This is part of a whole project. To learn about the landing page design process, click here.

Style Launch Platform MVP

Style Launch helps new fashion brand entrepreneurs easily get the brand exposure and financial support they need to turn their creative visions into a reality by connecting them with the perfect audience.

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1) Project Goals

Making sure our project goals fulfill all three key stakeholders: Customer, Business & Technical

I fleshed out a project goals map and lean canvas business plan for my fashion crowdfunding platform that I can easily refer back to when trying to reach my initial users for testing, building out the MVP features and sharing it with my future co-founder to get them on board.

2) Inspiration

What drove me to pursue this problem space

I set myself out on a mission to aid fellow aspiring fashion entrepreneurs who want to turn their big ideas into fruition and succeed long-term in this competitive space. I was motivated by my struggles with creating my collection and thought, why not redirect this frustrated energy and my developing UX/UI skills into solving their unique problems together?

3) Market & User Research

To validate many entrepreneurs are struggling with creating their fashion brand & learn why they tend to fail within their 1st year

I conducted my initial research by looking through social media posts. On Twitter, I discovered that many aspiring fashion entrepreneurs struggle to start and run their clothing brands due to a lack of fashion business knowledge, financial resources, and mental exhaustion from wearing multiple hats. They all shared a similar characteristic: stressed but determined to make it happen. On Reddit and Quora, while reading people's personal experiences with owning a clothing brand and their observations on others, I got some insights on why fashion e-commerce businesses tend to fail within their first year:

Goals:

✅ Validate many people are struggling to create a clothing brand (a problem worth pursuing)

✅ Learn why fashion e-commerce businesses fail within their first year (to get a holistic understanding)
  • Lack of preparation
  • Inexperience
  • Lack of money
  • Poor leadership & management
  • Poor team
  • Lack of branding
  • Inadequate marketing
  • Unacceptable price point
  • Poor e-commerce UX
  • Lack of customer interest

I spent more time on this initial research than expected, overwhelmed by the number of posts. However, I made sure to allocate more time and energy to user interviews as that would reveal more accurate data.

4) User Interviews

Choose five passionate, determined fashion brand owners to interview & investigate their needs, barriers & preferred working style

Before conducting my user interviews, I made sure I was well prepared by translating the common obstacles and failure reasons I got from my initial user research into crafting meaningful questions that would get them to reveal to me their genuine experience. I used User Interviews to help me quickly connect with my target users, and I made a screener survey to determine who was a good fit to be interviewed. I then customized each set of interview questions to reflect the respondents answers.

Goals:

✅ Choose five passionate and determined fashion startup owners to interview

✅ Investigate their needs, barriers and preferred working style
Top Responses:

💬 “I’m sure with the right advice and resources it will prosper.”

💬 “I have started some initial research and funding, but there are things I am struggling with that I would love to discuss in the interview!”

💬 “Find an investor. I see a lot of opportunity in the curvy fashion industry.”

My screener survey results were overwhelming to take in, as I ended up getting over 500 responses in two weeks. Still, it also excited me that the fact that many people want to start a clothing brand but are struggling poses an opportunity for me as a designer to step in, investigate and help. I categorized the data by demographics and psychographics and referenced this later to make my persona. Next time, I will use a survey website that automatically visualizes data to save time.

5) Empathy Map

Drawing out essential information from the interviews & starting to form two distinct personas

I based Carolyn’s empathy map on the four users I interviewed and their screener survey responses, who were trying to start a clothing brand for the first time. I narrowed this complex data by showcasing their shared common problems and goals. I based Jerry’s empathy map on the one user I talked to and his screener survey response, who was already running his brand and narrowed it down to his top struggles and goals.

6) Personas

Creating two distinct personas to reference back to making design decisions throughout the entire project

I transferred over the sticky notes from the empathy map to create my personas that I can easily refer back to throughout the entire project when making critical design decisions. The first persona Carolyn represents the target user group of clothing brand 'newbies' while Jerry represents the target user group of experienced clothing brand owners.

