Stylish Hub

Description:

Stylish Hub aims to bridge the gap between fashion and digital technologies by creating a digital fashion platform where users can buy virtual clothing and have it placed virtually on them through AI.

Role:

Lead Product Designer

Tools:

  • Pen

  • Paper

  • Figma

Overview

Design Case Study

Design Question

How might we bring fashion into digital spaces in an innovative way that makes people excited?

User Research

Clarifying the Problem

Background

For this project, I joined a Slack community known as Product Classroom. The goal of this community was to give college students a platform to continue building out our product design skills. We had weekly meetings and were placed in small groups to keep one another accountable. During the semester I did this, we were all given an overarching prompt of defining new ways to connect the physical and digital world.

My personal interest in fashion caused me to explore how we can change the way that the fashion community interacts with one another. Fashion has always been such a physical activity, and I thought it would be interesting to explore the ways that we can bring this large community into more digital spaces.

Examining the Changing Fashion Ecosystem

Many fashion companies have recently been getting backlash for their unsustainable practices and are constantly looking to gain favor in the public eye. Whether that is through using more sustainable materials, donating to non-profits, or giving back to the community it is a constant thing they are looking at.

Not only are they focused on making the physical products more environmentally friendly, but companies are also looking to gain favor with a digitally native generation. No longer does a company just have to be dominant in physical spaces but they also have to be on the cutting edge of digital spaces as well. This case study takes a look into ways that the fashion industry can become more relevant to younger generations by connecting the physical world with digital spaces.


Problem Statement

The younger generation is spending increasingly more time online, and the fashion industry is mostly based on physical products. These companies are struggling to connect their physical products to a digital environment in a meaningful way.

User Research

Product Ideation

Initial Feedback

First, I started off by conducting a user survey to understand user sentiment around virtual shopping and interactive online experiences. In total, I was able to garner 104 responses ranging all the way from 14- 40 years old with the main age demographic being 19-24 years old.


Data Synthesis

Based on the data above, I was able to begin synthesizing the information to understand what things Gen Z looks for in a consumer experience. From the survey and user interviews, I found that there were three key things that could be improved on for the user's online experiences with fashion companies. These three things were transparency, interactivity, and usability.

Interpreting the Feedback

  1. Many Fashion Brands Are Not Transparent

When conducting one-on-one interviews I found that many people did not like that most fashion companies were not transparent on why a product was the price that it was. Not only did they feel they were not being transparent with the pricing structure, but also felt that companies were not being transparent about the treatment of factory workers either. While sustainable ethics were important to the user, they were even more concerned with the garment workers.


  1. Limited ways to interact with clothing digitally.

The main fashion hubs on the internet right now include Tiktok and Tumblr. These are social media platforms that allow you to talk about clothing but not necessarily interact with it. AR/VR has started to become more prevalent in these apps, but it can continue to grow in use cases.


  1. The Online Shopping Experience is Quite Limited

People want a simple website that still allows for the chance to impulse buy and get things quickly. They believe in seeing all different shapes and sizes and want to see themselves. They also said it was important to filter clothes. People also said they would be interested in graphics that show their carbon footprints, amount of waste, etc


Takeaway for MVP

Based on all the feedback, I decided to focus on issue number two which centered around interactivity and being able to share fashion with friends. As more and more people are becoming interested in AR/VR there is a great opportunity to integrate it into an app that brings media and shopping together.

Brainstorming

Constructing an MVP

Auditing Similar Ideas

When starting this project I began by looking at similar companies that do work in the space. If I was planning to create a digital fashion app that also served as a social media I would have to do research on other companies in the space. One company that helped to further my research is DressX. DressX is a digital fashion company that focuses on digital-only fashion and accessories and placing them onto pictures. They are also selling them as NFTs that will in the future be compatible with gaming platforms.


One of the main things that I think DressX is missing is a social component. While you can try on different items in the app and buy NFTs there is nothing to keep you engaged with the app itself. In a way, it is siloing itself to shopping only in the way that many social media platforms have siloed themselves to be considered media-only platforms. It is important that from the beginning you build out both the commerce and social media side to build an in-app ecosystem.

