Comm Closet is a philanthropic effort within the Department of Communication at the University of Texas at Arlington to provide wardrobes to rent for a marginal cost.
Students can check-out individual items for a set period of time. Fees collected are used to dry clean for the next user.
There is currently no online website for students to see the selection, check out clothing, and select an appointment day.
Through the process of conducting and analyzing research, for this project I designed a shopping experience prototype for Comm Closet to meet the goals of student shoppers.
UX Designer & Researcher
January - May 2022 (12 weeks)
Miro, Figma, Axure
Research as a class, Prototype is individual
During user interviews for Comm Closet's customers, I asked open-ended questions to learn as much as I could about their experiences and identify what the user’s needs truly are.
Interviews were done as a class, but I interviewed two Communications students at UTA.
In order to learn about the real experiences students have while shopping for clothes and what expectations that would for Comm Closet, I conducted user interviews. I payed attention closely to their interactions on clothing websites, as well as asked for explanations.
After conducting these one-on-one sessions with the participants, I wanted to take all this new information gained and synthesize it to better understand who the users are. I made a Miro board grouping the data with expectations, motivations, possible use cases, and opportunities to innovate.
I learned students expect categories, filters, a cart to hold items, a wish list, and payment methods. Motivations include efficiency, accessible since it's at school, and it's affordable. Essentially the more organized and purposeful the design of Comm Closet is, the more likely students will use this resource versus its competitors.
I was able to get a clear picture of who Comm Closet’s target users are and created a persona that would accurately represent them - meet Ariella!
This persona continued to guide my decisions moving forward, making sure my design is centered on who our user Ariella is.
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Now that we identified our target user, Ariella, it was time to identify what actual problems we are solving for based on what we have learned about our user.
To help define these problems, I used the insights gained from research and my understanding of Ariella’s needs to create a customer journey map to frame the experience from the user’s perspective.
I gained a closer look into Ariella's feelings, pain points, and desired outcomes at each stage.
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I then created a service blueprint from my customer journey in order to identify problems ahead of time but also to see the potential for new market opportunities.
The process demonstrates customer actions with a Comm Closet walk in experience.
With backstage actions and support processes, I gain a detailed view of what is going on behind the scenes that makes the shopping journey possible.
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These mid-fidelity wireframes would help my focus on what is needed to be improved in terms of the functionality of my design.
I also created tablet and mobile versions to make sure that the design is responsive and effective across the different device screens that users would be accessing the prototype on.
We created a design system that was inspired by a familiar and popular clothing website, Shein.
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With the completed mid-fidelity wireframes, I built a functional, desktop prototype of Comm Closet on Axure.
I wanted to ensure there will be a wish list, checkout bag, categories, and filters.
I included saved preferences and an appointment date to be set, in order for the walk in process to be planned.
I explored a new approach for this project by testing mid-fidelity designs to put a focus more on the logical structure of the prototype’s design before finalizing the visual design.
I think this method was really effective in quickly identifying initial roadblocks to our user’s goals in the design and to make sure that the overall layout of content itself is effective and functional.
I learned how important it is to translate user goals to features that solve a challenge.
I learned how to prototype in Axure.
