Fiber Distributor

Summary

Shopping Sustainably

Fiber Distributor is a shopping app that offers unique garments, accessories and miscellaneous fashion and home products made by lesser-known artists and designers. The app offers buyers not only new items but also the ability to purchase secondhand items from the same artists and designers, the app encourages users to recycle items that they have purchased within the app and rewards users with a credit system for their participation.

Collaborator: Katrina Portillo

Process

Circular Economies

The timeline for the project was 3 months, within this timeframe we were tasked to work with one collaborator in class to conduct market and user research, create wireframes, test with users and design the visual identity of the app's brand.

Additionally, the challenge of this app included developing one unique feature. Through our research we uncovered the concern of users between the ages of 20-35 related to ethically sourced items vs cost vs being fashionable. From this insight we developed our secondhand feature that includes the opportunity to buy from artists and designers at a discount, and as part of this feature to encourage a circular economy within the app by allowing users to recycle items purchased within the app itself.

Process

Circular Economies

The timeline for the project was 3 months, within this timeframe we were tasked to work with one collaborator in class to conduct market and user research, create wireframes, test with users and design the visual identity of the app's brand.

Additionally, the challenge of this app included developing one unique feature. Through our research we uncovered the concern of users between the ages of 20-35 related to ethically sourced items vs cost vs being fashionable. From this insight we developed our secondhand feature that includes the opportunity to buy from artists and designers at a discount, and as part of this feature to encourage a circular economy within the app by allowing users to recycle items purchased within the app itself.

User flows

Understanding User Journeys

A total of 8 people were interviewed, these people ranged between the ages of 22-47, we developed a questionnaire that would give us a general insight of people's needs and pain points when it came to shopping apps.

From the user insight we developed 4 personas that would guide the development of the user flows and information architecture of our app.

We began with creating a napkin sketch in FigJam, then translating it into 11 different user journeys in Figma.

Wireframes

Designing Flows

Once our user flow was refined, we moved on to creating low-fidelity wireframes of all the screens necessary to complete the 11 different user flows. We defined the specific interactions and outcomes that needed to be prototyped through the use of red arrows.

The general design of the wireframes was based off of the competitor app research, which was H&M.

Wireframes

Low-Fidelity Prototype

With our wireframes now completed, the next phase was to prototype. For the prototype we did 3 separate flows, login/create account, add/remove product from cart, and the unique flow which was the recycle function.

solution

Expect the Unexpected

For the visual design of the brand we developed a visual identity that is unexpected, funny, and playful. We took inspiration from risograph print textures and colors, finding humour in the process of taking an analog method into the digital realm.

Something that was common in fashion sites that my collaborator and I found was the use of ironic and meta humour. Since our app is intended for a younger audience we decided to lean into this aspect for the voice of the brand.

This lead to the development of a cute mascot named "Scraps" who is a scrappy cat (or dog?) that gets into mischief throughout the app.

Process

Circular Economies

The timeline for the project was 3 months, within this timeframe we were tasked to work with one collaborator in class to conduct market and user research, create wireframes, test with users and design the visual identity of the app's brand.

Additionally, the challenge of this app included developing one unique feature. Through our research we uncovered the concern of users between the ages of 20-35 related to ethically sourced items vs cost vs being fashionable. From this insight we developed our secondhand feature that includes the opportunity to buy from artists and designers at a discount, and as part of this feature to encourage a circular economy within the app by allowing users to recycle items purchased within the app itself.