WEATHER
WEAR
Mitigating the stressors of packing due to unpredictable weather, through organisation and recommendations.
Timeline
Semester 2 (12 Weeks)
My Role
Prototype designer, Report writer, Scrum Master
Team
5 (inc. self) UX students
PROBLEM IDENTIFIED
Packing for travels may come with unnecessary frustrations of budgeting, planning and ensuring comfort in any weather
Unfamiliar weather or climates can cause several hinderances or barriers to packing, including the unnecessary expenses from overweight luggage or having to buy certain clothing; uncertainty of outfits due to unpredictability of weather and discomfort from unsuitable clothing choices.
THE SOLUTION
Personalisation, Accessibility, Planning and Sharing.
Recontextualised Weather Info
After creating a suitcase, a personalised feed will be generated for the user’s specified destination. The weather and weather-appropriate clothing posts are shown.
Clicking on a post will show its suitability for the user, depending on their specified requirements upon sign-up. The user can then add the clothing items into their chosen suitcase. This feature minimises the discomfort of wearing unsuitable clothing.
Accessible Clothing Info
Travel Planning
Users can create suitcases for various destinations and pack for themselves and their dependents. A written and visual checklist of their saved items are shown. The user can “tick” off the physically packed clothing, reducing uncertainty and the unnecessary expenses of having to buy new clothing.
As the user is free to browse and save other users’ postcards, they are free to share their own. This helps achieve the goal of social sharing and connection.
Social Sharing
USER RESEARCH
People prioritise comfort and convenience.
I conducted semi-structured interviews with 6 participants of mixed gender (ages 19 - 28). Convenience Sampling was used to gather participants who were either students, workers or just regular travellers. 3 stakeholder groups were identified, with those being: Travellers (holiday or business), Locals (friends, students, office workers), and Implicit (weather providers, businesses, fashion companies).
Key Insights
In both contexts of travel and everyday life, participants find weather unpredictability and inaccurate weather forecasts inconvenient.
Theme 1: Weather
“It’s so annoying when I didn’t bring a hat or a jacket, or when I over-layer but then it turns out super hot..”
Cultural sensitivity was a concern for some participants, where it was expressed that some culture’s customs affect, or would affect the way they dress.
Theme 2: Culture and Travel
“If it was a more conservative country, I’d wanna respect them and wear something that suits the place..”
Majority of participants stated that while they browse online for outfit inspiration, they would not be comfortable or interested in sharing their own posts.
Theme 3: Social Sharing
“I follow some people whose style is similar to mine, or outfits I want to replicate but I never post anything..”
For all participants, the weather plays some role when determining what to wear. Comfort was the top priority while a minority stated that aesthetics would triumph during special occasions.
Theme 4: Outfit considerations
“I check the weather just to know what it’s like, but it (outfit) just depends on what I feel like wearing”
USER PERSONAS
Considering edge cases
Maya Liu - Long-term packer
Wilbert Hamm - Traveller with physical requirements
David Leeman - Guardian for multiple dependants
IDEATION STAGE - LOW-FI USER FLOW
DEVELOPMENT - KEY HI-FIDELITY SCREENS
The final prototype and design decisions.
‘Feels Like’ comparison translates unfamiliar weather into local context
Colour of locational title is associated with the current season, providing immediate seasonal context
Background promotes an engaging and aesthetic visual appeal
Clothing tags allow the user to filter through posts for specific content, enabling flexibility and efficiency of searching
Weather is provided at the top of the post, promotes easy recall and quick reference
Personalised weather-based clothing suggestions assist in outfit inspiration
Color-Coded Alert Icons Indicate Suitability, Unsuitability, and Key Information for consistency and recognisability
Plus-Icon allows for easy adding to suitcases, facilitating the process of organising clothing for separate trips
Clothing information adapt to the user’s physical requirements
Dot icon promotes visibility of system status by informing users of which suitcase category they selected
Search bar provides alternative method of filtering, highlighting flexibility and efficiency of use
Location-Based suitcase categories provide weather preview for better packing
Drop-down arrow enables easy viewing of items, with the option to expand into a visual packing list, enhancing organisation and accessibility
Location-dependent background encourages contextual engagement and appealing design
Users can pack for their dependents, streamlining group travel planning
Content is organised into a structural hierarchy, emphasising an aesthetic interface and consistency with existing platforms
Social sharing sparks inspiration and assist users recall travel memories
PROTOTYPE WALKTHROUGH
SUMMARY
My reflections... what improvements does Weather Wear need?
Refinement of focus - As seen in ‘The Solution’, there are 4 main concepts to Weather Wear. However, because we tried to cover so many aspects including accessibility, sociability and organisation, I believe that it made the concept of Weather Wear a bit vague. In the future, this app should focus on one direction only and develop the features from there. For example, as we considered social sharing, the app could integrate more features which expand on that topic, honing its focus on sharing content between users. Thus, making its intention clear to those who use it. However, looking at it as a whole, one can ask “so is it a social app? or is it an organisation one?”. A better way to approach this problem would have been first to choose how it wants users to utilise the app.
Better integration of accessibility - Following from the first reflection, another direction we could take is to better integrate accessibility features. As we only ask for special requirements at the start, it isn’t entirely clear how those questions play a role until the user clicks on a post. However, the clothing information provided might be redundant for those who are already aware of what types of clothing that they can or cannot wear. Introducing different features that promote accessibility while still being weather-relevant would be a good way to reduce ambiguity of such considerations. For example, explaining to users why certain materials aren’t suitable for them or what types of clothing would suit them in different weather, would be informative and helpful while they browse.
