👩💻 Role: UX Designer
⌛ Timeline : Jan - Mar 2023
👥 Team : Individual
Smart Mirror (Lt.) and Customer with Virtual 'Bag' Try-on
OBJECTIVES
The objective of this study is to gain an understanding of user behaviour in the fashion industry by exploring shopping habits and purchasing trends for clothing.To accomplish this, a set of participatory design tools called "Design probes" were created with the goal of collecting valuable insights into participants' fashion-related shopping habits and their overall connection with fashion.
THE DESIGN PROCESS
BACKGROUND RESEARCH
- Current practices in the fashion industry
- Fashion and Social Media
- GenZ’s Shopping habits
- Fashion and Technology
- Online shopping
- Consumer decision-making and behaviour while shopping
- Fashion and Sustainability
STATE OF THE ART
👉 Fashion industry encompasses traditional brick-and-mortar stores and online shopping.
👉 E-commerce has grown significantly, driven by convenience and accessibility.
👉 Mobile technology allows on-the-go shopping, transforming consumer interactions with fashion.
👉 Social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok serve as influential marketing tools for fashion brands.
👉 Influencers and celebrities shape consumer behavior and set fashion trends.
👉 Challenges of online shopping include overwhelming choices and sizing/fit issues.
👉 Trends in user behavior include sustainability, seeking eco-friendly and ethical options, and personalization/customization.
👉 ThredUp survey reveals 72% of college students shopped for fast fashion in 2022.
👉 Affordability and convenience are key factors driving college students' attraction to fast fashion.
Fashion and Technology
A virtual showroom allows guests to experience new campaigns at any time - without physically traveling.The Wearable Tech Collection X H&M LAB (2020) showcased an innovative technology integrated into the garment here a classic denim jacket.
Burburry items using Google Search on their phone, consumers can see an AR version of the productat scale against other real-life objects
TARGET AUDIENCE
Individuals aged 18 to 35 interested in fashion and frequently engage in online or in-store shopping.Recruitment of 5 to 10 participants for the probes , through social media platforms and personal network.
DESIGN PROBES
Probes are designed to explore how participants relate to their personal preferences, experiences, and shopping habits regarding clothing purchases. By collecting data through the probes, a better understanding of user behaviour in the fashion industry can be gained.
The study seeks to address the following questions:
🔑 What are the key factors that influence user behaviour in the fashion industry?
🔑 How do customers make decisions when buying fashion products?
🔑 What are the most common customer pain points when shopping for fashion products?
🔑 How do customers feel about sustainable fashion!How social media impacts shopping behaviours?
FINAL PROBES ACTIVITIES
FROM PROBES TO IDEATION
Keywords generated from the probes returned : In store shopping experience, shopping mistakes, shopping with friends and family, finding the right size clothes
After going through the probes and participants responses I decided to determine category from each activity. By categorising them, I was able to identify the overlapping ideas and determine the suitable idea for the designing and prototyping.
IDEA GENERATION
According to (Ferrandez 2023), brands are adopting technology to attract customers back to brick-and-mortar stores by integrating AR into the shopping experience. More than 80% of consumers are interested in using AR to interact with products in-store and online. Magic mirrors are a promising method for retailers to incorporate AR into their stores.
IDEA SELECTION
Most of the above ideas converge to personal styling and recommendation based on current wardrobe. So choosing the smart mirror idea would be most practical. This is supported by the background research, which highlighted the increasing use of AR and VR in fashion retail stores such as Zara, H&M, and Burberry, and the growing impact of technology in the fashion industry.
🔷 The project involves considering both mobile and mirror interfaces for the smart mirror. The mirror serves as an augmented reality tool for trying on clothes selected from the mobile app.
🔷 Users can see how clothing items look on them without physically trying them on.The mobile app acts as the control panel for selecting and trying on clothes.
🔷 Users can share the virtual try-on on social media to get opinions before making a purchase. The project focuses on integrating MirrorMe, a smart mirror, into an H&M store.
🔷 The H&M app provides access to the smart mirror. A new tab, "Virtual Try-On," is added to the app's menu for MirrorMe functionality. Users can browse products on the MirrorMe page, and they appear augmented on the mirror.
Exisitng Menu in H&M App (Lt.) and New Feature og 'Virtual Try On' added to the menu (Rt.)
Mirror Me Page Mobile UI (Lt.) and Customer with virtual Pants (Rt.)
TASKFLOWS
Assumptions : The Smart mirror - MirrorMe is installed in one of the H&M store. The customer interacting with it has an active H&M user account and a membership ID.
Task flows for mirror as well as mobile app task flow
WHAT IS MIRROR ME
MirrorMe is an augmented reality fitting tool smart mirror that enables immediate and accurate digital try-on of clothing in the store. With MirrorMe, customers can easily try on any clothing item in real-time, tailored to their individual measurements at the store. By simply using their mobile phone, they can see how a dress, top, or other clothing item looks on them through the mirror display.Assumptions : The Smart mirror - MirrorMe is installed in one of the H&M store. The customer interacting with it has an active H&M user account and a membership ID. Show new users best offers and variety of products on the first glance, what better place than to use homepage for it.
SKETCHES
The wireframes for mobile app were made in reference to the existing H&M app. Below are the wireframes designed for the virtual try on tab in the H&M
PROTOTYPE
PAPER PROTOTYPES
Once the features were finalized the wireframes were then arranged as per the user flow and I designed a mobile screen to highlight which screen are we currently on while recording video prototype. Creating a slide pop up to show how user can swipe the card on the app to try the clothes on the mirror.
Paper PrototypeVIDEO PROTOTYPES
Used a snapchat filter “Try On- clothes” for video prototyping which helped me virtually try on clothes for this project. Second I shot the paper prototyping video explaining the virtual try on feature integration with the existing H&M app.The setup will be in the store , so the mirror will have initially the steps on the screen before the user session starts. As soon as user scans the code at the store the mirror will reflect the user image and ask them to check out the app and try outfits.I tried to give feedback from the mirror and app as well so that the user is well aware of the input they are giving to the mobile app and even for the mirror.
Smart Mirror (Lt.) and Customer with Virtual 'Bag' Try-on
Checkout the Project Video and Prototype :
REFLECTION
Looking back on the journey
✅ User Engagement
The main challenge was to get data from some users based on those probes. Both on the part of researchers and participants, design probe activities can be time-consuming and require significant effort
✅ Learning from Design Probes
Limited Quantitative Data: because of the qualitative nature of the Design probes, the insights didn't generate quantitative data, making it challenging to measure the frequency of specific behaviours.
✅ Designing a feature for a established platform is challenging
Designing the feature to be impactful is a task in it self, but we also need to consider how the feature fits in the existing platform.
Thank You for checking out the project :)