- Leading team in UX Research, Design System Building, Branding, Feature Implementing
- Personally Translating Research to Designs
November 2023 - March 2024
Product Designers:
3🧍🧍🧍
SWEs:
3 💻 💻 💻
User Researcher:
1🧍
Product Manager:
1🧍
Figma
Github
Adobe Ilustrator
Confluence
Notion
Slack
Jira
1. Research & Understanding 🔬
2. Ideating 💡
3. MVP Design 🎨
4. Testing 💬
My Research Plan
Welcome to the "Research & Understanding" phase of the FabricFeed case study, a pivotal segment where I orchestrated a comprehensive approach to inform our UX strategy. Join me on this exploration as we delve into the foundational research that paved the way for an impactful and user-centric FabricFeed experience. Below, you can find my research methods, so feel free to click around!
1. User interviews and surveys - Helped us gain invaluable insights, ensuring our approach resonates with user needs.
2. User Personas - Allowed our team to encapsulate the diverse profiles within our target audience.
3. User stories - Helped our team visualize user needs and journeys that served as a guiding framework for our project
4. Competitive Analysis - provided a nuanced understanding of our field, highlighting industry trends and informing our design decisions.
Delving into sustainability, interviews with stakeholders like Sam Jenkins, Director of Sustainable Operations, reveal insights into textile waste transactions. Sam's input highlights FabricFeed's potential to streamline processes and enhance sustainability. Take a look at our insights below!
What Did the Interviews Teach Us?
In designing FabricFeed, our team collectively developed User Personas representing our diverse audience. Through the extensive research we conducted on our target audience, we were able to confidently define user needs, pain points, and opportunities.
Main Pain Points ⚠️
Main Opportunities ✅
As a group, the FabricFeed team brainstormed a few user needs that followed our insightful user interviews and new user personas. In Notion, we also decided to categorize them by feature type and priority. Below, you can see these needs translated into 3 simplified, yet specific user stories.
Who We Analyzed
In shaping the FabricFeed user experience, a comprehensive competitive analysis was conducted to glean insights from prominent players in the textile waste management landscape.
By examining the strategies and interfaces of key competitors, including Finds (Paris, France), Helpsy (NJ, USA), Reverse Resources (Bangladesh, India), and Trans Americas Trading Co (NJ, USA), a nuanced understanding emerged of the industry's current trends and opportunities.
What We Looked For
This comparative exploration delved into each competitor's approach, strengths, weaknesses, and unique features. By dissecting the user experiences crafted by these industry leaders, FabricFeed gained valuable insights that informed strategic decisions in creating a platform that stands out in the global textile waste marketplace.
Join me in unraveling the intricacies of this competitive landscape, where each player contributes to the rich tapestry of insights shaping FabricFeed's unique and user-centric design.
Product Connection 🔌
All competitors aim to connect unsold fashion products to appropriate channels (reselling, donating, or recycling) on behalf of fashion brands.
Textile Collection Services 🚛
Multiple competitors operate extensive textiles collection networks, utilizing trucks for efficient pickups and offering services such as household pickups.
Retail Presence 🛍
Some competitors run secondhand shops, featuring products from large brands, providing consumers with accessible secondhand options
Wholesale Services 📦
Certain competitors extend their services to include wholesale options, catering to small business owners dealing in secondhand clothing.
Textile Waste Mapping 🗺
One competitor offers mapping and tracking services for textile waste movements, providing insights for circular fashion stakeholders.
Textile Recycling Bins ♻️
Two competitors provide textile recycling bins for municipalities, with one offering a cost-free service and a stable payment structure based on collected tonnage.
Focus on Manufacturers 👕
One competitor primarily deals with post-consumer textile waste, receiving significant quantities from manufacturers and waste pre-collectors.
How are we different?
The platform efficiently connects unsold fashion products to recycling companies for reselling, donating, or recycling, prioritizing convenience on a large scale and fostering a vibrant circular fashion economy.
Enhancing Sustainability and User Experience
FabricFeed integrates retail and wholesale services, alongside mapping and tracking features, fostering transparency and trust in textile waste management
Scalability and Sustainable Waste Management
FabricFeed's scalable approach begins with efficiently connecting textile recyclers and waste managers, leveraging features such as textile recycling bins and a stable payment structure for municipalities. This commitment extends to supporting users dealing with post-consumer textile waste, offering valuable insights for informed decision-making.
As FabricFeed expands, it aims to incorporate additional features like textile inventory management, further enhancing its impact on sustainable waste management.
Team Ideation
In the Ideation phase, I spearheaded initiatives to elevate FabricFeed's design and brand identity. Establishing a comprehensive design system ensured cohesive product development across the team. Taking charge of rebranding FabricFeed within the broader context of Ouros Industries, I focused on creating a distinctive identity for the platform. To visualize and enhance the user experience, I crafted task flows and wireflows, meticulously envisioning every step of our users' interaction with the interface.
