top of page
shoosebg.png

shoose!

An all-in-one shoe buying app, designed to help you find the right shoe you’re looking for.

screen1.png

Shoose! - Mobile App UI/UX Design

Mar - May 2021

"An all-in-one
shoe buying app."

About

For my spring 2021 UI/UX class, we were given the project of creating and conceptualizing an app with a topic of our own choosing. As a former sneakerhead, I chose to create a mobile app in the realm of shoes.

The idea for this app came to me when a friend asked me for suggestions on what running shoe to buy. Unlike me, they were not very knowledgeable about shoes in general and didn’t know where to start.

Role
  • Research

  • Problem Validation

  • Ideation

  • Wireframing

  • User Testing

  • Visual Design

Goals

1/How Might We:

  • Streamline the shoe-buying process?

  • Give the user personalized shoe options based on their needs and wants?

  • Eliminate any uncertainties in choosing and purchasing a pair of shoes?

2 /The Problem:

Shoes are one of the most important pieces of clothing that we wear. There are many different kinds of shoes; ranging from sneakers and sport shoes, to more formal shoes and boots.

However, sometimes when buying a pair of shoes it could be quite hard to figure out exactly which pair will suit your specific needs due to the large number of factors present in the shoe-buying process.

Design Process

Image by Jason Goodman
Research
Prototype Designer
Wireframing & Prototyping
Image by Kaleidico

Synthesis & Analysis

UX

User & Task Testing

Image by Towfiqu barbhuiya

Problem Validation

Image by Jo Szczepanska

Learnings & Findings

Image by AbsolutVision

Ideation & Concepting

Image by Balázs Kétyi

Visual Design

Research

User Interviews

I conducted several user interviews with some people that fit within the target audience I was aiming for in order to get a better understanding of the issues of the shoe-buying process. Some of the main issues I wanted to understand better were:
 

  • Pain points and difficulties in the shoe-buying process 

  • Most important factors in choosing a new pair of shoes

  • Their thought process in selecting and narrowing down their options

User Quotes from Interview: 

icon1.png

“It’s hard, because I’m always wondering if there's something better, there are always too many options.”

icon2.png

“I take a lot of time and consideration due to indecision as there are a lot of selections, too many options, and sometimes size availability.”

icon3.png

“I look through the different factors and compare each shoe on them, and pick the ones I like the most. It's hard because many factors are taken into account.”

icon4.png

"Sizing is a big concern because different brands have different sizing and it is confusing at times."

Learnings
& Findings

For the average person, the shoe-buying process often takes longer than needed and fraught with numerous issues that hamper this process. These issues and frustrations are:

  • Too many options, which makes it hard to narrow down

  • Sizing varies between brands, could lead to shoes not fitting well

  • Hard to compare all the factors in a shoe against each other efficiently

 

 

Knowing this, my app would need features necessary to allow users to be able to go from:

the start of the process (e.g. “I need a new running shoe!”),

to the end (e.g. purchasing the shoe and being satisfied with it.),

without users having to run into the aforementioned issues, thus keeping the shoe-buying process as efficient and hassle-free as possible.

persona1.png
Lindsay

Age: 24
Occupation: Marketing Coordinator
Location: San Francisco, CA

Bio

Lindsay is a young professional who loves to exercises and has a multitude of hobbies, such as running, tennis, and golf. Because of her busy lifestyle, she usually buys her shoes online as she doesn’t have the time to go out to physical stores.

Preferences & Traits
  • prefers to buy purpose built shoes

  • usually buys shoes online

  • buys around 2-4 shoes a year

  • somewhat into trends

  • comfort is number 1

Pain Points
  • hard to decide on a shoe to buy

  • sizing between brands are confusing

  • buying online leads to unsatisfactory purchases

Wants
  • be able to compare her options more effectively
    to have more confidence in online purchasing

persona2.png
Michael

Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Location: Austin, TX

Bio

Michael is a junior studying in Austin, Texas. He loves to watch basketball and plays a lot in his spare time. His favorite shoe brand is Nike and he often buys basketball shoes from the local Foot Locker. While he is knowledgeable about basketball shoes, he is quite clueless about casual shoes and shoes for other purposes.

Preferences & Traits
  • logical buyer

  • usually buys shoes in-store

  • buys around 1-3 shoes a year

  • not into trends

  • brand loyal to nike

Pain Points
  • difficult to narrow down options for non-basketball shoes

  • hard to find all the information on the shoe to compare, which means more time spent on the shoe buying process

Wants
  • needs some assistance in narrowing down options

  • need more info available to compare for each shoe option

sketches.png

Ideation & Concepting

Next, I did a sketching exercise in order to help brainstorm some ideas for the features of the app. I narrowed these ideas down to 3 distinct ones that I will focus on with my task flows:

Wireframes

Shoe Comparer

w1.png

True Shoe Size

w2.png

Shoe Finder

w3.png

Digitized Wireframes

wireframesdigital 2.png

Final Screens

final.png
bottom of page