Smart Mirror
A human-centered design approach to prototyping and evaluating an interactive mirror for clothing retailers to promote their sustainability efforts.
Context
For the HCDE 518 User Centered Design course, we were tasked with employing a human centered design approach to a project around sustainability.
My Contribution
I did foundational research for our study, include literature reviews, surveys, and contextual inquiry. I also developed the user flow for our initial prototype and defined user tasks to be used in our usability study script. I administered usability evaluations, as well as pre- and post-test interviews. I did data analysis on our findings, and presented insights and recommendations.
Tags Research; Prototype; Usability Test; Iterate
Role UX Researcher; Project Manager
Team Kristen Shiflett, Kathlyne Taylor, Grace Yang
Duration September - December 2019
Outcome
We used the findings from our foundational research to develop a prototype of a smart mirror that would be placed in stores. We did usability evaluations of our prototype and used these findings to improve our solution.
This was an opportunity for me to utilize the human-centered design process and see it’s value in action.
Overview
More often than ever, consumers are seeking out environmentally sustainable brands to purchase their clothes from. In this project, we chose to help H&M* better communicate their sustainability efforts to their customers.
Our design solution was a Smart Mirror placed in stores. The customer holds a garment to the mirror, which then provides context about garment's environmentally friendly material and ethical manufacturing process.
*This project was not formally affiliated with H&M
Foundational Research
Surveys
Our team conducted surveys to better understand millennial shopping behaviors and intent as it related to sustainable shopping. Conducting a survey was an easy way for us to find out information from a large number of people in a short window of time and acted as a tool to help us craft our contextual inquiry interview questions.
Literature Review
Our team reviewed market research reports investigating millennial consumer needs for sustainable shopping. In addition, we researched fashion brands representing a range of environmental sustainability and ethical production practices. During this phase, we uncovered insights into company practices & communication of these practices with customers. We chose to continue our foundational research via this method because of the short time frame we had available to use to complete this project and our lack of access to fashion brand business executives.
Contextual Inquiry
Finally, we conducted contextual inquiry interviews with millennial participants to better understand how brand sustainability efforts influenced their decision-making when it came to shopping. This method allowed us to uncover specific details about consumer’s shopping experience and to gather qualitative responses.
Would hearing negative press or positive press about a company effect your shopping decision?
“Probably, if there are alternatives. I would change my determination of whether I would shop there or not. But, it's not like the sole deciding factor because in the end, I need a piece of clothing or there's some sort of need, and whoever can fill it with the least amount of environmental impact would be nice.”
-Contextual Inquiry Participant
Research Insights
#1: Millennial and Gen Z consumers would prefer to shop more sustainably, but only if it is convenient for them.
Millennial and Gen Z consumers are aware of how harmful the clothing industry can be on the environment. They can only find a limited number of brands that have a fit, quality, and price point that meets their needs. They want to vote with their dollars, but don’t have the time to deeply research every available brand.
#2: Some fast fashion brands are making efforts to be more sustainable, but are still perceived negatively.
After conducting our foundational research, our team was surprised to find that H&M had developed extensive sustainability strategy and ethical practices, but they are still perceived negatively as a fast fashion brand.
How might we help H&M better communicate their sustainability practices to their customers?
Initial Prototype
As a team, we brainstormed 80+ concept ideas based on our foundational research insights. Ultimately, we chose the smart mirror concept because we believed it as an innovative and interactive way to educate customers about H&M's sustainability efforts. This prototype was used in our usability evaluations.
The mirror would be installed in the store's dressing rooms and would provide prompts for the user to interact with the learn more about the garment they were considering. The mirror would surface information about the sustainable materials H&M selected for the garment, their ethical production practices to manufacture and ship the garment, as well as information about H&M's recycling program that the customer could take advantage of.
Usability Evaluation Findings
Our team conducted one hour long, in-person, usability evaluations on the initial prototype with 5 participants. Participants were given a series of information discovery tasks to complete on the smart mirror while the moderator changed mirror screens on transparent paper.
Following our usability evaluations, we used affinity mapping of common themes to come up with recommendations for product improvements.
What went well:
Our prototype improved H&M’s average perceived sustainability rating to a 3.8 from a 3.0.
Participants were interested in the content & thought it was easy to access and presented in an innovative way.
What needed improvement:
Participants had privacy concerns with the smart mirror being in the dressing room.
Participants needed clear call to action buttons, as they didn’t know where or how to click when initially presented with the feature.
Final Prototype
Taking into account the experiences of our participants in the usability evaluations and the feedback we received from them, we developed final prototype of our experience.
Reflection
What went well?
We conducted the usability study on our team members first, which was helpful to adequately address any holes or issues in our usability testing script or that were missing from our prototype.
What could have gone better?
We created an initial hypothesis but discovered during our foundational research that we had made some incorrect assumptions (particularly around H&M not being sustainable) but we were able to quickly pivot and adapt to the user needs that were highlighted in our research. Additionally, further usability testing should be done to better understand the best context for the smart mirror. The privacy concerns raised by our participants of using the mirror in the dressing room would suggest that the mirror should be in a more public area of the store, which may also suggest a needed change in some of the mirror features or how the features work.