Sanvaarana
"Sanvaarana" meaning Embellish in Hindi is an online retail application that sells Indian clothing. The application enables users to shop, browse and purchase custom-fitted garments from the comfort of their homes.
Project Duration: 1 Month Tools: Figma Project Type: Personal Case Study
Application Context
The biggest Westernized fashion companies like ASOS and Pretty Little Thing have taken the next step into creating a better digital experience for their customers moving away from standard retail websites to fully functioning shopping applications. It has been proven that retail fashion applications improve digital sales dramatically and provide a quicker and simpler shopping experience due to storing personal data and push notifications. However, for Indian apparel companies that are just now creating an online presence, this has yet to be achieved.
The Problem
The conducted user research confirmed that the existing shopping process for purchasing Indian apparel for women that live in the UK remains to be tedious and overlooked. Based on the findings it was clear how inconvenient the shopping process was for this demographic due to the lack of apparel availability within the UK and complex garment constructure which often entails frequent visits to India and to local tailors for custom fittings. These methods have proven to be very expensive, inconvenient and labour intensive.
Goals
To design an application that was dedicated to market this form of apparel for the particular target audience of Indian women who live in the UK.
To provide a more convenient alternative method to shop for this form of apparel that requires less money, effort, and time to travel.
To provide a sizing adjusting / customizing experience that requires less time and effort that offers the same creative experience used within traditional apparel practices.
The Design Process
User Research
User Research was conducted by creating a survey that was targeted toward Indian women that wear cultural apparel in the UK. A total of 5 individual interviews were also conducted to gather detailed insights and personal experiences. The received data and responses confirmed the problem hypothesis.
Sketches
During the sketching phase, I designed a wide variety of detailed concepts of the application layout along with most important features such as the personalised sizing feature and apparel categorisation.
Wireframes
Simplistic wireframes were designed that resembled the finalised concept sketches, these were then tested to analyse possible errors.
Information Architecture
Usability Testing
The usability testing phase consisted of 5 participants partaking in a small exercise that involved them completing a series of 3 tasks using the prototype whilst vocalising their thought process and analysing error behaviour. This was then followed by a short interview.
Iterations
The usability testing phase highlighted a series of improvements that needed to be made such as incorporating a sizing metric switch and field prompts within the custom sizing feature.