Outfitted

Imagine scrolling through a fashion app where every outfit feels like a hidden gem, not a popularity contest. That was the vision that sparked Outfitted. I wanted to create a space where people could share their personal style without chasing likes or followers—a place where creativity flows freely, and inspiration is the only currency.

Outfitted is designed to redefine how we engage with fashion—empowering users to share their outfits and discover inspiration without the pressures of popularity or competition. Unlike traditional platforms dominated by follower counts and sponsored posts, we stripped away likes, followers, and transactions to create a level playing field where creativity shines and inspiration takes the lead.

As the creator, I led the project from concept to execution, overseeing every aspect of research, design, and user experience. From crafting the app’s visual identity to ensuring an intuitive and supportive interface, I worked to bring our vision of a collaborative and creativity-first fashion community to life.

Problem Statement

The problem we set out to address with Outfitted stemmed from the inherent limitations of existing fashion platforms, which often prioritize popularity over creativity. Our research revealed that while 62.5% of users regularly seek fashion inspiration, many feel overwhelmed by platforms like Instagram and TikTok, where algorithms favor influencers with massive followings over authentic personal style.

Further insights from surveys highlighted that 75% of users want the ability to tag clothing items with prices and brands, and 87.5% expressed a need to categorize outfits for easier discovery and replication. Additionally, nearly 88% emphasized the importance of finding styles that balance quality and affordability. These findings underscored a significant gap: users crave a space that caters to their practical needs while celebrating genuine creativity.

Our goal with Outfitted was to bridge this gap by building an inclusive platform where every user can share their unique style and have an unbiased and genuine experience—free from follower counts, likes, or sponsored content. By centering the app around user-driven features and removing the pressures of traditional social media dynamics, we sought to create a space where creativity, inspiration, and accessibility thrive equally for all.

Research Phase

To deeply understand the needs and preferences of users for our fashion-focused app, we employed a multi-method research approach that blended surveys, user personas, and competitor analysis.

We began with a Google survey targeting college students interested in fashion, gathering quantitative data on their behaviors, preferences, and desired app features. Questions explored topics such as the frequency of seeking fashion inspiration, favored platforms, and specific functionalities they valued in an app. This survey provided a strong foundation of insights to guide our development. Building on the survey results, we created detailed user personas to represent key audience segments, including influencers, content creators, and everyday fashion enthusiasts. These personas helped us prioritize user needs and ensure our design decisions were aligned with real-world behaviors and goals. Additionally, a competitor analysis enabled us to identify trends, successful features, and common user frustrations across existing fashion platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok. This market evaluation helped highlight gaps that Outfitted could uniquely address.

Key Findings

Frequency of Seeking Fashion Inspiration: While 62.5% of respondents regularly look for outfit ideas, 37.5% seek inspiration only occasionally. This diversity suggests the need for Outfitted to balance fresh, timely content with evergreen resources that resonate with both frequent and occasional users.

Popular Platforms: Respondents heavily favored Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok, underscoring the competitive landscape and the need for our app to differentiate itself with unique value propositions.

Engagement with Content: Approximately 50% of respondents showed moderate interest in interacting with posts or following others, indicating potential for fostering meaningful community engagement within the app.

Personal Style: With 62.5% emphasizing the importance of personal style, Outfitted must prioritize tools that facilitate creativity, self-expression, and individuality.

Quality and Affordability: Quality was a key factor for 87.5% of users, while 62.5% ranked affordability as highly important. Clear details about clothing quality and pricing are crucial to meeting these expectations.

Diverse User Needs: The varying habits around seeking fashion inspiration highlight the importance of offering both consistent updates for active users and timeless content for those engaging less frequently.

