Tuesday 15 November 2016

Design for Screen - Idea Development

Taking my Ideas Further

Personalised Clothing Website & App

My first idea is to create a fashion website and app personal to the user. The app would constantly learn things about the user such as favourite brands, trends, cultures, colours etc through the user teaching it. The user would be able to teach the website what they like and dislike through a number of different ways. When open, the website or app will take note of things you look at if you let it. Another feature would be some sort of drop box where the user would drop images of things they like, this would then inform the personalised website or app on what they like. 

Target Audience: Anyone into fashion, what they wear, fashion cultures, fashion students, fashion professionals etc

The problem: Online shopping is a rapidly growing industry and is fast becoming the preferred way to shop, especially for clothes. I find that online shopping can be incredibly tedious and time consuming as you have to sort through all the clothes you don't like to finally find something you do. Some websites make this a little easier by being stylised so the user knows what clothes to expect or what labels will be shown. 

The overarching aim: However my idea is to create a website that learns about the individual and in turn sieves out any unwanted clothes and makes it a less tedious and time consuming and more of an enjoyable experience.

For an app to be up there with the best, it needs to be one where the user will refer to it when bored, in bed, on the toilet etc. This app will be one of those as it will have a personalised live feed page where u can see what your friends have been looking at as well as what clothes brands have been releasing etc. This makes for a real social media app that can be browsed even when the user doesn't have the money to spend on clothes at that time.

User Experience:

Shopping for clothes for anyone vaguely interested in fashion can be very exciting as you are eager to make some purchases. The user would open up the website or app and look forward to seeing what new clothes or labels the personalised website has found whilst the user was busy. The user would then feel great satisfaction as they look through a large range of clothes that they like the look of. As well as this, they will learn about when their favourite labels are bringing out new releases etc. This experience has cancelled out any waste of time looking at stuff they don't like thus making the experience a purely enjoyable one.



Alcohol & Food Pairing App 

Another idea is to produce an app that the user would refer to when they've decided what they'll be having for dinner and are craving something alcoholic but aren't sure which drink would suit their meal choice.

Target audience: anyone that both eats lunch and dinner and enjoys a drink along side it. This ranges from 18 upwards which allows for a larger target.

The problem: this app overcomes is the difficult decision and lack of knowledge of alcohol and food pairing.

The overarching aim of this idea is to educate people and in turn make for a more enjoyable lunch/dinner experience. The satisfaction of getting the drink and food combination just right will lead users to reuse the app regularly.

User Experience:

The user will first be excited and hungry as they are telling the app what they're having for dinner. The app will then present the user with an extensive list full of informative content about each possible alcohol option. With such an in depth and extensive list of drinks, the user will then be further excited by all the possibilities. Finally, satisfaction will come when the user makes the decision on which pairing to go for. Overall, the experience is purely an enjoyable and exciting one.


Critique & Feedback

Pitching both ideas, the personalised clothing website and app was the preferred idea due it its depth in concept and uniqueness

Feedback notes :

- Look at similar concepts; Mallzee, Mr. Porter
- It's differs from existing apps of its kind as it isn't specific to one label
- Come up with a number of solutions to the problem
- More similar apps that learn about the user and are personalised : Spotify, Just Eat, Amazon, Netflix
- Influences to you style and preference, celebrities etc that inspire fashion and styles 
- ASOS (as seen on stars)
- Existing websites grow through consumerism to try to cater to everyone and become less personal
- This in turn actually making them a worse experience for the user as its grown too big
- My idea is to remain specific to the user
- A lot of retails stores have already have filters but no one uses them, why ?
- App could even learns things about your physical stature to help with sizes

Next: 

Write the problem as a question
- be specific
- utilise problem of existing big retail interfaces like ASOS growing to suit all users as apposed to staying specific 
- Maybe the target audience should be more specific than just people who are interested in fashion and its culture

- How do I create a personalised, user specific fashion app & website
- How do I make online shopping less time consuming and more personalised to the user

Possible Concepts

1. Create a social media website and app focused entirely on fashion. The platform will use a range of methods to learn about each individual user through user behaviour, cookies etc. The result is a completely unique experience for each individual user

Strengths:

- nothing on the market that already does this combination of clothing and social media
- social media apps are the most popular apps on smartphones, as well as clothes being one of the most popular things to browse for. The combination is something that I think a lot of people of a certain age would be interested in

Weaknesses:

To begin with, the app will need to learn about the user and so will not be as useful to start with until the user engages with it for a prolonged amount of time.

