thinkful ux|ui immersion — product design, user research
A clear solution for garment alterations, customizations, and repairs.
If you've ever needed to tailor a pair of pants, design a custom wedding dress or repair a hole in your favorite jeans, you're probably familiar with the difficulty of finding a skilled professional to conveniently get the job done. Lost without a clue, you often resort to the tailor at your local dry cleaner with limited service options, or most annoyingly, you put the project off a few weeks and your garment or idea becomes lost in the back of your closet.
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I took a deep dive into this complex space to develop an ‘MVP’ solution to satisfy the business and user goals. A combination of tools was used, including surveys and interviews, to gather information from our target audience which culminated in the design of Pro Tailorz; a product that aims to minimize the hassles of locating and hiring a tailor to conveniently alter, customize, or repair your favorite clothing and generate a better overall experience for future users.
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My role
Logo Design
User Research
User Interviews
User Flows
Sketching
Wire-framing
Prototyping
Visual Design
Interaction Design
User Testing
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Team
Team of Me
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Tools used
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
iOS
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Timeline
6 Months
the problem​
The clients are urban city residents that currently don’t have a working solution for conveniently tailoring their favorite clothing. In the USA, requests for tailoring services often come from the wedding and luxury apparel industries, where alterations, customizations, and repairs are the most common service request. When searching for a tailor, the experience can be difficult and inconvenient. Clients who use this app need to be able to review, hire and pay a skilled tailor capable of customizing the fit and appearance of their favorite apparel. I aim to understand whom the users are by researching their problems.
the solution​
A simple and easy way to search for, contact, hire and pay for the professional services of a Tailor without the hassle of commuting across town to wait in line at your local dry cleaner.
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the research process ​
design thinking
In the initial research state, it was important to define clearly, the challenges ahead, the potential users, and what we wanted to accomplish with the design.
To narrow down the best solutions and deliver a creative and simple solution to this problem, I used Design Thinking; a process based on user-centered solutions that are divided into 5 steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.
Design thinking process
empathize
user research
To kickstart the research process, I needed to define clear goals, the challenges ahead, and how I would approach them. I created a User Research Plan and used it as a guide throughout the process.
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As a next step, I put together a survey to gather data on my primary audience and get a better idea of their current process and some of the challenges they face while trying to hire a tailor. Here are some of the questions we asked in the survey:
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• How often do you use tailoring services?
• How do you usually locate and hire a tailor?
• When are you most likely in need of a tailor?
• Do you use any apps for booking services?
empathize
what we found
Users of tailoring services were primarily female fashion industry professionals between the ages of 31 - 50 who want to improve the fit of their everyday clothes.
They currently locate tailoring services by word-of-mouth referral.
100% of respondents are willing to trust an app solution for tailoring services.
empathize
the competition
Very few competitors exist in our market so a SWOT Analysis was done to evaluate our main "lifestyle brand" competitors, to see product UI, usability, and service offering. We want to understand what they were currently doing well, or poorly, areas we could improve and capitalize on, and the potential obstacles they present.
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Competitive analysis using the SWOT method
define
who are the users
From the information gathered, I created a persona of a potential user of the product. I assigned this persona with a user story to further represent the needs and aspirations of the users.
As a User, I want to be able to easily hire a professional tailor with verified skills. The service should have quick turnaround times that work with my schedule so I can always look my best.
