Summary

Have you ever been lucky enough to be part of a team where an immediate connection happened to the point that decisions were naturally coming up and the design process flew so well? That happened with this project and what a joy it was!

Welcome to the UX project for Depop, an online marketplace platform with a strong social component, designed to allow people to sell clothes and other items remotely.

Team roles

Working in a team of 4, we used the Kanban method. We agreed to work collaboratively on this project, which allowed us to be equally involved in the end-to-end process and enabled continuous communication and alignment.

I participated in every step of the project and was additionally responsible for building the Figma components and showing the final prototype in our presentation.

Deliverables

Surveys, user interviews, competitive analysis, personas, affinity mapping, problem statement, How Might We, user journey, crazy 8s, user flow, Lo and Hi-Fi wireframes, iterations, Hi-Fi prototype, usability testing.

Tools

Problem

Depop wants to go further in its mission to combat fast fashion and waste in the fashion industry, by building or adding a clothes swap, or clothes rental feature to its product.

Solution

Swap, not rent

To add a clothing and accessories swap feature to the existing Depop app.

Discover

Research

As part of our research plan, we wanted to learn everything we could about Depop and the fashion industry they are part of.

This uncovered some awful facts about what Depop is up against regarding fast fashion and why brands like them are so important.

A few key facts that highlighted the urgency of changing the fashion industry:

The industry

One clear thing was that Depop understands that second-hand shopping doesn’t eliminate fashion’s impact on the environment. Still, it does help to reduce it by extending the lifetime of a garment & ultimately leading to less demand for brand new items.

Up to 1 billion new garments are made every year.

Source: UNDP

A rubbish truck of clothes is burned or landfilled every. Single. Second.

Source: Ellen MacArthur Foundation

73% of unwanted clothing is still incinerated or landfilled.

Source: yourclothes.org.uk

Depop users

Depop has over 30 million users spanning 150 countries, with more than 32 million items available for sale.

Depop had also done a lot of research, including a user survey they conducted in 2020, from which we found very useful information.

Mainly what interested us from Depop’s research were the motivations for users to buy second-hand items. These included:

Depop users buy secondhand in order to reduce consumption.

Depop users buy secondhand because of lower prices.

Depop users buy secondhand to find one-of-a-kind unique items.

We also made some bold assumptions (but hey, Depop is a bold brand!), including the fact that users would prefer to rent clothing vs swapping. I’ll explain how our research findings challenged our assumptions and if any of them were disproven.

User interviews

Whilst gathering the information about Depop and the fashion industry, we created a screener survey to separate the wheat from the chaff and collected 27 responses.

Our goal was to identify key users who could bring valuable information to our interviews. We targeted users who shopped secondhand clothing and cared about sustainability.

From the survey responses we got, we then chose 6 users who regularly frequented Depop and its competitors and were willing for us to interview them.

Affinity Mapping

The interview transcripts made for some great bedtime reading! We then used Figjam to do the affinity mapping, where we noticed some common trends.

1.

First and foremost, users shopped second-hand to find the best deal. Finding a good deal also had to do with their budget constraints; they wanted to refresh their wardrobe regularly but not at a huge cost.

2.

Secondly, they cared about sustainability and were very aware of the impacts that fast fashion has on the planet, with one user saying “if you’re not paying for it, someone is, and they’re probably paying with their f***ing lives!”(like I said, great bedtime reading).

3.

The final common theme was they shopped second-hand to find unique or specific garments.

Define

And just like that, two personas were born: Tallulah, the primary persona, and Samantha, the secondary persona.

Samantha, Secondary persona

Samantha’s older, has more money and is the kind of person Tallulah would like to be when she grows up.

She buys second-hand clothes only to find unique pieces that no one else has, real head turners.

She’s willing to spend more money and wait longer for the perfect item.

Because we only had 2 weeks to deliver this project, we had to decide and focus on Tallulah, as this was where most of our interviews were pointing.

Tallulah, Primary persona

It’s a dog-eat-dog world there, but Tallulah can more than hold her own. She has a vintage-chic style and strong opinions on fast fashion labelling it “an absolutely f***ing disgusting travesty”.

Tallulah's goals...

• To refresh my wardrobe regularly not at a huge cost to me;

• To stay true to my values about sustainability without compromising my style.

...and frustrations

• To refresh my wardrobe frequently, I have to support fast fashion;

• It’s expensive to find unique pieces;

• There’s a lack of transparency with platform fees.

User journey

We created a user journey for Tallulah with the fairly reasonable scenario of purchasing second-hand clothes for her “social wardrobe”, and we managed to identify key opportunities:

• Recommending items based on Tallullah’s style rather than forcing her to scroll mindlessly was a big trigger point in the journey and something we would be able to address, especially with her existing Depop DNA;

• Create a cost-effective solution. This was Tallulah’s overriding problem. She was constantly rotating her wardrobe at great cost;

• Build and promote a trustworthy relationship with the user.

