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Handmade Clothing Application

Handmade Clothing Application

Handmade Clothing Application

Yours Truly

Yours Truly

Yours Truly

Problem Statement

Problem Statement

Problem Statement

People want to purchase handmade clothing and accessories from individuals and small businesses in order to be more sustainable and get unique pieces, but struggle to find an application that accumulates solely handmade sellers

Approach

Approach

Approach

Statistical Research

Interviews

Competitor Review

Value Proposition Canvas
Personas
User Journey Map
Opportunity-Solution Tree
User Story Map
User Stories
Site Map
User Flows
Wireframes

Visual Research

User Testing

Statistical Research & Interviews

Statistical Research & Interviews

Statistical Research & Interviews

Pain Points Identified:

  • People say they would purchase handmade items more often if they were more easily available

  • Isn’t currently a go-to space for to find handmade sellers

  • Existing spaces that might offer handmade items as part of their service have issues with large companies and drop shippers posing as small businesses leading to users now struggling to trust them

  • Importance of clothes fitting was emphasised, and how this can prevent people from purchasing items online due to the hassle of returning.

  • The largest deterrent from purchasing handmade clothing is the price

Competitor Review

Pain Points Identified:

  • Depop like system is an endless scroll with no way to categorise

  • You have to go into your likes and select each liked item individually in order to unlike them (time consuming)

  • Etsy users want to be able to customise their shop front

User Journey Map

Pain Points Identified:

  • Awkwardness of messaging sellers, not knowing what to say, and negotiating prices for handmade items

Personas

I created 3 buyer personas and 1 seller persona for this project based on the insights I had gained through my research

Pain Points Discovered

Pain Points Discovered

Pain Points Discovered

Initial pain points I aim to relieve in my app: 

1. Users find the messaging experience to be awkward and difficult to approach 

2. Users emphasised the importance of clothes fitting  and how this can deter them from ordering online

3. Users named price to be the largest deterrent in purchasing handmade clothing

4. Competitor applications have an endless scroll of liked items and users have to go into each item individually to unlike

User research also revealed an interesting pain point:

When users are searching for a gift for someone else on e-commerce sites, all their future recommendations get altered to relate to these gift searches and no longer suit their interests.

This problem also happens when users are searching for say, a green hoodie, but then once they’ve purchased, all their recommendations are still for green hoodies.

Design Process Highlights

Opportunity-Solution Tree

User Story Map

Value Proposition Canvas

Site Map -> User Flows -> Wireframes

Final Design

App Walkthrough Link: https://youtu.be/l4-woo6PADQ

App Walkthrough Link: https://youtu.be/l4-woo6PADQ


Problem Solving


1. Users find the messaging experience to be awkward and difficult to approach 


Solution:

I addressed this pain point by creating a message suggestion system that would recommend a first message to send the seller, and continue recommending messages throughout the discussion. Initially I thought these messages would be generated and adjusted based on data from the app with frequently asked questions and what messages lead most successfully to sales. Though through user testing, the idea for the message suggestions being able to be pre-filled by sellers with their own FAQs if they would like, and then auto-generated onwards would be a potential extra feature to add.

To address the pain point of negotiating I considered also including an offer system on the app that requires no messaging, this would’ve been in the next design iteration.


2. Users emphasised the importance of clothes fitting  and how this can deter them from ordering online


Solution:

I included an option in the settings to enter your measurements into the app so that, with permission, they could be automatically sent to the seller upon ordering a handmade item.


3. Users named price to be the largest deterrent in purchasing handmade clothing


Solution:

I included a search filter that would display the average prices for the item you’ve searched, and where you can also set the max price. Being able to see the average price for an item would help the buyer to feel confident that they’re getting a fair price for the item they’re purchasing. 


4. Competitor applications have an endless scroll of liked items and users have to go into each item individually to unlike


Solution:

I added a feature in my favourites tab where you can name and create collections out of your liked items, you can also delete the whole collection and all the items inside of it once you've purchased the one you want and no longer need similar items in your favourites. 


5. Searching for gifts effecting users personal recommendations


Solution:

To fix the issue of gift searches effecting your For You, or not wanting searching for one particular item to change your whole recommended tab, I created a feature called Search Spaces. You can create, name and search within a Space and then will get tailored recommendations on your home page for each of these Spaces. Your search history for each Space will live within the Space, and once you’re done with it you can delete the space to no longer receive recommendations for those types of items.

For example, you can search for earrings for a friend (let’s call her Jas) for her birthday, under a Space you’ve named ‘Jas Bday’, and earrings won’t start appearing in your For You, but you will get tailored recommendations just for Jas on your home page, that will adjust with each search within that Space.

