User Research

Outline

Ask (Interviews)

First Interview: Lizzy

Meet Lizzy! Lizzy is a classmate from one of my retail merchandising classes. I picked her to interview because she has the best wordrobe I have ever seen and I was legitimately curious about her closet before I interviewed her. She has so many different items in her closets and would be a perfect person to interview and get organizational storage inspiration from. In our conversation, I could tell this was Lizzy’s passion.

She started telling me how she has a place for EVERYTHING. It was actually very impressive to what great detail she goes into for every piece of clothing. Something that stood out to me was that she has issues with her tee shirts and leggings because they are so small and flimsy, it is hard to keep them folded up nicely and ready to wear. She says, “It is very frustrating that I have a hanger and place for almost all of my clothes, but when it comes to my tee shirts I just end up throwing them in a drawer.” Another thing that stood out to me in our conversation was that she keeps her basket of dirty laundry in her closet, but her dresses and longer clothing items will sometimes drag in the basket. We talked about how she does not like to have her dirty clothes bin outside of the closet because she does not want it to be seen; however, it is irritating that it takes up so much space in her closet. “I pretty much keep my shoes where they look best. I like the way my clothes are presented, it keeps me inspired.” This opened my eyes to think that some people like the aesthetic of an “open” closet where the clothing is part of the design for a bedroom. I believe this is a good point when thinking about my product design in general. “I feel like I pretty much have everything in its place, but it would be really nice to have a walk in closet!”

Okay Lizzy, I’ll see what I can do to help….

Lizzy’s Clothes Closet (two closets and a rolling rack)

Second Interview: Makayla

Makayla’s Clothes Closet

This is Makayla! She is my friend’s roommate and they both share a room together. I wanted to interview Makayla because she does not have a consistent way to organize the things she has in her closet. This makes her a great person to interview because she is always saying, “ooo I wish I have this to keep my belts in and this for my shoes and this……..” So she makes for a great person to interview and see what her needs are.

Makayla puts EVERYTHING in her closet. Makayla stated, “I wish I could have more space and places to put things, but because I share a room I have limited space so we have to keep all of our clothes, bags, and accessories in our closet.” She showed me how she navigates through her closet and the steps she takes when finding something to wear. She starts by going through her bottom drawers to look for pants to wear and will find a top corresponding the the bottoms located on the bar. If she is able to locate where a certain bag, she will use the one that is the most convenient and in her sight while looking for her bag. She was talking about how she has trouble finding tank tops and “black” colored clothes because they are so easy to loose. “Hey, if you come up with something that I can keep all my pants and tees in and make it faster to get to them, that would be amazing.” Good to know. Thanks Makayla!

Third Interview: Vy

This is Vy! What a guy! (Sorry the image is on face time I forgot to take a picture while I was with him looking at his closet) Vy is my friend’s boyfriend and he is someone I would describe as not only fashionable, but also cares about cleanliness and organization. I really wanted to interview him because I wanted to get a guy’s perspective who actually cares about where his clothing items go or where his things are located in his closet.

Vy talked a lot about how much he wishes he had more space for is things. He talked about how deep his closet is and how difficult it is to see things when they are so far back in his closet. I asked his to walk me through his closet and I couldn’t help but notice how frustrating it must be for him to fold his teeshirts in that location, where they can easily fall and be messed up. “They just have to go there because I need the folded but drawers would get in the way of the rest of my clothes.” I also asked him where he keeps his accessories, such as ties and hats, and he said, “I just keep my hats on my bed post, but they fall a lot. I also wish I had a better place to keep my ties because I want to keep them in good condition, but I don’t use them enough to have to look at them everyday for accessibility.” This was definitely something I took a note of. “I really like that I have two clothing bars in my closet, I just wish I could fill the second bar without covering the clothing in the back.”

Vy’s Clothes Closet

Open ended questions I asked in each interview:

1. What are three words you would use to describe the feeling you have when you look into your clothe’s closet? Why would you use those words?
2. How do you organize your closet?
3. Is there anything you wish you could change about your clothes closet? If so, what? If not, do you feel like everything has a place that needs one?
4. When preparing an outfit for an event, what steps to you take? Will you show me?
5. Tell me about a time where you were looking for a specific item in your closet and it was not where you last left it. Do you wish you could have something that would help this problem?

Observe (Part 1)

This is an in-store observation I made while watching customers look for organization for their personal needs. With the time I spend at the store, I noticed a lot of people looking at these drawer looking baskets. These are a great alternative to expensive dressers and are a great way to keep things organized when you have a small space to work with!

This is an observation I made when I was visiting my neighbors in my apartment building. I went there to chat with some friends and while I was there I was observing the way that these closets were being utilized. I noticed a lot of drawer storage within the closet making it a better way to save space outside of the closet and in the bedroom. I noticed her looking through the drawers a lot when looking for a small item.

Observe (Part 2)- Market Survey

While at my time in Target, I noticed a lot of plastic bins for storage and alternatives of dressers for organization. When it came to clothes closets specifically, I would see rolling racks or cubbies for ways to organize. This seems to be a trend to “build it yourself”. I also noticed various options for hangers and ways to hang clothing items.

Well, Home Depot would definitely not be my first choice when looking for organizational options for my closet. They have the basics. Plastic bins and containers, but nothing was offered utilized compartments or different means of organization for closets specifically.

As we all know, IKEA has an incredible amount of options for organization. They offer a lot of “build your own” closet options. However, what I noticed specifically was the ability to hang bins on the closet bar, or providing bins to easily store underneath a bed and out of the way. I noticed the trend was “affordability” and definitely spoke to a more modern crowd when looking at the design.

Unpacking

As I looked through my notes and word documents, I uncovered some of the things that stood out/were repeated in interviews I had. I color coded the words that stood out in interview in yellow, my first observations in pink, and my second (Market) observations in blue. For example, I would put items of clothing that people had that had no organizational space (ex. folded tanks and tees). I did this before I uncovered the true insights that would be a good start/problems I could fix for my design.

Major Insights

1. Tee shirts/tanks are generally folded for everyone and it is frustrating to keep them neat in a drawer (Interview)
2. Basic colors are difficult to keep track of- especially black (Interview)
3. socks/underwear are together mixed up generally (Interview)
4. Baskets/large drawers are the basic purchase at stores (observation #1)
5. build yourself is trending/affordable (observation #2)
6. Most people do not have a large closet space- however would love to have the feeling of a walk in closet (interview)
7. No great spot for ties/scarves… they are not worn everyday but need a good spot in closet for organizational purposes (interview)
8. All hangers are generally the same (Observation #2)
9. Not much on the market that screams “I’m different- and very popular!”
10. Simple designs/ colors on the market- simplicity sells! (Observation #2)

Problem Statement

College students, with small closet spaces, need a way to keep track of their everyday tees and tanks while keeping them organized and folded because there seems to be a constant issue of unfolding and refolding and not having a good space to put them.

Timeline