adEpt
You don't have to adapt :)
Self-driven Project
Project Description
The project aimed at creating a digital shopping platform that connects people with physical disabilities to designers working in the field of adaptive fashion in order to make adaptive clothing more accessible for people with disabilities.
Team
Mansanjam Kaur, Mahalakshmi TM, Sreelakshmi SB
Role
UX/UI designer for the "Consumer" and partially for the "Expert Designer"
Tools
Figma, Miro
Skills
UX Design, User Research, Prototyping, Accessibility, UI Design
Timeline
August 2022 - December 2022
Design Process
1
Exploratory
Understand the problem space
Generative
Identify opportunities
Evaluative
Generate and evaluate concepts
2
3
Problem Statement
How might we make the online shopping experience for adaptive clothing more inclusive and accessible to people with disabilities?
Why is Our Solution a Game-Changer?
28 MILLION
Indians have a disability
People with disabilities face difficulties in several aspects of their life. An often overlooked aspect is clothing.
The graph from Coresight Research shows whether disability makes wearing non-adaptive clothing more difficult for consumers, by disability type
Adaptive apparel is needed for a wide range of disabilities
According to Coresight Research, the global adaptive apparel market is estimated to reach $349.9 billion in 2023.
-Coresight, 2019
Competitive Analysis
To begin, we analyzed direct and indirect competitors to understand the existing online adaptive clothing market.
Gaps Identified in the existing online market
Gap #1
No dedicated online shopping platforms for adaptive clothing in India.
Gap #2
Sizing charts lack details on accommodating various disabilities
Gap #3
Does not really offer the user with a lot of style or customization options.
Questions arising for further exploration
Question #1
Why are there so limited designers/brands involved in adaptive fashion?
Question #2
Are the consumers able to find their perfect fit on online shopping platforms easily?
Question #3
How important is 'style' and 'customization' in adaptive wear for the consumers?
User Interviews
User interviews were conducted with 3 PWD's to to understand their preferences and challenges when shopping for adaptive clothing online.
Additionally, 3 fashion designers were interviewed to identify obstacles they encounter in designing adaptive clothing and what deters them from entering this market.
Key Insights
Consumer POV
Designer POV
Insight #1
Users prefer online shopping but are concerned about finding the correct fit.
Insight #2
Users prioritize both fashion and functionality in their clothing choices.
Insight #3
Users have to get their clothes customized by tailors.
Insight #1
Designing adaptive clothes is complex; requires interdisciplinary input.
Insight #2
Collaboration between users and designers is essential for getting the perfect fit.
Insight #3
Adaptive Clothing is difficult to standardize
New Problem Statement
With these findings, our problem statement was updated as follows
How might me make it easier for users with disabilities to get clothes customized to their needs?
How might we enable designers to learn, design, and connect with each other and with potential customers?
Creating Personas
Consumer
Novice Designer
Expert Designer
Persona 1 | Consumer
“I can’t find clothes I like anymore”
Core Needs
Adaptive Customizations
Style options
Convenient shopping
Pain Points
-
Hates in-store shopping due to lack of accessible buildings.
-
Cannot find clothing that is both fashionable and comfortable.
-
Lack of awareness about adaptive clothing and accessibility among clothing manufactures and designers.
We utilized the personas created to design the workflow of the app. And, the best way to do so was through creating storyboards for each user type and using that to imagine the structure of the app.
Storyboarding
User : Consumer
User Goal: To get customized clothes for a wedding
User Flow
Storyboarding helped us map the main features of the app. Next, we structured the app's user flow for consumers to shop and learn about adaptive fashion through events and engagement, and for designers to access tutorials and connect with peers in adaptive clothing design.
Lo-fi Prototyping
User Task: Use adEpt to shop online and provide measurements
User Testing
We conducted user testing sessions with our low-fidelity prototypes to assess whether our designed flow is intuitive to users and to identify any functionalities that may need to be reevaluated or added to our final product.
90 %
Task Completion Rate
3 User Groups
9 Participants
3 participants per user group
Key Insights
01 Context Clarity
Users found some features, like the creation of a 3D avatar within a shopping app, to be non-intuitive. This indicates a need for providing clearer context and guidance to enhance user understanding and streamline their experience.
03 Aligning to user expectations
The flow around order placement deviated from user expectations. Specifically, the use of 'send order request' instead of the anticipated 'order now' button, coupled with the absence of a confirmation page, confused users. Aligning the app's language and process flow with standard e-commerce practices could enhance user satisfaction.
02 Information Overload
Critical screens, such as the order page, suffered from information overload. This included excessive details about products, order specifics, and process steps all presented simultaneously. Streamlining content and layout to focus on user priorities could improve clarity and usability.
04 Flexibility in User Preferences
The app currently lacks the flexibility to accommodate shopping for others, like friends or family, suggesting a need for adjustable user preferences. Enhancing the app to support diverse shopping scenarios could improve its usability and appeal.
The insights gathered by conducting user testing on the wireframes for our 3 workflows helped us do the necessary changes to our designs. The screens below showcase the final product after implementing user feedback.
adEpt
Introducing
You don't have to adapt :)
Core Features
Adaptive Preferences
Consumers can set 'Adaptive preferences' to share with designers, upon consent, streamlining the design process and customizing shop results. Preferences can be changed or disabled at any time.
Fostering Collaboration
Designers can stay in constant touch with the consumers throughout the design process via chat and calls. Since, designing adaptive clothes require a great deal of inputs from the consumer, adEpt takes care of it effectively.
Making measurements easy
AdEpt allows consumers with multiple disabilities to share detailed body measurements with designers when ordering clothes by scanning and uploading a 360-degree video to generate a 3D avatar, which can be edited at any time.
Helping designers grow
adEpt further enables the consumer to shop by designer. The consumer can check out the detailed profile of the designer and browse through their portfolio as well as store products to get a better idea of their offerings.
Final Prototype
Limitations/ Next Steps
Edge Cases
Users expressed interest in both designing and shopping for adaptive clothes, but our app only allows one choice. We may add a third workflow to accommodate this edge case.
Privacy Control
Our app connects designers with consumers, but allowing constant communication can be disruptive for consumers. We need to address this in the next design phase.