Prototyping the MVP

When working on the prototype for Stylish Hub, I really wanted to focus on creating an integrated media and social app. This meant that it was important to find ways that they could become connected to one another. One of those ways was through posting outfits in the clothing that you buy. The second way is by automatically linking the clothing you bought from the app in pictures so that other people could check it out.

Overall this app is really about bringing fashion and technology together in a digital space. Some of the features needed to make this happen include shopping, buying, closet, and social media features, which I dive into below.

Shopping Feature

The shopping feature is one of the most important features of the app. While most social media platforms rely on ads and data as their primary source of income Stylish Hub would be able to have different sources of revenue. Because it started off as both and shopping and media platform it would be able to center its brand identity in both which most social media companies have been struggling to pivot into recently. When considering the UI The main goal for the home age was to show the different experiences available within the app. Within the shopping tab, there would be a showcase of the different digital fashion stores available and the most popular pieces at the time. Users would also be able to filter based on price, style, and color. This feature is for people who are interested in exploring fashion and looking for new ways to interact with clothing.

Buying Feature

Being able to go through the buying process seamlessly is just as important as the casual shopping process. When working on the buying interaction within the app the goal was to make it as user-friendly as possible. This included adding a shopping cart, a favorite button, as well as an exit button. These features are important to casual shoppers who enjoy checking out different items but are not necessarily ready to buy at the exact moment. I also thought having an instant buy feature was important for people who may be more impulsive shoppers. They would be able to quickly check out an outfit and buy it within 30 seconds. When they buy it will also be bought as an NFT so that in the future, it can be used on other platforms such as Snapchat, Roblox, Etc.

Closet Feature

The closet feature is an in-app try-on feature where users can have digital clothes imported onto their pictures. Right now it is centered on AI matching the clothes onto a person's picture, but as I continue user testing it may be changed to a standardized version of using an AR Filter to fit the clothing on the user. The current user flow is the user buys a piece of clothing and then they click wear. Afterward, they can either take a picture or choose one from their camera roll and the AI will place the outfit onto the picture. The user will then let the AI know if it was placed correctly or not. Once all of this has been finished the user will then have the option to change the background of the picture as well as write a caption. From here they can post directly to our social media as well as other social media platforms. If posted to others it will instantly come with the app's watermark.

Social Media Feature

Overall the social media feature is pretty similar to other media UIs. One of the key things I focused on was the colors. Sometimes branding is the biggest thing that sets you apart from other competitors doing similar things. Keeping an interface to competitors was intentional because we want the user to have a smooth experience and this is a tried and true method.

Future Updates

In version two of this updated UI, I would focus on continuing to refine the homepage as well as the shopping experience. When users first get on it is important for them to be able to quickly understand what is going on in the app.

Currently, the homepage is trying to bring the user to too many different experiences all at once. To determine the optimal homepage, I would go back and do user testing with the current pages to understand what features in the app users find most enticing and bring those as the main characteristics of the homepage.

Another section, I would continue to improve upon is the creator experience. Specifically for users who are creating digital clothes. How would they go about uploading it to the app? What format would they have to upload it in? There is no shopping or social media experience without the creators so flushing out that side of that app is essential to bringing it to life.


Reflection

Designing for Mixed Reality


Integrating with Technology

Working on this project taught me the importance of balancing practicality with creativity. While there are many ways that we think about adding AR into apps it is also important to think about what your users are ready for. While many users are interested in exploring AR it does not mean that they are yey willing to pay for it. They need to see the practical use case of why it is valuable to them. With this technology still working to gain popularity, you have to think both about futuristic use cases as well as current use cases.


Designing in an Ethical Way

The biggest thing I took away from this case study was continuing to focus on designing in an ethical way. With NFTs becoming popular many consumers do not understand what they are buying. It can in some ways be quite easy to mislead consumers about the benefits of NFTs. Being transparent ABOUT what they are buying is really important.