AMERICAN EAGLE - FIT AND FEEL IN ONLINE SHOPPING
I was fortunate enough in my studies to take part in a class collaboration with American Eagle Outfitters. We were tasked with finding ways to convey details of a garment fit and feel to online shoppers. In contrast to in-person shopping, a customer often is forced to make an uninformed choice when purchasing clothing online as they lack the ability to actually try clothes on. Our challenge was to bridge this gap and bring meaningful fit and feel information into a digital space. My principal contributions to this project were user research, wireframing, and the creation of low-fi design mockups.
I began initial research by interviewing local students about their online shopping experiences. American Eagle’s target market is 15-25 years old, so a college campus was assumed to be a reasonable representation of this demographic. In my initial research, I discovered that, price aside, online shoppers primarily base their clothing assessments on product reviews and past brand experiences. Most respondents, however, did not have much confidence in their online purchases. The most commonly mentioned pain points were the inability to try on a garment before purchase and concerns that existing website models did not accurately portray the customer’s body type. I advised our team that any design solutions would need to address these concerns.
Our team designed a theoretical 3D scanning system that would allow users to create a scan of their body and match it with a similarly sized modeled image for individual articles of clothing. Once scanned, a customer could utilize an outfit builder function to see how entire outfits would look on a model their particular body type and shape.
Based on the results of my user research, I also suggested that as a practical solution, short, 5 to 10 second video snippets could be introduced featuring popular items being worn in natural settings by models of various sizes. Given an option to see more than a static image of a garment, I theorized that customers would fell a higher degree of confidence that their purchased clothes would fit correctly.
To bridge in-store and online discussion of fit and feel, our team suggested the introduction of a Smart Mirror mirror system that could overlay articles of clothing on a customer's reflection in real time. By introducing such a system, users would be able to interface directly with third-party apps such as Mtailor that already provide some coverage of fit and feel in a digital space. In doing so American Eagle could integrate into an existing network while simultaneously providing new a new level of online service to their shoppers.
Within the group, I was tasked with user research and creating the wireframes & mockups.
Software Used: AxureRP, Photoshop, Illustrator