Additionally, I produced detailed wireframes, providing a tangible framework to fully flesh out design layouts and refine the overall user interface. This holistic approach in the Ideation phase aimed to not only improve the visual elements but also to ensure a seamless and user-centric design for FabricFeed.
I played a key role in developing FabricFeed by creating a comprehensive design system. This involved defining and documenting brand guidelines for consistency and identity. I also implemented an intuitive button library, established logo usage protocols, and created icons to improve visual communication. Additionally, I crafted a user-friendly sidebar navigation and implemented sliders for a more interactive experience. This approach improved FabricFeed's usability and appeal, enhancing its position in user-centric textile waste management.
I led the creation of FabricFeed's brand guidelines, carefully selecting nature-inspired colors such as #1BFA83, #4DBB80, #66FAAB, and #0D7A40. The main palette, #13AD5B and #FFFFFF, creates a fresh and clean look. We chose Barlow Semibold for titles and Inter Normal for paragraphs to convey sophistication. Our commitment to sustainability is reflected in the logo's colors: #13AD5B, Black, or White.
The brand guidelines also embody FabricFeed's voice—focused, innovative, and dedicated to simplifying textile waste transactions for a greener future, aligning every design choice with our pledge to drive positive change in the industry.
In the intricate tapestry of FabricFeed's development, the User Flows and Journeys section serves as the compass directing our journey toward a seamless and impactful user experience. Positioned strategically after our meticulous problem statement and proposal, this section plays a pivotal role in keeping our team on course and aligning every design decision with user-centric goals.
After reviewing the user flow/journey, we progressed to the Wireframes section, which acts as our product blueprint, bringing to life the strategic decisions made in earlier research stages. Following the clarity established by our problem statement and proposal, this section is pivotal in translating concepts into tangible, visual representations that bridge the gap between ideation and execution.
Embarking on the prototyping phase for FabricFeed has been a dynamic journey, evolving conceptual designs into interactive realities. Focused on transforming wireframes into a functional Minimum Viable Product (MVP), our team aimed is to bring the envisioned user experience to life through meticulous prototyping. This process involves translating design concepts into interactive elements aligned with our user-centric goals. As we transition to testing the MVP, each interaction informs refinements to the user journey. The prototyping stage signifies the culmination of design efforts and marks the beginning of rigorous testing to ensure the MVP resonates with users and lays a strong foundation for further enhancements.
FabricFeed's design journey is characterized by the ethos of iterative design in action. This dynamic process of constant refinement, collaborative stakeholder engagement, and dynamic iteration in product meetings has been the driving force behind the evolution towards our Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Each design iteration was a deliberate step towards crafting an exceptional user experience.
This section unveils the behind-the-scenes narrative of how FabricFeed's design team, in close collaboration with stakeholders, navigated the intricate path of iterative design to ensure that every element, from the smallest detail to the overarching architecture, aligns seamlessly with user expectations and business objectives.
Constant Refinement
In the pursuit of FabricFeed's MVP, the design journey unfolded as a continuous process of refinement. Every design element underwent meticulous critique and adjustment, ensuring a seamless and user-centric experience.
Collaborative Stakeholder Engagement
Engaging with both internal and external stakeholders was pivotal. From the development team to project managers and the CEO of FabricFeed, design decisions were thoroughly discussed and aligned with overarching business goals.
Dynamic Iterations in Product Meetings
Product meetings became the nexus of dynamic iteration. Close collaboration with stakeholders allowed us to absorb valuable feedback, fostering a responsive design process that evolved in real-time to meet user needs.
Commitment to UX Excellence
The MVP is not just a product; it's a culmination of FabricFeed's commitment to delivering an exceptional user experience. The iterative design approach ensures that every interaction resonates with users and contributes to the platform's success.
As FabricFeed enters the testing stage of our MVP, we are not just gathering feedback; we are embarking on a journey of refinement and evolution. Collaborating closely with our advisory board and engaging potential users, this phase is a strategic restart of the design process. Through user and stakeholder interviews, we are not only seeking valuable insights but laying the groundwork for the next phase of FabricFeed's design evolution.
This immersive testing experience ensures that every user interaction contributes to the product's growth and aligns with our commitment to delivering a platform that exceeds expectations.
In closing, FabricFeed's evolution has been deeply influenced by invaluable feedback from users and stakeholders. Our commitment to integrating this feedback is evident in the organized Confluence board, showcasing insights from usability tests. Moving beyond the scope of FabricFeed's MVP, we prioritize continuous refinement, ensuring alignment with user needs and stakeholder goals. This user-centric approach not only enhances the experience but also fosters engagement. As we evolve, feedback remains central, ensuring FabricFeed's relevance and resonance.
