HUMANLOGIC CLIENT: PLUMB FASHION
Location: Nevada, USA
INDUSTRY
Personalized clothing manufacturing
PRACTICE AREA
Expert Opinion User Experience Audit
PROJECT
Perform an expert opinion user experience audit of the existing iOS Plumb Fashion dress creation customization app. Deliver actionable recommendations to update the user experience to current best practices.
SUMMARY
Plumb Fashion’s leadership team engaged HumanLogic to perform a rapid expert opinion user experience audit on an existing iOS application available in the market. The usability issues discovered during the audit were prioritized and expressed as clearly-written, actionable recommendations delivered to the product leadership team.
CLIENT PROFILE: PLUMB FASHION
The perfect dress is the one that fits the best. Plumb Fashion aims to allow a consumer to use a smartphone to customize a dress to the user’s exact body measurements and receive the dress in the mail. The user experience includes a 3D manikin that the user adapts to make it fun and easy to design a dress. The dresses are custom made in the USA using eco-friendly fabrics with multiple options for colors and styles for the skirt, sleeve and neckline.
The founder of Plumb Fashion, CEO Ruth Cross, explained to us in a review meeting that she had founded the company to address a critical need in the market and had been motivated by her poor experiences in shopping for dresses. She found that sizing for dresses can be highly variable and that it can be difficult to find a dress style that fits well on top and the bottom.
PRODUCT DESIGN PROCESS
During the very early stage of our UX analysis, we worked closely with Plumb Fashion’s leadership team to understand the currently-implemented user experience flows and underlying 3D photo imaging technology for customizing and purchasing a dress. Our analysis was focused on the iPhone software user experience for the product, though later we also performed a brief review of the iPad versions of the application and documented our findings and recommendations.
After interviewing Plumb Fashion’s product team, we drafted a priority persona and use cases for a consumer user seeking to purchase a customized dress “made to measure”. The engagement goals included designing a highly usable “self-service” user experience that would not require a lengthy onboarding process, so we focused on order management, custom measurement and the purchase flow. Our analysis included a detailed review of the current user journey for the product, including order management, self-service body measurement and purchase flow. We also considered the use of multiple channels (web, mobile and email) that constituted the end-to-end product experience.
We reviewed the user journey phases and interactions for the product user experience in detail. As we performed our analysis and noted areas for improvement, we also helped the engineering team quickly address some technical issues we identified with image capture and rendering.
RESULTS
On a tight timeline for this project, the HumanLogic team focused on specific areas of improvement in the product journey that would lead to “quick wins” while focusing on the unique interaction model for the Plumb Fashion product. Our recommendations included improvements to App Store metadata to drive downloads, streamlining the onboarding phase of the product journey, and ease of use improvements for the interaction model for customizing the dress.
We also focused on the fit measurement element of the user journey, which incorporates the capture of multiple 2D images of the user to build a 3D manikin to accurately reflect measurements for dress manufacture.
The HumanLogic team prepared and delivered the findings in a presentation to the Plumb Fashion team. After HumanLogic’s recommendations from the audit were incorporated into the product, Plumb Fashion’s CEO Ruth Cross noted that the dress creation experience was simpler and easier to use, with an improved look and feel of the app.
See the updated Plumb Fashion app in action in the video below.
The Plumb Fashion app for iPhone maintains a rating of 4.8 stars (out of 5 stars) on the App Store. Customers have commented that they feel the app allows them to create and customize their unique dress designs fitted to their body shapes. One customer commented “I’m very tall and finding dresses that fit is a real challenge for me. This was fast, easy and the dress actually fit perfectly! Cool app.” Another customer commented “The dress arrived yesterday and fits perfectly! It will be good for out to dinner, opera or ballet. The fabric is very nice and the fit is very good.”
To see the newly updated user experience for the Plumb Fashion app, please visit the Apple App Store.
CLIENT REFERENCE
Ruth Cross, CEO and Founder of Plumb Fashion, had this to say about HumanLogic’s UX Audit engagement:
“I hired HumanLogic for a user experience audit project, and they were consultative, collaborative and professional. Karen and Craig are good listeners, and they quickly understood my business. They rapidly analyzed our product’s user experience and recommended appropriate approaches to address issues, providing actionable analysis and clear recommendations. They also put effort into sharing their expert knowledge with the team, both in product and engineering.
They clearly explained their approach and rationale for their recommendations, combining a strong understanding of technology, product design and user experience as it applied to the Plumb Fashion business. I would not hesitate to use their services again!”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information on how HumanLogic can help with designing and enhancing your product user experiences please visit www.humanlogic.com.