Prototyping

Our initial prototype featured a scrolling feed with a captivating homepage video, designed to create a visually engaging and familiar experience. While early feedback praised the clean interface, users felt the app’s resemblance to platforms like Instagram and YouTube lacked originality. This prompted us to rethink the visual design and layout to establish a distinctive identity. Users also found the linear feed limiting for discovery and noted that the retro aesthetic, though nostalgic, felt too utilitarian for a fashion app. These insights guided us to refine the interface, focusing on usability, originality, and alignment with user preferences.

To enhance usability, we adopted a grid layout, enabling effortless discovery of styles and categories while highlighting user-generated content. Tagging and categorization tools were made more prominent and intuitive, ensuring users could easily replicate outfits. Customizable profiles balanced self-expression with simplicity, avoiding clutter while showcasing unique styles. Interactive features like comments and direct messaging fostered community engagement, creating a dynamic space for connection. Finally, we refined the visual aesthetic with bold colors and modern graphics, aligning the app with fashion trends and enhancing its appeal.

Challenges

Complexity of Customizable Profiles: Early designs allowed extensive profile customization, but usability testing revealed this overwhelmed users and detracted from the app's primary goal of showcasing fashion inspiration. To resolve this, we streamlined profiles to focus on outfit presentation, ensuring simplicity, equal visibility, and ease of navigation.

Emphasis on Competition: Including metrics like likes and followers unintentionally encouraged competition and popularity-based interactions. Recognizing this, we removed these features to foster a collaborative environment where users could focus on creativity and freely share their unique styles.

Navigation Issues: Users reported difficulty exploring specific styles and categories due to cumbersome navigation. To address this, we refined the structure and adopted a grid layout, which allowed users to quickly scan and discover multiple outfits, significantly improving usability.

User Engagement: While the grid layout enhanced discovery, limited community engagement features reduced interactions. We introduced comments and feedback options to encourage meaningful connections and discussions without compromising the app’s non-competitive ethos.

Final Solution

The final design of our fashion-focused app effectively meets our user goals by prioritizing user experience, fostering community engagement, and ensuring inclusivity, all while maintaining a clear focus on fashion discovery and self-expression. Below is a detailed breakdown of how these goals are achieved, along with the insights gained from usability testing:

Empowerment of Self-Expression: The app’s design allows users to showcase their unique styles through outfit posts, tagging clothing items, and providing price information. By eliminating external metrics like likes and followers, we create a space where users feel empowered to share their creativity without the pressure of competition. This aligns with our goal of fostering an environment where users can express themselves authentically.

Accessibility and Usability: We prioritized a simple, intuitive navigation structure and a grid layout that enables effortless browsing and discovery of fashion inspiration. This focus on usability allows users to quickly find outfits and styles that resonate with them, providing a seamless experience for fashion enthusiasts of all backgrounds. Feedback from usability testing revealed that users appreciated the efficiency of the grid layout for discovering styles, allowing for quick browsing and enhancing visual appeal.

Community Connection: The design encourages interaction through features like comments, fostering a sense of community and collaboration among fashion enthusiasts. This approach addresses users' needs to connect and share insights, aligning with our vision of a platform where individuals can inspire each other and build relationships centered around fashion. Usability testing indicated that users expressed a desire for features that foster community engagement, leading us to prioritize interactive commenting to enhance user interaction.

Diverse User Representation: Our app caters to various user personas, including trend-driven creators, sustainable fashion enthusiasts, and budget-conscious shoppers. By incorporating features that appeal to these diverse groups, we ensure that the app meets the varied needs of our audience, reinforcing our commitment to inclusivity in fashion. Feedback revealed that users found the tagging feature valuable for categorizing outfits by occasion, style, and price, with suggestions to improve the visibility of price tags noted to facilitate easier outfit recreation.

Simplified Profiles: Usability testing indicated that simplified user profiles reduced confusion and enhanced usability, aligning with our goal of creating a streamlined experience. While we initially planned to include features like direct messaging, user feedback led us to prioritize a focus on content rather than social metrics, ensuring the app remains a space for creativity and inspiration.