Some people may not want the app to share what they have been looking at and buying all the time.

Similarly, the user themselves may not want the app to constantly learn from their activity as it may not be specifically their own activity or it could be for someone else's benefit, in turn telling the app incorrect information about their preferences. 

In order for the app to work to its full potential, it will need to be constantly learning when the user is browsing on their phone or laptop, this could drain battery and data.

2. An emersive, virtual reality application that allows you to visit virtual shops and digitally walk around the store, trying clothes on. 

Target Audience: anyone who prefers shopping online for clothes but that thinks its time consuming and unenjoyable. Also aimed at people who don't live in close proximity to clothes shops.

Strengths:

- Virtual reality is very popular at the moment and has a lot of room to grow and develop
- It will bring online shopping to life and make the experience very similar to actually going shopping
- Benefits people who live far away from any stores

Weaknesses:

- Virtual reality isn't something everyone has access to or has in their home
- It is quite expensive to own
- It may in fact just be more hassle than sitting on a computer which may not be desirable for online shoppers


3. A fashion app similar to the concept of Tinder. This app would simply be a redesign of Tinder, but instead of people, the user would swipe left or right if they like the item they see.

target audience: anyone with a smartphone who wants to find new clothes to buy.

Strengths:

- Again, Tinder is very popular nowadays and would be a popular concept to play with
- The age group that uses tinder is similar to those who shop online for clothes regularly

Weaknesses:

- the app would have to know about the user before hand otherwise they would be swiping through clothes that aren't suited to them 

My Brief

The problem: 

Online shopping, for clothes especially, has become extremely time consuming and unenjoyable for a large amount of people across all age groups. Popular websites and marketplaces such as ASOS have grown exponentially in recent years and have in turn tried to cater for a larger audience. This can in fact make the overall user experience a lot more tedious as you find yourself scrolling through hundreds of items that don't interest you in order to find that one thing that may catch your eye which then ends up being out of stock or not in your size.


My solution:

Create a social media website and app focused entirely on fashion. The platform will use a range of methods to learn about each individual user through user behaviour, cookies etc. The result is a completely unique experience for each individual user that filters out anything you have never and would never be interested in, and presents a whole range of inspiration including seeing what your friends and favourite celebrities are looking at/buying/sharing through the platform. 


Target Audience: 




As the concept is a combination of social media and online shopping, to inform my target audience I will be targeting the age bracket(s) that statistically are more likely to use it. Unsurpisingly, online shopping is mostly enjoyed by 18-24 year olds through to early 40s. However, social media use is even more limited to a younger audience with a much smaller percentage of people over the age of 30 using apps such as instagram and facebook. 

This research has informed my decision to aim my concept at two age brackets, 16-24 and 25-34. These age brackets both have some sort of disposable income as well as being confident in using social media apps.

The overarching aim:

My aim is to create an engaging and current fashion app that makes shopping for clothes online less time consuming and more enjoyable.

Strengths: 

The first strength to my concept is that there isn't something out there already. There are similar concepts such as Whatdropsnow and Hypebeast, but neither of them share all of the features. The closest thing that exists at the moment is Spotify, even though this app is used for listening and finding music, it shares a lot of the same features. 

With the exponential growth of almost all fashion websites and blogs, the need for an app that filters out all the unwanted clutter is stronger than ever. When talking to people about their online shopping habits, its a widely shared view that it can be incredibly tedious and unenjoyable. 

The more the user engages with it, the more it will learn about the user and in turn the more enjoyable and relevant the experience will be.

Weaknesses:

To begin with, the app will need to learn about the user and so will not be as useful to start with until the user engages with it for a prolonged amount of time.

Some people may not want the app to share what they have been looking at and buying all the time.

Similarly, the user themselves may not want the app to constantly learn from their activity as it may not be specifically their own activity or it could be for someone else's benefit, in turn telling the app incorrect information about their preferences. 

In order for the app to work to its full potential, it will need to be constantly learning when the user is browsing on their phone or laptop, this could drain battery and data.

Opportunities:

Threats: 

There are already some apps and websites that are relatovely similar that could potentially grow into something even more similar to this concept









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