Introduction
Establishing oneself in the fashion industry is an incredible feat for anyone. For many, fashion is a life long love, often capturing the attention of aspiring designers from a very young age; alternatively though, the know-how required to launch oneself in this industry, isn’t easily captured. Fashion designers face plenty of challenges–black designers on the other hand, face even more. Going to school for fashion design isn’t cheap and it can cost thousands of dollars just to create a single collection, and in an industry not know for its inclusivity, this can present emerging black fashion designers with a whole new set of roadblocks.
So imagine you’ve just graduated from fashion school and you’re carrying with you mountains of student debt, or you never had the funds for fashion school to begin with and you’re just trying to learn and pick up what you can. In order to get your name established in the industry, you need to produce and market a collection, but you don’t have the money to do so and you’re faced with an exclusive industry primed to champion white designers rather than black. Where do you turn to generate the necessary resources and business strategy in order to succeed? How might we create a platform for black fashion designers to network with one another and generate brand exposure?
Ilana Case Study
Project Type:
3 week client project
Date:
Nov. 15, 2022-Dec. 6, 2022
Team Members:
4 UX Designers
Role:
Researcher & Lead UI Designer
Tools:
Figma, Maze, Notion
The Challenge
Emerging black fashion designers need a platform that provides brand exposure and networking opportunities with other designers as they need support establishing a sustainable business.
My Role
I led the brand implementation and UI development process and contributed heavily to user interview research. In addition, I served as the team’s scrum master and client liaison.
Our Solution / Final Prototype
Introducing Ilana
Presently the Ilana site serves to perform two functions: operate as an Ecommerce site for shoppers to purchase well established black luxury fashion brands, and provide emerging black designers an opportunity to network with one another and have access to their own design experts and educational resources.
Goals:
Improve site engagement & increase the number of Community members
Reduce drop-off rates & onboard quicker
Metrics:
28 designer profiles based in Africa
2 designer profiles based in Europe
Constraints:
The 4-step fashion design process in use isn’t changing
Costs in implementing design proposals
Pain points:
Difficulty communicating and staying in touch with African users
Bandwidth & network connection issues make accessing Ilana’s designer portal difficult for users
Our Biggest Challenges & How We Responded
My team and I ran into quite a few blockers on this project. With our client’s primary user base located in western Africa, we struggled to obtain user interviews. Much of his African user base had significant network connectivity issues and rarely checked email. We quickly realized we would need to reassess our user interview base. With the client’s intentions to expand into the US, we pivoted and began recruiting our own US based users.
Time zones were another pain point for this particular project. Between the client, my team, and the users, we were operating under four different time zones. My team and I were scattered all across the western world (San Francisco, Chicago, NYC, Boston and Mexico City) while our client was based in the UK; needless to say, scheduling meetings was tricky. Whenever possible, we resorted to detailed email correspondence with Ilana’s founder and maximizing our time spent in Zoom meetings by creating an agenda and slide decks for our progress, questions, and discussion topics.
The Research
With the difficulty faced in tracking down Ilana users to speak with, we responded by dividing our research efforts into two teams:
One team to conduct heuristics and competitive/comparative analyses
Another team (my team) to create interview scripts, recruit emerging black fashion designers willing to speak with us, and conduct interviews
Competitive / Comparative & Heuristic Analyses
We examined competitive/comparative sites like Not Just a Label, Prada and Bēhance as part of our research to better inform our design direction for Ilana.
User Interviews
Obtaining our own user base to interview was a challenge, but with enough creativity and persistence, we were able to find 4 black designers based in the US willing to speak with us. We utilized both Instagram and Linkedin for recruiting our users.
I began by searching black fashion accounts on instagram and perusing through their followers…
…when I found a designer I felt was a good fit, I liked their posts and followed them…
…I clicked through the profiles, scanning their bios and posts, looking for black designers just starting out…
…shortly after this, I reached out with the first message you see here above and prayed for a response…
…many of my messages went unanswered, but a kind few responded to me and my teammates and agreed to be interviewed via Zoom!
Synthesizing the User Interview Data
We created an affinity map and honed in on the below three insights to inform our feature focus.
