FitCheck
FitCheck is a start-up creating a mobile application where fashion lovers can share their outfits, join style-centric social groups, and shop apparel, all at the same time.
The concept is meant to digitize the idea of going to the mall with your friends and asking “what do you think of this?” while holding up a piece or trying on clothing in the fitting room.
I joined FitCheck after they had completed an initial round of research and lo-fidelity prototyping, with the objective to create hi-fidelity prototypes that could be handed off for development and MVP release.
Role
Product Design Intern
Tools
Figma, FigJam
Team
Azaan, Calista, Kaitlyn, Tori (Designers)
Pavan, Alex (Co-Founders)
Timeline
December 2023 - April 2024
01 The Problem
The need for feature prioritization
Our goal starting out was simply creating hi-fidelity screens for hand-off to developers, making way for an MVP release to get the start-up ball rolling.
What this exactly entailed revealed itself as we went through existing material (user research + lo-fidelity designs) and realized the need for clarification and prioritization of features.
FitCheck aims to be a shopping app (think Urban Outfitters, Depop, etc.) except also social and with many brands, not just one. This means features inspired by Pinterest, Reddit, and BeReal - or in other words, a lot of ideas and features that were easily getting lost in experience of FitCheck.
Pictured above are lo-fidelity screens that our team was provided with as a starting point.
02 Research Synthesis & User Goals
Bringing clarity to the FitCheck's goals
To start out, I wanted to synthesize the existing material and bring focus back to FitCheck's intended users and their needs. Here's what I pulled:
Pain Point
Online shopping lacks collaborative features that mirror in-person social shopping experiences.
Solution
FitCheck as a fashion e-commerce platform supported with a social media engine.
FitCheck User's Goals
Subsequent Feature
Discover and save apparel through suggestions, followed influencers, trends
Apparel Feed (Inspired by Pinterest)
Racks (Inspired by Pinterest)
Share apparel and outfits to friends and groups
Circles (Loosely inspired by Reddit)
FitChecks (Inspired by BeReal)
03 Revised Information Architecture
Emphasizing FitCheck's competitive advantage
The main change we decided to implement was the isolation of FitChecks and Circles as a singular destination in the app’s navigation.
As one of many shopping apps on the market, FitCheck faces tough competition. Therefore, I emphasized the importance of identifying FitCheck's differentiating factor and leveraging that feature to increase user engagement. That feature was Circles.
Before
After
04 hi-fidelity overview
FitChecks & Circles
FitChecks Feed & Individual FitCheck View
On the FitChecks side of this dual-tab app destination, the user can find a daily feed of FitChecks (ootd's) shared by other users they are following.
Meant to mimic BeReal, users can like, comment and react, in addition to sharing the FitCheck to circles, browsing tagged clothing, and viewing similar FitChecks.
Public Circle
Circles are split into three tabs:
"All" for a Pinterest-esque quick multi-view of both posted apparel and FitChecks
"FitChecks" for an individual view feed of FitChecks posted to the circle
"Apparel" for an individual view feed of apparel posted to the circle
Public Circles are meant to mimic subreddits, where users can find community with other users sharing the same fashion taste or interests.
Private Circle
Private Circles are laid out similarly to Public Circles, serving the same function as a public Circle but encouraging authenticity and casual posting within a closed off group.
With an additional chat feature, users can share private messages and photos separate from the feed to facilitate further conversation.
Add Friends
FitCheck is a social app, so adding friends is an important part of the experience.
"Recommended" offers potential friends via mutuals
"In your contacts" offers potential friends found in the user's phone contacts
"Friend requests" shows requests sent by other users
"Invite friends" allows users to send invites to users in their contacts not on FitCheck
05 design process
Feature iterations to improve experience
The problematic Snap Ring…
The original snap ring (meant to mimic Snapchat's snap ring as a quick way of capturing FitChecks) had two issues:
It nested a major user interaction in a singular page
It was visually overwhelming, covering a significant portion of a screen already full of icons and buttons
Before
…the new Action Button!
The solution was a new action button that is built right into the navigation bar. This button addresses the previous issues and more:
It can be accessed from any page in the app
It encourages users to perform interactions by
After
Item Interactions
To improve icon visibility, I implemented a standardized gradient overlay system.
I also groups similar user interactions together, such as liking an items and reacting to an item.
Before
After
Style Guide
I wouldn't quite call it a design system—maybe the beginnings of one—but I started a style guide with the components I built out for my screens, supported by the Tamagui UI kit.
This was something I took initiative in completing when I noticed that there were lots of visual inconsistencies across the designs of me and my teammates at our mid-fidelity stage.
Since we each had ownership over a different destination, we needed a means of standardization to maintain consistency in our hi-fidelity designs and help developers with efficiency.
06 Takeaways
Lessons from startup constraints
Working with FitCheck taught me valuable lessons about designing for early-stage startups:
The importance of feature prioritization when resources are limited
How to maintain design cohesion across distributed and remote teams
Translating business objectives into user-centered design decisions
As a designer, I've grown tremendously through this experience. I've learned to be more deliberate in my communication, more efficient in my documentation, and more strategic in my design thinking—aligning the user and the business to achieve goals. It was a load of fun, and I'm excited to see how FitCheck continues to evolve!
Thanks for visiting, come again soon ★