Problem statement

Tallulah needs a way to frequently and sustainably refresh her wardrobe with on-trend items so that she can stay fashionable whilst not going over her budget.

How Might We

We were desperate to impress Tallulah. We furiously scribbled down as many as we could and then narrowed the list down to key statements, with the most prominent ones being:

How might we provide Tallulah with a straightforward and stress-free experience?

&

How might we find items that suit her needs within her budget?

Solution

Swap, not rent

After all the research and interviews, something had become quite clear. Our assumptions were wrong. Our users didn’t want to rent, they wanted to swap. With both options being very sustainable and ticking the “fight against fast fashion” box, it ultimately came down to budget.

Develop

Sketching

With a clear problem statement and agreement on our HMWs, it was time to start sketching and what better way of doing it if not with a few sessions of Crazy 8’s?

We had fun and, most importantly, we narrowed down a practical way to incorporate a swap solution into the Depop app and make Tallulah happy.

User Flow

To create the user flow, we had to focus on the happy path, considering how short this project was. We kept it simple.

Lo-Fi wireframes

Our initial wireframes began with Tallulah already signed in as an existing Depop user.

She then had the ability to import her existing DNA.

From here, the flow moved through the swap edit search for a floral midi dress. 

On the product detail page, Tallulah could select an item from her products of equal value or bundle multiple items. 

 Next, she would find herself on a review page, followed by a confirmation page.

User Interface

As we were adding a feature to an existing product of a strong brand, we decided to keep the same Depop typography and colours to avoid confusion for its 30 million users.

From a UI perspective, we simply created a style guide and a list of components.

Colours

Typography

Usability testing

We tested our prototype in a hybrid way: 8 unmoderated on Maze and 5 moderated via Zoom.

The positives

• Users found the swap symbol on the footer to be intuitive and easy to find;

• The journey was clear, and our branding stayed consistent enough.

The not so positives

• Confusing DNA screen: "Why do I need to create another profile?"

• How does swap work?

• The swap payment model is confusing. Why were users being expected to pay? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?

Iterations

Before

DNA screen.

After

DNA screen removed. The user already has a profile.

Before

Swap product page.

After

The bundle box was removed, the wording updated and the “pay the difference” option is greyed out when the offer is an equal or greater value than the desired item.

Before

The users would have to pay each other an equal amount and the amounts would cancel each other out, but for Tallulah, who cares about her budget, that was not an option.

After

The users only pay for the shipping and they have the option to donate to a non-profit for sustainable fashion.

We also included all the details of how to use Depop Swap in an info screen at the beginning of this flow.

Deliver

Prototype

Tallulah has been invited to the "Springtime office garden party". As a fashion lover who cares about sustainability and her budget, she decides to log in to her Depop account, hoping she will find a nice dress and not at a huge cost. She comes across Depop Swap...

Next steps

Of course, as UX Designers, we’re never done, and we can iterate until the cows come home. But at the end of 2 weeks, we had to stop, as we had reached the end of this sprint.

• We would include a journey perspective from the other swapper, being notified of Tallulah’s interest in their items and how they might communicate with a counter-proposal.

• Create subscription plans based on the number of swaps. This would increase trust in the business and create longer-life users. It would also generate more regular income for Depop, which can only be good.

• How Tallulah could add an item to her list of products.

• How to buy a product from the “Swap” product detail page. You’re allowed to change your mind, and if you decide to treat yourself by purchasing that new outfit, there should be functionality to cater for that.

• Live In-Person Swaps would be our Non-Digital proposal. Where users would meet up at a specific location and swap their items in person, galvanising the sense of community that Depop promotes.

• There would need to be a fair chunk of additional research and testing with more information about Swapping businesses.

Key learnings

• Assumptions aren’t always correct. We were almost 100% sure that the solution for this brief would be a renting service. Guess what… We were wrong! It all came down to users' budgets and how they preferred a swap service. It’s fine to have assumptions as long as you don’t (sub)consciously “direct” your research and users to what you think the best solution is. We listened to our users, delivered an integration they wanted (aligned with the brief), and we can happily say we were wrong. 

• Test, test and test. Even though we did the competitive analysis, the sprint was short and, as individuals, we weren’t that familiar with the swap clothing business. The feedback we got from the lo-fi usability testing was crucial, with the users raising valid points, which were key to our iterations and, ultimately, improved our solution.

• “Divide and conquer”. All key decisions, the foundation of this project, were made as a group. But once those foundations were set and we had a clear understanding of where we were and where we were taking this project, we started splitting tasks which was super helpful, especially when facing such a short timeframe.