Size X

Product Experience

Problem Space 

Problem Statement  

The inability of plus-sized people to get good clothing easily and cheaply. Plus-sized shoppers have poor access to form-fitting clothing because the current offerings are difficult to access, not quality or do not fit well. 

Problem Background  

The plus-sized market and the desire for quality clothing have seen massive growth in the last few years. With many various statistics registering a half trillion dollar potential market in just 10 years' time. With this large market, there are growth concerns that have not been properly addressed yet with the general public. Things like each plus-sized person having different measurements, or a longer waist could mean a need for longer clothing which most manufacturers will not address. This doesn't touch on the spaces that have a poor plus-sized current experience like suits, business clothing and pants.  Inside of this massive market, there is a space for a more personalized touch. The ability to specify a shopping experience to the customer.

Research Insights

User Pain Points

We started to see in our interviews and Surveys a pattern of issues that occurred across the board in both Online shopping and In-store shopping:

• Difficulty in availability both in clothing sizes and in plus-sized local clothing stores
• Lack of trust in current online offerings and options 
• Confidence to shop in-store
  

Supporting Data

In our Survey amassing over 10 responses and our personal interviews with 3 specific plus-sized shoppers, we learned that every single surveyee and interviewee wishes for an easier shopping experience in some way. Over 70% (7 out of the 10) of survey responses spoke to frustration with the available in-store options, with one specifically stating that it was a “crapshoot” purchasing in-store not knowing what you will get or if your normal size will actually fit well. There were other responses speaking to online shopping, and how it solves availability but doesn't solve comfortability. 2 of the personal interviews conducted did expand on this stating that they became wary of online shopping as they were unable to “try on the clothing” that looked good on site, but when receiving the clothing the specific size didn't fit them as well as they would have liked. Consistently, Survey and Interview responses spoke to the difficulty of clothes shopping as a plus-sized person with them often lamenting on current offerings that act as half measures or token responses by stores. Plus-sized shoppers wish for solutions directly made for them. One of our interview responses also spoke to how as a plus-sized person they had been uncomfortable being in store through a lack of confidence, feelings of unattractiveness and an overall sense of not belonging.

Feedback

Much of the feedback given spoke to a desire across the board to improve how customers shop. 

Landing on the Solution 

Based on our target users’ pain points, we knew we wanted to work on the following features:

• An assistant with purchasing clothing that will give helpful insight on both current fashion trends and “age-old” fashion knowledge
• A directory specific to the customer body to help with purchasing clothing or finding clothing that would “look good” while being in their area
• A profile system that they can set their specific sizes with and get specific clothing options to them”
• A general mapping structure(using either Google or Apple Maps) that tells them how far or close certain clothing options are and if there is a delivery option 

Future Steps

We want to properly run another expanded survey/interview session to confirm beyond the 10 people tested here if the statistics measured in this small group would stay the same in an expanded group. We would be looking towards identifying 100-1000 group in an evolved survey allowing us confirmation on this solution. 
We then, after confirming viability, would like to create a functioning app that could visualize both the features as well as the possibilities/application and testing the features in question.