WTL Case Study Cover

Fashion Designer App Design

United States, Sep 2023 – May 2024

UI/UX Design

Work

#Figma

#Illustrator

#Research

#CrossUniversity

My Role

Research Assistant — UI Design

User Group

Fashion Designers

'Work Place'

Wearable Technology Lab (WTL), College of Design @ University of Minnesota

Team

2 Design Professors, 1 Economic Professor, 2 Research Assistants

Meet the Team

A cross-university research project involving the University of Minnesota, Cornell University, and the University of Delaware.

This work was funded by the National Science Foundation under grants #2222903, #2222904, and #2222905.

Logos: University of Minnesota, Cornell University, University of Delaware, National Science Foundation
#1

Research Problem

Completed by my team before I joined

The fashion design industry contributes to a lot of waste.

Main finding

97% of all garments produced are wasted.

97% of garments produced are wasted

Hypothesis

If designers understood consumers better...

Designers will produce garments of higher ultility value

Consumers will keep the garments & not throw them away

Less waste produced!

Project Timeline

How might we reimagine the design process to minimize finished-product waste using augmented design intelligence?

Where I joined

Where we ended

1. Research

Verify problem and layout project direction

2. Prototype

Rapidly iterate on a testable prototype

3. Develop

Implement the solution

4. Testing

Assess financial feasibility

#2

The Design Brief That I Got

Create a design tool for fashion designers that predicts utility of a design, within the wardrobes of actual consumers. 

Across the consumer base, what fraction of the existing wardrobe is compatible with the designed concept?

What My Task Really Was

I wasn’t just a designer, but also a pilot that helped my team navigate muddy waters.

  • Understand the project and turn ideas into concrete features
  • Ask questions that solidify the team’s vision
  • Be unafraid to constantly present new ideas and revise them based on feedback
Can we predict the ultility of a design concept before we produce it?— Summary of the design brief
#3

UI Design Process

My background lies in UX/Graphic Design, while my team specialized in Fashion Design. We knew what the app should do, but had no clue how it could all work together.

UI design process flowchartIterative design process

Start from UI Design Mood board

My mood board focuses on:

  • UI of apps that fashion designers like to use
  • UI of apps with data visualization/analytics
UI design process flowchart

User Research Finding

Fashion design is heavily illustrative process. Their mood boards tend to be conceptual e.g. scenery that provokes some kind of atmosphere.

UI Design Iterations

With some sketches, I rapidly prototyped. Ultimately, we decided to separate our design inspiration app from the data analytics app for the time being.

Approach 1

Produce 1 representative image from selected data

UI iteration 1: 1 representative image
Approach 2

Generate cards of individual garments from selected data

UI iteration 2: Card style
Approach 3

Generate an inspiration image collage from selected data

UI iteration 3: Image collage
Approach 4

Generate a scrapbook-style mood board from selected data

UI iteration 4: Scrapbook style

Final Design

p.s. I’m no longer on the team, but feel free to reach out if you’re interested in project updates!

Design Inspiration App

Draws inspiration from fashion design’s illustrative process to answer objective 1 of the design brief.

"Can we predict the ultility of a design concept with the wardrobes of existing consumers?"— Objective 1
UI iteration 1: 1 representative image
Data Analytics App

Draws inspiration from fashion design’s ideation process to answer objective 2 of the design brief.

"What fraction of the consumers's existing wardrobe is compatible with this design?"— Objective 2
UI iteration 1: 1 representative image
Design System
UI iteration 1: 1 representative image
#5

Moving forward

The end goal is to develop a working prototype that is economically viable for implementation in the fashion industry.

  1. Incorporating software details

    Further development of augmented intelligence technology with Cornell University.

  2. Visual branding

    Color scheme, logo, fonts, etc.

Picture of me presenting my team's research paperRepresenting my team at the College of Design’s annual research symposium!
LogoJiaxi Tang

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