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Project Overview
Traditional method of tailoring involves customers physically visiting tailoring shops to take measurements, convey their requirement and collect their clothes. This process can be time consuming , inconvenient, and often relies on word of mouth recommendation for finding reliable tailors.
TailorEase is a mobile app that simplifies tailoring services by offering features like AI-powered measurements, seamless service booking, real-time order tracking, finding tailors near user and easy communication with tailors. This case study showcases the research, design process, and key decisions made to create an intuitive and efficient user experience.
My Role
As the UI/UX Designer, I was responsible for end-to-end design execution, including user research, creating personas, crafting user flows, prototyping, designing and conducting usability testing.
Project Duration
October 2024- December 2024 (3 months)
Problem
The current tailoring process lacks efficiency, convenience and transparency, creating barriers for customers and tailors. People often struggle with visiting tailors for measurements, keeping track of their orders, and communicating their needs clearly.
Solution
TailorEase is a mobile app that makes tailoring services easy and convenient. Users can update their measurements using AI, book services, track orders in real-time, and communicate directly with tailors. The app brings everything into one place, saving time and making the process seamless for users.
Design Process
Secondary Research
I started by defining the goals of my research to understand scope of the problem and not lose sight of the project.
Goals for my research are:
Identify User pain points
Study Competitors and identify gaps or areas for improvement
Identify Industry Trends
After going through many research papers and few existing case studies, I gathered my insights about the tailor application project. I summarised the insights, which would help me in the better understanding of the project.
Insights Summary
Today people are shifting to digital world and tailoring services need to shift too. People need to hassle a lot to get their clothes stitched.
Find the best tailor, visit the tailor to explain requirements and give measurement and then wait for your garment to be stitched without
receiving any updates, finally the user have to visit the tailor to pickup their final stitched garment. This process leads to a lot of time
wastage and lack of transparency.
Customers face difficulties in finding suitable tailors, communicating their requirements Effectively, and Ensuring timely delivery.
Tailors, on the other hand, struggle with limited customer reach, marketing challenges, and cash flow management issues.
Primary Research
After having a better understanding of the project and user pain points, I conducted User Interviews. For this I selected 5 participants who would represent different kind of groups of users to understand the user needs for wide range of people.
Interview Questions
- What challenges do you usually face when dealing with tailors, from placing orders to receiving your clothes?
- How do you currently find tailors?
- How do clear communication and pricing influence your satisfaction with tailoring services, and what could improve these
aspects for you? - What are the most important factors for you when choosing and using a tailoring service
- Can you describe a time when you faced difficulties with a tailoring service? What specifically went wrong, and how did it affect
you - What was the best experience you’ve had with a tailor? What made it stand out?
- Have you ever felt frustrated with the delivery time or quality of a tailored item? Can you share an example?
- How do you usually communicate your needs to a tailor, and has there been a time when it didn’t go as expected?
User Statement-
“I usually explain in person, but miscommunication happens, especially when they don’t take notes.”
“Timely delivery, quality work, and good reviews from other customers are crucial for me.”
Insights from User Interviews:
Pain Points:
- Delays in delivery and measurement issues were common frustrations.
- Miscommunication between tailors and customers led to unsatisfactory results.
- Unclear or inconsistent pricing caused dissatisfaction.
- Difficulty finding reliable tailors or verifying their quality.
Motivations:
- Users are motivated by a desire for convenient, reliable, and high-quality tailoring services.
- Trust and clear communication are essential for choosing tailors.
- Pricing transparency and timely updates are key motivators for satisfaction.
Goals:
- Users want accurate timelines, clear communication, and a seamless tailoring process from booking to delivery.
- Access to trusted reviews and recommendations is important for decision-making.
Affinity Mapping
After conducting the Interviews, I categorised the user statements into 6 Categories: Pain points, Goals, Expectations, Says about communication, Frustrations and Positive Experiences to better understand user needs and their problems.
Insights Gained:
Pain Points: Major pain points are when the order is not delivered on time, when there are measurement issues and miscommunication.
Goals: Major goals are transparent pricing, reliability, convenience, timely delivery and proper measurements
Says about communication: Most user communicate in person or on call or whatsapp text.
Expectations: Users expect transparent pricing and proper communication with their tailor.
Frustration: Major frustrations are late delivery and improper fitting.
Positive experiences: Most users had positive experience when the tailor provided proper updates, pick up and drop off facility and on time delivery with proper fitting.
User Personas
Based on the target user group and all the information gathered by the research, I was able to create two fictional characters who represent the target user group.
