Design principles: Creating shared values for a more inclusive fashion experience
In the latest installment of our Design Principles series, Product Design Manager Emilie Alonso shares the experience principles behind Adaptive Fashion at Zalando, and how they cultivated shared values across multiple teams.
A dress with magnetic buttons to support limited dexterity. Compression clothing for sensory sensitivities. Pants cut to better fit a seated position. These are just a few examples of adaptive fashion: clothing designed to cater to the needs of people with permanent or temporary disabilities. But where does style enter the equation?
When Zalando created its first Adaptive Fashion collection, launched in October 2022, we understood that, though functionality was integral, style had to come first. Not only did we want to improve on the existing, often gray and medicalized, adaptive fashion options on the market. Most of all, we sought to create a welcoming place for all customers to discover and express themselves through fashion. To bring the collection to life, 12 teams from across the company worked together on the project, including fashion designers, buyers, photographers, marketing, communications, and the digital product development team.
“Many people knew very little about adaptive fashion before working on this project,” explains Emilie Alonso, Product Design Manager in our Diversity & Inclusion team. “Though it was a complicated and new topic, our challenge was to ensure that the 12 teams delivered one coherent solution. We asked, how can we create a common understanding of what adaptive fashion means at Zalando? And, collaborating with so many people, how can we harmonize our decision-making process?” The answer was to devise a set of principles defining the core values that would shape the experience.
The experience principles the teams created at the beginning of Zalando’s adaptive fashion journey have become a “mantra” for all involved. Read on to learn how they were created and embedded into the teams’ everyday work.
Research and development
Emilie defines experience principles as “a set of values that help create a shared understanding of the experience we want to offer.” Since the adaptive fashion topic was new to many, extensive research was an essential first step. “We started by collecting knowledge through customer interviews, desk research, and exchanges with experts like All is for All, a disability inclusion agency that supported us throughout this project. Doing so, we gained a lot of insight on stereotypes, bias, as well as positive and negative representation of the disability community. And crucially, we acquired a better understanding of how to thoughtfully support and celebrate them.”
Emilie then facilitated a cross-business-unit workshop with representatives from the 12 teams to share these insights and collectively define the principles. She began the workshop by ensuring participants not only understood the key findings, but internalized them via analogies and examples from everyday life or mainstream culture. Then, using the Zalando do.BETTER strategy as a north star, the teams discussed the positioning of the Adaptive Fashion experience, considering dimensions such as amplifying voices versus fostering collaboration with the community, or representation versus celebration of the disability culture. Finally, they created the principles together in three steps:
- Brainstorm keywords
Free brainstorming on what makes a great adaptive experience - Mind mapping: How should the experience feel/not feel?
Defining the customer and design implications of the top 5 keywords from the previous exercise. Using “as a customer, I should…” and “our designs should…” statements to do so. - Definition of Adaptive Fashion experience principles
Selecting the top 4–5 groups and synthesizing them in the form of experience principles
“The key was to ensure everyone had enough space to express themselves during the session. With so many stakeholders, more outspoken voices can quickly dominate the conversation. Showing everyone — extroverted or introverted — that you genuinely care about their input helps to drive participation and shape a more balanced collaboration.”
By the end of the workshop, the 12 teams had collectively defined the four following customer-centric principles and committed to embedding them into their ways of working.
Adaptive Fashion experience principles
- Style first, not functionality first
This is a deeply customer-centric principle that emphasizes self-expression. By focusing on style first, we want to close the chapter of gray and medical adaptive fashion, allowing customers to choose products that work for them and reflect their personality. - Nothing about us without us
We strive for inclusivity in front of and behind the lens: listening to our customers to design the right assortment, but also working with models and photographers from the disability community to constantly exchange and create an inclusive experience together. - Integrated and seen, but not special
One of the core principles behind any inclusive experience, this principle reflects Zalando’s goal to ensure all customers feel respected, included and celebrated through the customer experiences and communications we create. We seek to celebrate the disabled community, without othering them, embedding customers into the existing experience. - Fashion shouldn’t feel like work
We aim to support the community in all aspects of the customer experience, removing barriers stepwise to move toward a welcoming and equally accessible experience. We know it is a long journey. It is great to see colleagues respond with commitment and a desire to make a change.
