Vera
making fashion accessible to the plus-size community
(that’s over 119,000,000 people in the US alone!)
Role: UI/UX Designer, Researcher
Timeline: 3 months
Deliverables: App prototype, wireframes, user flows, research presentation, affinity map
Tools: Figma, Miro, Adobe Firefly, Figma Slides, Google Survey, Optimal Workshop
Mentor: Emilie Mazurek
Problem
People with larger bodies are struggling to find clothes that fit well and express their personal style.
Despite demand, extended sizes make up just 2.3% of major retailers’ in-store women’s clothing offerings (Racked). As a result, most plus-size shoppers turn to online shopping. When shopping online, they face inconsistent sizing and a lack of body representation among models.
Solution
To address the problem from the consumer end, I designed a social platform that showcases self-expressive, plus-sized outfits and encourages people to share their shopping experiences. This aims to solve major pain points by:
making it easy to find a variety of plus-size clothing
creating more accurate expectations of online purchases
increasing visual representation of larger bodies
How do people currently shop for plus-size clothes and what are the unique difficulties they face?
Research and Markets’ Plus-Size Clothing Market Forecast (2018-2028) defines the key market challenges as follows:
Limited Inclusivity and Representation in the Fashion Industry
Inconsistent Sizing Standards
Limited Variety of Styles and Trends
I also learned that online plus-size communities on Facebook and Reddit are very active, with community members taking it upon themselves to develop extensive spreadsheets and reviews to help other plus-sized people find clothes.
screenshots showing spreadsheets developed by online plus-size community members
What tools are currently available, and how can we improve upon these approaches?
I determined that although AI sizing tools and virtual shopping assistants do exist, younger shoppers generally find them limiting and inaccurate, and they don’t trust these tools due to the lack of visual information.
However, plus-size communities are already crowdsourcing shopping information on platforms like Reddit, Facebook, and Instagram. This approach seems to be well-received by online communities and works to solve major pain points of shopping online.
examples of an AI sizing tool and virtual style assistant
How can the plus-size shopping experience be improved?
In order to better understand the plus-size community’s needs, I attended an in-person plus-size shopping event to gather participants for surveys and interviews. I also connected with additional participants by reaching out to online communities on Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram.
images of shoppers at a market for plus-size clothes and signage that says "fat is beautiful"
80%
of participants identifying as plus-size stated that they purchase at least half, if not all of their clothes online
66%
of participants identifying as plus-size stated that they feel unsuccessful in finding clothes that fit their body
80%
of participants identifying as plus-size stated that they are unsuccessful in finding clothes that fit their personal style
“I have a couple pieces that I like, but mostly it is just stuff that I tolerate so that I am not walking around naked because I don’t have options”
“I want the same cute clothes that are in straight sizes… I just feel like we have way less access to that, especially if you
are more than a 3x. Once you hit that place you are kind of screwed, in my experience”
“I cannot find anything in store- like shopping in person is not something I can do. Maybe there are 1 or 2 stores in all of LA that fit me… I can’t just go to a mall and find clothes”
screenshot from urbanoutfitters.com highlighting 2091 medium items and only 19 1X items
Finding 1:
People with larger bodies do not feel like they can successfully build a wardrobe in their style, and feel dehumanized by the poor selections made available to them.
Recommendation:
Create a way for shoppers to source a wider variety of clothing styles.
Finding 2:
Online shoppers find themselves returning a majority of their online purchases due to sizing issues and poor quality of material.
Recommendation:
Reduce return rates by enabling shoppers to make more informed decisions about fit and material prior to purchasing.
screenshot of online return process, listing common reasons for returns
screenshot from Old Navy showing plus-size clothing listings, but models are not plus-sized
Finding 3:
Plus-size clothing shoppers feel they have little to no frame of reference when shopping online since larger bodies are rarely represented.
Recommendation:
Allow shoppers to see clothing on plus-size body types to help them assess fit more accurately and feel better represented in the fashion industry.
Wireframes & Main Takeaways from User Testing:
After flushing out the general navigation of the app and identifying key user flows, I designed a wireframe of an MVP to focus on my research findings and prioritize testing core features. Through tree testing, I found that the success rates of task completion great improved after iterations of wireframe redesigns.
Features that worked right away:
searching for posts and making comments on them
creating a post and saving it as a draft
Features that needed improvements:
Replying to a comment on your own post: In my testing, I noticed participants struggling to find and tap certain buttons. Based on their responses, I rearranged and resized buttons to reduce frustration. This task started out with a 55% completion rate, but was raised to 100% after design changes.
Adding a favorited post to a saved folder: Several participants commented on a lack of feedback when saving posts to a folder- to reduce confusion, I added a confirmation overlay that appears on the task is completed. This task started out with an 36% completion rate, but was improved to 93% after design changes.
The Design:
After learning how online communities are already combatting feelings of exclusion and disappointment brought on by clothes shopping, it made sense to make a tool that feels fun and brings a social feel back into the shopping experience.
Search the app and filter results by size range.
Narrow down results to find the content that is most relative to your style or body type.
See what other shoppers have to say and shop for exact or similar products by following the link.
To support the plus size community and keep conversation focused on clothing reviews, comments are moderated by the content creator and will not appear until the creator approves and responds.
Build an inspiration library of clothing worn by people that look like you.
Add favorites to save for later and create folders to organize all of your fashion finds.
Next Steps:
Through additional user interviews and secondary research I determined that app users would benefit from:
developing a monetization strategy including paid affiliate links for product recommendations to encourage content creation
additional advanced search filters to browse by brand, category, and style of clothing
a feature to explore sustainable fashion brands and highlight small, “slow-fashion” businesses
including an option for shoppers to provide personal sizing details on their account to curate relevant content
“It is very refreshing to scroll through a feed and see people that look like me.
You rarely see companies using models that have realistic, bigger body sizes.”
“Wow, I could really use this. I am so sick of buying things that don’t fit me.”
Key Project Takeaways:
This project benefitted from multiple rounds of user testing and interviews with the target audience. Directly engaging with the plus-size community was essential to creating a solution that truly resonated with them.
I grounded my design in three key research findings to ensure the product addressed both the practical challenges of shopping for plus-size clothing and the deeper emotional needs of the community. Initial interviews revealed that clothing shopping is often a negative, deeply personal experience, worsened by the fashion industry’s lack of inclusivity. In my final round of interviews, users shared that Vera not only felt useful but also gave them a sense of inclusion.