Faster Fashion On Campus
By Diane Du, Lani Dang, Eman Mustefa, Kristy Nhan
Introduction
Fast fashion has gained exponential prominence over the last few years due to social media trends aimed at young people, and a large consumer group is college students — a population that actively contributes to and participates in fashion trends and fads. However, college students struggle to shop sustainably due to time and money; thrift shops take time and sustainable stores are expensive. As a demographic without a livable, full-time income, it can be difficult to afford turning over their closets every season or buy from pricier, slow fashion brands.
To address this problem, we designed a mobile app that allows UW students to buy, sell, and trade clothes with each other through a messaging service for the buyer and seller to communicate through, along with physical on-campus drop-off boxes.
Low-Fidelity Prototyping and Testing
For our usability testing, we chose three participants that we were related to or lived with as we conducted these tests over Thanksgiving break. For each test, we had at least one group member there in person with the participant and had the other members over Zoom.
We asked the participants to complete two tasks:
- Create an account
- Buy a red XL red shir
In addition to the tasks, we asked for specific feedback about the flow of our app after each test. We also had participants explore the app on their own and discuss solutions they thought would improve their overall experience.
One of the biggest issues we encountered when testing our paper prototype was security. In our initial prototype, we made it a requirement that the user adds their payment information in order to create a profile. Our testers mentioned that this is a deterrent because users may be unsure about the security of this app and also may not have their current payment method with them. To address the security concerns regarding entering credit card information during the “create profile” sequence, we decided to split up our profile creation into multiple pages. Therefore, users can separately enter their personal information and then enter their payment information on a different page. Additionally, we added an option to skip adding payment methods if this is a deterrent for some users that don’t want to complete this step when creating their account. We also added multiple payment methods for users who may want to connect their Venmo or PayPal instead of their debit or credit cards.
A safety concern that was brought up during our usability test was the lack of safety regarding purchases. Our initial prototype had a flow that once a user pressed one button to make an order, they would immediately be taken to the confirmation screen and the item would be bought. During testing, we realized that this method does not allow for error, for example, finger slips, which does not allow users to review their order or reference their order info to look up where to receive it. Now, we created a multiple-page flow where once they have pressed the buy button, they will be set to a page to review their order and then can complete their purchase. After that, the user will be sent a confirmation message, with their order information and then also a link to another screen with where the drop box is located.
High Fidelity Prototyping
Our final prototype supports multiple tasks, including creating an account using user’s UW netIDs, buy/selling items, locating dropboxes, and messaging other users. Our two primary tasks, creating an account and buying a clothing item, are shown in detail below.
Creating an Account
Through this profile creation flow, users will be prompted to sign in using their UW NetID in order to ensure that all users are verified UW students. They can additionally set up their personal and payment information here.
Purchasing a clothing item (for example, a red shirt)
Here, users are able to search for specific item types through the search bar and view items in more detail by selecting them. Then users can communicate directly with sellers in order to coordinate and purchase the item.
In transitioning from our paper prototype to our digital mockup, we addressed four main issues identified in our usability testing: security, location information, app functionality, and order confirmation.
Location information was one concern our usability testers brought up. When testing the app, it was unclear to them what the location was meant for, as we did not explicitly state on the item information page that Willow Hall was a drop-box location and not the building of the seller’s residence. We decided to label this field with the location followed by “drop-box” for clarity.
During our usability testing, our users also expressed concerns about the most important functions. For our navigation bar, we have buttons for home, search, messages, dropbox locator, and profile. When evaluating the importance of these buttons, users found that they didn’t find the dropbox locator button necessary in the navigation bar, and posting items would have higher precedence in terms of app functionality and promoting app usage (encouraging users to post more items on this platform). Therefore, we decided to replace the dropbox locator button with a “post item” button.
Link to Figma prototype: High Fidelity Prototype
Summary
Fast fashion and overconsumption isn’t a problem that can be solved overnight; social media trends are still ongoing, and clothes are still being mass produced. Faster Fashion provides a solution for UW students to shop sustainably, keeping in mind their time and budgets. Our app allows students to link their NetIDs to ensure that only UW students are using the app and that users are interacting with real students just like themselves. Students can use Faster Fashion to shop from the comfort of their own home and make more environmentally-friendly choices with their fashion. Users can communicate with each other to organize pick-up times and dates and negotiate prices, as well as save time by choosing to pick up their clothing items on the way to and from class. With Faster Fashion, we hope to eliminate the hardships that come along with shopping sustainably.
