Urban Aura
This project centers on a concept for a clothing shopping app that redefines how users shop for their favorite items. The app enables users to easily discover specific clothing across their preferred brands, streamlining the shopping experience. By simply entering the desired items and selecting their favorite brands, users can enjoy a seamless, consolidated shopping journey.
SCOPE
10 Weeks
TEAM
Solo Project
MY ROLES
UX Researcher
Usability Testing
Interaction Designer
Visual Designer
Challenges
In today’s fragmented online shopping environment, users encounter significant hurdles that disrupt their shopping experience. As consumers seek convenience and efficiency, they are often faced with a series of challenges that complicate their journey.
Problem Statement
Users often struggle with creating accounts on multiple retailer websites, navigating across different brands to compare styles and prices, and making purchases on various platforms.
Research
Primary Research
After identifying the challenges and problems, I conducted user interviews to gather deeper insights into their shopping habits and uncover any pain points in their experience.
Target audience
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Working professionals with busy schedules who have limited time to browse multiple online shopping sites.
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Time-constrained individuals who prefer a more efficient shopping experience and want to quickly find the items they need.
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5 -6 participants
Qualitative data
Through user interviews, I gained a deep understanding of how users interact with different platforms and the pain points they encounter when switching between tabs to compare items. The following notes were gathered from user interviews.
Insights
I distilled the information into three key pain points that emerged:
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Time-Consuming: Users need to open multiple tabs to search for items across different retailer websites.
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Inconvenience: Users must create separate login accounts and passwords for each retailer before making a purchase.
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Inconsistency: Navigation and product descriptions vary between retailers, making it challenging to navigate.
Secondary Research
According to fidoalliance.org, password frustrations are causing abandoned carts and lost sales. In a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers, 58% reported abandoning purchases due to difficulties managing passwords. These transactions were canceled because users either couldn’t remember their password or were required to create a new account and password to complete the purchase.
Competitive analysis
I then investigated similar apps in the market to gain insights into their strengths and weaknesses.
User Persona
User Journey
I then drafted a user journey map to visualize the stages of user engagement within the app. It outlines each phase of the user's journey, from start to finish, and helps me identify design opportunities at every step.
Ideation
How Might We (HMW)
I applied the HMW method to reframe my problem statements, enabling more efficient, targeted, and innovative ideation sessions to address design challenges.
User Flow
Before diving into the design, I mapped out the user flow for the entire journey users might take to achieve their goals with the product. This helped me visualize how users navigate through the app
Design
Low-Fidelity Prototype
After reviewing the research phase, user journey map, and flow, I applied those insights to the design of a low-fidelity prototype. This allowed me to see how the findings from the user research phase connected and made sense within the design.
UI Design
I chose dark blue and light brown for the app to aim for a balance between modernity and neutrality. Dark blue evokes a sense of trust, professionalism, and calm, giving the design a sleek, contemporary feel that aligns with modern aesthetics. Light brown introduces warmth and approachability, softening the overall look without overpowering the design. Together, these colors create a harmonious blend that feels both stylish and accessible, appealing to a wide range of users. Additionally, I incorporated simple icons to reinforce the minimalist design, ensuring that the interface remains clean and intuitive, allowing users to navigate the app effortlessly.
Final Design
The final design of the app emphasizes simplicity and convenience, making online shopping effortless. Instead of toggling between multiple websites, the app consolidates all your favorite brands in one place, allowing you to browse, compare, and shop with ease. The user experience is streamlined—just one account setup and a single entry of payment information. Aesthetically, the app features a modern yet neutral palette with dark blue and light brown tones, complemented by minimalist icons that enhance the overall clean and intuitive design.
What I learned
Through this project, I learned the immense value of deeply understanding user insights and frustrations. I realized how critical it is to listen to users, uncover their true needs, and translate that into a design that genuinely works for them. This process reinforced the importance of user research in guiding decisions and creating solutions that not only meet user expectations but also enhance their overall experience.