Creating a
User Persona
We then took all this user interview research data and brought our persona to life. This forced us to keep the user in mind as we started crossing over into the design phase of the project.
Goals:
Wants to succeed in the fashion world by creating a sustainable business with her own fashion brand
Wants brand awareness
Needs:
Needs guidance from other designers, learn what has worked for them and advice on how to successfully establish her own brand
Frustrations:
Is frustrated because she feels it is harder to get noticed as a black designer
Proposed Design Changes & UI Development
You can see Ilana’s initial landing page displayed on the left here, and my proposed design change on the right. Siting the NJAL competitor site, I proposed this change so users may better grasp the duality of Ilana’s site..
Ilana’s initial designer profile page is displayed here on the left, and our proposed mid-fi design is shown on the right, where designers can now be contacted and display their work.
Ilana offers designers consulting services that walk them through a 4-step fashion process (sketches & CAD designs, toile & pattern, sample, and finally collection). Each step consists of uploading work on the designer’s part, and then they are instructed to wait for feedback from their consultant, or “Design Expert” before being able to move on the next step.
Ilana’s initial design is shown on the left, and our proposed hi-fi design is shown on the right, here.
Initial Design: Community Page
Ilana’s Community page showcases all its designers who have created profiles. Here, shown in their initial design, you can see that each profile displays a photo of the designer, as well as their name, just above in large font, spanning between one and two lines.
My Proposed Redesign: Community Page
With one of Ilana’s main goals being to increase engagement, I proposed we utilize these profile photos to showcase the designers’ work rather than a photo of themselves, encouraging designers to view one another’s profiles and connect. In addition, I moved the designers’ names inside their photo with a subtle transparent gradient layer to improve content proximity and viewing easability.
Initial Design: Profile Page
My Proposed Redesign: Profile Page
With increased engagement being the goal of both Ilana and the user, we provided profiles with a contact button and ability to upload photos of their work. A favoriting feature was also added so designers may offer their support to one another and increase connection.
My Proposed Redesign:
Profile Page & Photo Grid
We provided designers with the option to upload two photos in relation to their profile–one for the Community Explore page to showcase their work and drive engagement, and the other for their profile page. We designed a photo grid carousel of various different layout options so designers have the option to customize their displays based on their work and needs.
Initial Design: Design Process-Step 1
Proposed Redesign: Design Process-Step 1
With the intent of reducing drop off rates, we modified the display of Ilana’s 4-step process by allowing users to see their progress and what’s next to come. We addressed some heuristic violations by including a button asking users if they’re sure they want to submit their work for final review. In addition, we included a clickable CTA to view Ilana’s membership options as part of an informational overlay.
Usability Testing, Results & Iteration
We asked users to perform 3 tasks:
“Customize your designer profile page by adding a title and collection.”
“Contact Blessing Ita by sending her a message.”
“Submit fashion sketch for review.”
8 Total Testers
88% Usability Testing Score
Prototype
Next Steps
Allow designers to view their favorited designs from other users and “share” other designers work or profiles
Continue gathering user feedback and iterating the new features
Work on a responsive design for mobile access for the collection
Notify users when an action occurs on the platform
Reflections
This was a very difficult, and at times, discouraging project. We immediately ran into challenges in the research phase, struggling to find users willing and able to speak with us. The differences in time zones between my US and Mexico based team and our UK based client certainly presented its challenges while operating under a tight deadline. In addition, with the amount of time it took us to gather all the necessary research alone, we were left with very little time to begin ideating and prototyping. Our team of five was often times reduced to a team of four with one of our teammates facing serious health issues.
Despite all this though, we pivoted with grace in the face of each challenge we encountered and kept our lines of communication open at all times. We delineated clear roles for each team member and reported on our goals and accomplishments each day. We always supported one another and remained kind and respectful under tremendous stress and pressure, often times still sharing quite a few laughs in the process.
This project was a considerable challenge, but our end result made us all very pleased. Our client was excited with the proposed design changes and reached out to his developer to discuss implementation prior to project completion and final presentation. I am very happy to have had this experience with such a collaborative, flexible, caring, and professional group.