Your Outfit app: A retrospective of my journey with rapid prototyping in UX Design

Goal

To create a mobile app for a specific user’s problem through rapid prototyping.

The Problem

Styliana needs a reliable and accurate way to choose what to wear everyday according to the weather.

Project Details

My role: Researcher & Designer

Duration: 4 days

Tools: Pen, Paper & POP

The Process

The methods used through this design exercise focused on the understanding of the user in her context and iteration processes through rapid prototyping to get insights into the problem and first ideas around the solution that respond to the user needs:

User Interview: to understand in depth the problem - user needs and requirements.

The key findings:

1. The problem is based on a self reported lack of ability to “interpret” the weather forecast in order to decide what to wear, not a lack of a reliable forecast service. Even though there are reliable sources for weather forecast, the information can be confusing and irrelevant as it doesn’t give the user a clear guide in terms of outfit selection.
2. The user relies on other people’s advice, specifically her mom. The idea of getting guidance from others she trusts was a relevant aspect.

Storyboard: through this technique I was able to reproduce the user’s problem in her unique context and create a basic statement of a solution.

User Flow: a sketching technique that allowed me to translate the user’s journey in a diagram as a base to create the app’s screen flow.

Testing this diagram brought a key important insight that shaped the way the solution was addressed: the social aspect of the user’s journey that seemed to be relevant during the interview, showed to be an “optional” preference within the app.

UI Sketches: the previous iterations allowed me to start the process of screen flow creation. Through three different iterations with my user and one with an additional potential user, I was able to go from a very rough — high level idea to a more refined paper prototype that tested the key features of the app.

Key findings:

1. Through my first iteration I discovered that a clear visual reference of the flow is a key element in the design process and the need to follow more “standardised” copy of internet common features (i.e. “Use current location” for automatic set-up).
2. On my second iteration, even though I refined the details to show the flow of the process, it required more specific indication of steps (i.e. 1, 2, 3, etc.) and a specific feature about personal preferences on body temperature level of comfort was something that stood out as even though it was clear for my user it wasn’t clear on the additional test conducted with another potential user.
3. The third and final iteration solved the issues with the flow and as I added more level of detail and differentiation according to previous iterations, the key objective of getting a quick and easy to use app that will provide outfit suggestions according to the weather was achieved. The prototype showed some potential future functionality in terms of social sharing and follow recommendations of other users as a desirable, but not essential feature.

Competitive and Comparative Analysis

Looking for similar apps I found three direct competitors in the App Store and two websites. As comparative analysis two apps specialised in “what to wear for running” and “what to wear for cycling” were included as well:

Websites: dailydressme.com, whattowear.io

App Store: What to wear, What to wear for the weather, Weather wear plus

App Store: What should I wear running, What to wear cycling

With a general overview the key findings to learn from are:

• Some of them focus on standardised model-like images and only one app offers personalisation with the option of uploading photos of your clothing and a website that offers different guidelines according to specific dress codes.
• The websites base their service in alerts through email and SMS.
• Additional tips including: requirement of specific accessories (i.e. umbrella or sun glasses), best time to exercise and options to commute to work based on the weather.
• The sport oriented apps include the option to personalise the results according to preferences in terms of body temperature or tolerance level.

Further detailed analysis and research would be advantageous for future prototype development.

The Design

Two key features were delivered as follows:

• A first time user set up for personalised features according to the user preference. In this case she prefers to spend more time in a set up process but latter have a faster but already personalised result. However this is a feature that requires further testing to appeal more user’s preferences where both options are given: current initial set up and personalise as you go.
• A quick daily personalisation in one step to get straight away the outfit recommendation.

Click here to see the POP prototype

Looking Forward: Next Steps

Even tough the key features were delivered to solve the initial problem, as a result of the last iteration on the third prototype, I consider the following aspects would require further research and development:

• Broader audience testing to cater more than one user style.
• Deeper evaluation on the personalisation feature about body temperature level of comfort.
• Exploration on the potential of social features as a point of difference. Not only allowing users to share their experience with the recommendation that have been given to them to let the app learn from it and improve the personalisation process, but to allow others to follow your recommendations as well or follow some recommendations of people you “trust”.

Final thoughts…

As part of my UX training process I would focus on keep improving my sketching skills not only for aesthetic reasons but to be able to improve my communication skills. This process includes the study in a more conscious mode of the digital designs I’m exposed to in a daily basis to learn from it.