Persona 1 represents the young age group who usually are busy with their studies and work and might be in a new city, they find it hard to find a tailor in a new place.
Persona 2 represents the older age group who uses frequent tailoring services for their needs but finds it frustrating to visit the tailor each time for measurements and keep track of the order.
User Experience Map
I created the User Experience Map to analyze the experience of a specific persona navigating their tailoring journey without access to the tailoring app. This helped me understand the challenges, emotions, and actions they go through, such as finding a tailor, communicating their requirements, and managing delays or miscommunication.
Insights Gained
Users struggle to track their tailoring orders, leading to anxiety and repeated follow-ups with tailors.
Miscommunication about measurements and design preferences often results in unsatisfactory outcomes.
Frequent delays in order completion cause frustration and inconvenience.
Reliance on in-person visits or WhatsApp for interactions is not always efficient or user-friendly.
Proper fitting, timely delivery, and reasonable pricing are the top priorities for users when choosing tailoring services.
Task Flow
The primary tasks of the app is booking a tailoring service. The task flow was created to break down the user task into simple, actionable steps that align with how users naturally approach their goals. The purpose was to ensure every step of the process is clear, logical, and easy to follow.
User Flow
After completing task flows, I created User flow, considering all possible actions a user might take while interacting with the app.
Sitemap
For the sitemap, my goal was to create a clear and organised structure that ensures users can navigate the app effortlessly and find what they need without frustration.
To arrive at this structure, I analysed the core tasks users would perform most often and prioritised those in the hierarchy. For instance, booking a service and tracking orders are placed as primary actions, while less frequent tasks, like accessing help, are easily accessible but not overly prominent.
This decision-making process involved considering the user’s journey and ensuring that the sitemap aligns with their needs and expectations. The ultimate aim was to make navigation seamless, reduce cognitive load, and provide users with a smooth experience from start to finish.
Paper Wireframes
I started with the paper wireframes, to roughly sketch the ideas. This ensured that the elements that made it to digital wireframes would be well- suited to address user pain points.
Digital Wireframe
Style Guide- Colour and Typography
The chosen style guide reflects the app’s focus on providing a sophisticated yet approachable experience for users.
The primary colour conveys a sense of trust and reliability, ensuring users feel confident while using the app. The secondary colour adds a fresh and calming vibe, balancing the overall aesthetic and complementing the primary colour effectively. The primary background colour and the secondary background colour, were selected to create a warm, inviting, and neutral space that doesn’t overpower the primary and secondary elements. This ensures a visually comfortable experience for users, making the app easy on the eyes during prolonged use.
The font choices further support this vision. Merriweather, as the heading font, brings a sense of elegance and readability, ideal for creating a professional tone. Nunito Sans, as the body font, adds a friendly and modern touch, ensuring clarity and approachability in all text-heavy sections.
This style guide was chosen to ensure consistency, readability, and a positive emotional connection with users while maintaining the app’s professional and trustworthy image.
Prototyping
After applying the style guide to the lo-fidelity wireframes, I made the hi-fidelity wireframes, and the prototyping process began with translating user flows and task flows into interactive designs, ensuring each screen aligned with the app’s goals and user needs so the prototype could be used in a usability study
Usability Testing
I selected 5 participants for the usability testing that fit my target audience, to gain insights about the project to reveal what aspects of the mockups needed refining.
There were 5 primary tasks that I wanted to test out with users:
- Task 1: Book a Tailoring Service
- Task 2: Track Order
- Task 3: Add/view measurement
- Task 4: Go to help chat
- Task 5: chat with your Tailor
After conducting the usability testing I got a few insights about my project.
Insights Gained
- Most users felt that the orders icon was a bit confusing and the users had hard time finding the orders page.I realised 4 out of 5 participants went straight to profile page to find the orders section.
- Few users felt that the icon of the application could be improved.
100% of the users were able to complete the booking process successfully
Learnings and Takeaways
Working on the TailorEase case study has been an incredible learning experience. I’ve not only grown as a Designer but also understood how to embrace the feedbacks and make my work better for the users.
The biggest challenge was ensuring a smooth user flow and maintaining accessibility while keeping the design simple and engaging.I needed to create a design that is accessible for all age groups.
This project strengthened my ability to solve problems creatively.
Want to watch the prototype?
Note: This project was completed under the guidance of Designerrs Academy. I would like to thank Masood Ali Sir for proper guidance and support throughout the project.
TailorEase: Redefining Convenience in Tailoring Services UX case Study was originally published in Dtalks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.