7) Journey Map

Learning & mapping out a typical user's journey while creating a fashion brand: the ups & downs

Here I laid out the typical process a fashion entrepreneur goes through while trying to start and launch their clothing brand for the first time. I take essential notice in stages with the most emotional turmoil, like feeling overwhelmed or scared about how to proceed. The opportunities I discovered here are ones I implemented while planning my MVP features that aim to solve their pain points throughout their journey.

8) Competitive Analysis

Having an awareness of what platforms already exist in the market & finding opportunities through their weaknesses

I took time to get familiar with social media and crowdfunding platforms fashion entrepreneurs currently use to connect with their customers. While assessing their weaknesses, I noticed gaps and issues I could solve through my crowdfunding MVP solution that can fulfill fashion entrepreneurs' business needs. My features will follow a similar pattern to leading crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo for user familiarity, leading to ease of use.

10) Minimum Viable Product

Planning out how I will successfully execute creating the MVP & the specific features that need to be built for the first launch

To determine what web pages my MVP should have for my initial users, I had to evaluate what could be feasibly done now with the least cost, energy and time to get initial testing going. It would be essential to have a signup feature to onboard new users, a way for a fashion brand to upload their campaign content and campaign backers to discover projects that align with their interests.

I went through a top-down process where I laid out the overarching vision, broke that down into tangible key metrics goals and a product roadmap on notion where I and my team can follow to get the features built on time efficiently. To figure out what my top 3 features should entail, I referred to how top leading platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo function and their missing gaps to work off of.

11) Information Architecture

To effectively structure the content to my target user's mental model for an intuitive, easy-of-use interactive experience

To effectively structure my product’s visual content to my user’s mental model, I started by referring back to my user’s project goals and, from there, determining what information they need to see and how the platform will function to support these goals. Before moving on to wireframing, I broke down the user’s goals for each page they would interact with and what order the information needs to be for easier access and to reach our business goals.

12) User & Task Flows

Converting task flows to wireflows to plan what wireframes should be sketched

I mapped out my user’s task flows by breaking down each interaction they would make to navigate their project goals smoothly. I understand that a new user’s goal (fashion brand owner) is to set up their profile to make the most out of their campaign posting. I fleshed out how a typical user (fashion brand owner + backers) would move through the campaign page and how fashion entrepreneurs can easily access the resources page to get the essential information they need. I also created wireflows to go with the task flows to start planning what my wireframes would look like.

13) Wireframes

Structuring the crowdfunding platform layout to match competitors

When I started wireframing my homepage, I combined elements from Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Grailed and put my spin on it to ensure it supports fashion brands' visual marketing needs.

14) Platform & Dashboard UI Design

An interactive prototype for target users to test & provide feedback before building the first MVP

Putting together the signup flow, homepage, and crowdfunding page was overwhelming as I designed these pages independently. Still, it gave me a feel for what pages are necessary to build an MVP ready for testing. Throughout the design, I ensured I used enough white space to create a sense of calmness and focus for the user when interacting with this site, where the images and text pop out, and backers don't get flooded with too many campaigns at once.

15) Outcomes

Overwhelming problem-solving on my own but a valuable learning experience

While taking the DesignerUp course to guide me through this project, I learned a lot and gained new skills in UX research, business strategy, and UI design. Developing this product was quite challenging as I would get overwhelmed with the many problems my target users were facing and wanted to solve all of them simultaneously. Still, I realized I could only focus on a few of the most important ones to make the most impact. Throughout the process, I tended to get ahead of myself and thought of too many ideas, but I kept narrowing my focus.

After taking some time away from this project and looking at it in the context of today's e-commerce landscape, I realized that if I were to implement this idea, it could be straight into an e-commerce shop. Rather than going to a separate crowdfunding platform website, users can make collaborative design decisions right where they like to shop.

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