Preloved
Online thrifting raises concerns, so I have reimagined how it works to enhance user trust and promote the recycling of clothes that might otherwise end up in landfills.
Role
UX Researcher and Designer
Timeline
15 weeks
Team
Solo Springboard Final Project
Platform
Mobile
Starting with unused clothes
This project began with my own closet: many clothes I had bought for festivals had been worn only once. I wanted to understand whether others faced the same problem, how they dealt with unused clothes, and what made clearing them out difficult.
After reviewing secondary research, I surveyed 39 respondents:
These responses informed interviews with five participants about their experiences clearing out their closets.
Research changed the problem
Participants already used online resale services, but trust and usability concerns made the experience difficult.
I used affinity mapping to organize more than 50 interview data points into nine insights across three themes:
Trust: Participants described concerns about scams, unfamiliar buyers and sellers, and clothing condition that photos didn’t reveal.
Usability: Confusing interfaces, unclear consignment terms, and brand restrictions created barriers.
Sustainability: Participants lacked information about sustainable fashion and expressed interest in learning with a community.
I also compared local and global resale platforms to examine their approaches and limitations. The findings shifted my focus from unused clothing to the barriers people encountered when buying and selling it.
Translating findings into design decisions
Empathy maps and personas helped me organize user needs, while user stories defined essential tasks. The selling concept handled resale on users’ behalf, with shipping and cash-out options. Buying and selling remained the core journeys.
I used the findings to establish these priorities:
Research finding | Design response |
Photos didn’t reliably communicate clothing condition | Include a quality-testing label on each item |
Consignment terms were confusing | Explain how selling with Preloved works in plain language |
Brand restrictions limited what people could sell | Design the concept to accept clothes across brands |
Participants wanted sustainability guidance and community | Explore a space for learning and connecting with others |
Structuring the experience
I conducted unmoderated card sorting with 12 participants to explore how they grouped the app’s content and help inform its organization.
I created a sitemap and user flows to structure the buying and selling journeys and map the steps needed to complete each task.
Exploring and developing the design
I used Crazy 8s and sketches to explore layouts, then developed low-fidelity wireframes to focus on screen structure, content placement, and navigation.
A mood board informed the initial color and typography choices. I then built an interactive high-fidelity prototype in Figma covering the core journeys.
Test the prototype
Testing and refining the experience
I conducted moderated usability testing with four participants, asking them to:
Sell an item.
Buy an item and complete checkout through payment.
The sessions suggested that the overall navigation supported these tasks, but revealed interaction details I had overlooked. Participants also found the green background overpowering.
Observation | Revision |
Users didn't use the navigation arrow to select their payment method; instead, they clicked the button. | Made both the arrow and the payment-option button clickable. |
Participants attempted to continue before entering their details | Disabled Continue until required information was entered |
Two of four participants couldn’t distinguish required and optional fields | Explicitly labeled optional fields |
Participants found the background overpowering | Replaced green with white and retained green as an accent |
Outcome and learning
I developed Preloved from an initial observation into a researched, structured, and tested interactive prototype.
Research helped me identify a more specific problem within existing resale services. Testing showed me that clear navigation requires careful attention to interaction details: clickable areas, field labels, button states, and color choices all affect how users complete a task.
Simplifying the interface also prompted me to deepen my understanding of color theory.
Explore Other Projects
