireframes and designing my first iteration of Retropsect, here are some of the improvements made on the first iteration of my design.
UI Style Kit
Final Screens & Prototype
Final Thoughts
After my final reiteration of the Retrospect prototype, I reminisced on a few take-aways from conducting this project:
Trust the process. It was challenging being the sole designer on this project, however, it taught me so much about trusting the design process and being comfortable with iterating.
Embrace Simplicity. I have always been sort of a maximalist so designing this project really forced me to think about simplicity and minimalism. I really wanted the user interface to be simple & intuitive to the user to prevent the cognitive overload other clothing websites often have.
Progress may not always be linear. One of the challenges I initially had was the process of user interviews. From writing the questions to making sure I was not asking leading questions and ensuring the participants really spoke their mind naturally. After conducting my first interview, I realized the importance of just letting the participant speak freely without needing to provide constant help. It was difficult to do but it’s equally as important to understand that it’s something I definitely needed to work on through more practice.
Would I do anything different if I had more time?
Of course! This was my first UX design project & it was definitely a learning experience. If I had more time I would:
Design a few other screens like the rewards page, profile page, creators page and a help center.
One more round of usability testing. Just to finalize the prototype and screen out any other potential issues.
Design Handoff. Efficiently collaborate with developers to ensure users have a seamless experience on Retrospect.