Problem Solving


1. Users find the messaging experience to be awkward and difficult to approach 


Solution:

I addressed this pain point by creating a message suggestion system that would recommend a first message to send the seller, and continue recommending messages throughout the discussion. Initially I thought these messages would be generated and adjusted based on data from the app with frequently asked questions and what messages lead most successfully to sales. Though through user testing, the idea for the message suggestions being able to be pre-filled by sellers with their own FAQs if they would like, and then auto-generated onwards would be a potential extra feature to add.

To address the pain point of negotiating I considered also including an offer system on the app that requires no messaging, this would’ve been in the next design iteration if I was to have had more time, but I decided to focus more on perfecting the other areas instead of beginning to explore this idea without having the time to properly research and iterate it. 


2. Users emphasised the importance of clothes fitting  and how this can deter them from ordering online


Solution:

I included an option in the settings to enter your measurements into the app so, with permission, they could be automatically sent to the seller upon ordering a handmade item.

3. Users named price to be the largest deterrent in purchasing handmade clothing


Solution:

I included a search filter that would show the average prices for the item you’ve searched, and where you can set the max price. Being able to see the average price for an item would help the buyer to feel confident that they’re getting a fair price for the item they’re purchasing. 

4. Competitor applications have an endless scroll of liked items and users have to go into each item individually to unlike


Solution:

I added a feature in my favourites tab where you can name and create collections out of your liked items, you can also delete the whole collection and all the items inside of it if you’ve purchased the one you want and no longer need similar items in your favourites. 

5. Searching for gifts effecting users personal recommendations


Solution:

To fix the issue of gift searches effecting your For You, or not wanting searching for one particular item to change your whole recommended tab, I created a feature called Search Spaces. You can create, name and search within a Space and then will get tailored recommendations on your home page for each of these Spaces. Your search history for each Space will live within the Space, and once you’re done with it you can delete the space to no longer receive recommendations for those types of items.

For example, you can search for earrings for a friend (let’s call her Jas) for her birthday, under a Space you’ve named ‘Jas Bday’, and earrings won’t suddenly start appearing in your For You, but you will get tailored recommendations just for Jas on your home page, that will adjust with each search within that Space.

Problem Solving


1. Users find the messaging experience to be awkward and difficult to approach 


Solution:

I addressed this pain point by creating a message suggestion system that would recommend a first message to send the seller, and continue recommending messages throughout the discussion. Initially I thought these messages would be generated and adjusted based on data from the app with frequently asked questions and what messages lead most successfully to sales. Though through user testing, the idea for the message suggestions being able to be pre-filled by sellers with their own FAQs if they would like, and then auto-generated onwards would be a potential extra feature to add.

To address the pain point of negotiating I considered also including an offer system on the app that requires no messaging, this would’ve been in the next design iteration if I was to have had more time, but I decided to focus more on perfecting the other areas instead of beginning to explore this idea without having the time to properly research and iterate it. 


2. Users emphasised the importance of clothes fitting  and how this can deter them from ordering online


Solution:

I included an option in the settings to enter your measurements into the app so, with permission, they could be automatically sent to the seller upon ordering a handmade item.

3. Users named price to be the largest deterrent in purchasing handmade clothing


Solution:

I included a search filter that would show the average prices for the item you’ve searched, and where you can set the max price. Being able to see the average price for an item would help the buyer to feel confident that they’re getting a fair price for the item they’re purchasing. 

4. Competitor applications have an endless scroll of liked items and users have to go into each item individually to unlike


Solution:

I added a feature in my favourites tab where you can name and create collections out of your liked items, you can also delete the whole collection and all the items inside of it if you’ve purchased the one you want and no longer need similar items in your favourites. 

5. Searching for gifts effecting users personal recommendations


Solution:

To fix the issue of gift searches effecting your For You, or not wanting searching for one particular item to change your whole recommended tab, I created a feature called Search Spaces. You can create, name and search within a Space and then will get tailored recommendations on your home page for each of these Spaces. Your search history for each Space will live within the Space, and once you’re done with it you can delete the space to no longer receive recommendations for those types of items.

For example, you can search for earrings for a friend (let’s call her Jas) for her birthday, under a Space you’ve named ‘Jas Bday’, and earrings won’t suddenly start appearing in your For You, but you will get tailored recommendations just for Jas on your home page, that will adjust with each search within that Space.


Development


Changes to consider in the future:
Discovered through user testing

- Search Spaces having it’s own section in the app or bottom bar, to scroll through recommendations for each and edit/delete within that section


- Message suggestions being able to be pre-filled by sellers with FAQs if they would like, and then auto-generated onwards


- Recent searches and ‘For You <3’ being renamed to clarify they are searches outside of a Space


- Develop an offer based system so users don't have to communicate through messages to further solve the pain point of not being comfortable with negotiating prices


- Being able to tag your items to help refine searches


- Add the ability to customise your shop front, an idea that formed from feedback during competitor analysis for Etsy


- Be able to pay for profile boosting and extra features on the app so there are no buyer/seller fees (a feature that is deterring users from Depop, as discovered through interviews and competitor analysis)

Sofia Durnford

Portfolio