Applying the principles
“It is critical to embed experience principles into teamwork and processes. Otherwise they just end up as a nice statement printed on a poster.”
The principles are used as onboarding material for newcomers and as a decision-making tool. Cementing them as a foundational reference point has brought consistency to the overall customer experience across all internal and external touchpoints.
“Each team has full ownership of their aspect of the experience, but the principles, as values we established together, provide a guardrail to align our work automatically. It is evident in cross-team collaboration that they have become a foundational vocabulary.”
“Each team has full ownership of their aspect of the experience, but the principles, as values we established together, provide a guardrail to align our work automatically. It is evident in cross-team collaboration that they have become a foundational vocabulary.”
The principles are helping the teams to cultivate a welcoming environment for disabled customers¹, conveying the customer-centric values they all stand for. “To ensure customers don’t feel othered, the digital product development team decided to include adaptive products into the overall Zalando assortment: adaptive and non-adaptive products are presented in one place to avoid digital segregation. The marketing team used the principles to guide feedback for campaign material, ensuring we highlighted the style and not the function. Reflecting, ‘Nothing about us without us,’ we partnered with the Special Olympics, the world’s largest inclusive sports event, which took place in Berlin this year, to learn more from and strengthen our relationship with the disability community. To raise visibility, we included more representation of the disability community in Zalando campaigns and on social media. And considering the ‘Fashion shouldn’t feel like work’ principle, we are currently working on improving accessibility in the digital purchase experience.”
A promising start
When Zalando’s Adaptive Fashion collection launched, some items sold out within the first week. There was also great media recognition, including coverage in Vogue, Forbes, and Time Magazine. “One of our goals — beyond offering stylish adaptive wear — was to create visibility and awareness. Both the customer adoption and the media response reflected this.”
Several months later, Zalando’s adaptive fashion assortment — among the largest in Europe — continues to expand. There are currently hundreds of styles across Zalando’s private labels and Tommy Adaptive, the dedicated collection of our key partner, Tommy Hilfiger. The goal is to add even more partner labels and childrenswear. Meanwhile, the digital product development team continues to refine the user experience. There are more filters to narrow down the assortment by adaptive features — for example, ‘magnetic fastener’ and ‘pull-up loops’ — as well as a description of them within the product details accordion on the Product Detail Page.
“We are so proud of the work we have done to spotlight the disability community, challenge stereotypes, and raise brand interest in accessible fashion. But we also know that it is just the first step and that we have a lot of work ahead. From a design perspective, working on a new topic without existing benchmarks is always a trial-and-error process. My advice is to do it step by step and always include the customer to guide you through the process.”
Key takeaways
Are you approaching a cross-functional or cross-business-unit collaboration? Here are Emilie’s tips for crafting experience principles that make a difference.
- Do your research, learn, and share
“As a designer, I believe it’s our responsibility to create empathy and understanding for our customers. When crafting experience principles, ensure you anchor your insights into tangible situations to support others to understand and internalize them.” - Those who create them are more likely to use them
“Creating the principles together as a cross-functional team, and ensuring everybody is involved in the process, makes adoption much easier.” - Keep principles alive by including them in your processes
“Use them as onboarding materials, in feedback sessions, or to brainstorm possible solutions. And don’t forget that the ‘moment of truth’ for the adoption of principles is when making decisions.”
For more on how to create experience principles that elevate the customer experience vision, check out these collaboration-focused tips. Enjoying our Design Principles series? Ensure you don’t miss our next articles by subscribing to our posts at the top of this page.
¹Please note that Zalando uses identity-first language (disabled customers) as we believe that it aligns with the rights model of disability. However, we acknowledge different opinions on this topic and adapt to our audience’s preferences in direct exchanges
