Let's make thrifting more fun

Problem

Modern sustainable shoppers find it difficult to find the time to devote to sifting through a thrift shop, they are turned away from the thrift store environment, and they have difficulty curating/repurposing quality products.

How might we make thrifting more enjoyable?

User Interviews + Affinity Diagram

The team started with the general focus in thrifting and sustainable shopping. When interviewing our ten users we kept the questions open ended and broad to hear their candid opinions and to discover where their needs aren't being met.

We sorted the data into four categories to better understand the general consensus about thrifting.

Pains

“Too many choices and I don’t have time to dig through stuff, especially during a pandemic” - William J.  
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“I don’t know if thrift stores washes the items… I get that it's cheap stuff but the presentation is terrible” - Nayoung H. 
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“Thrift stores are ugly and the clothes always have a weird smell” - Jack C.

Gains

“Going to the thrift store is super exciting, You never know what you’re going to find!” - Josh K. 
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“I love the idea that we can give a new life to a used item”- Abby 
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“It’s good for the environment so I’m happy with that!” - Jack C.

User Persona

Meet Jennifer Lane, a creative, trendy recent college grad. She's passionate about the environment and loves hunting for unique vintage pieces.

Jen is a creative young artist who values the beauty in all things old and new. She loves to challenge herself to try new things and to give second hand items a new life.

Key Insight

Our lightbulb moment in the project happened around this time in the design process. As we discussed opportunity for thrifting applications and benefits for users, we found a negative aspect to that solution:

Many people enjoy thrifting for the thrill of the hunt, which is diminished if we were to create an ecommerce app for second hand clothing.

Brainstorming

To help the team find a solution to this new insight, we needed to head back to the whiteboard. We did the I like, I wish, What if exercise to try and narrow down potential solutions or features that could increase user interest.

From this activity, we uncovered the idea of mystery boxes.

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Not only does this increase the sense of excitement and unknown that comes with in-person thrifting, it also gives the customer the opportunity to try out pieces that they normally wouldn't have picked up for themselves, from stores outside of their immediate area. This also gives the user a chance to earn rewards points towards new boxes when they re-donate any unwanted items.

Paper Prototype

I developed our first iteration of what the app could look like. From onboarding to the thrift store profiles and checkout, there are several different screens and iterations that came from this first pass.

InVision Clickable Prototype

High-Fidelity Prototype

As we developed our style guide and final designs, we wanted to keep the UI funky and retro.

Final Thoughts

FINDING THE PROBLEM
‍‍We had a hard time narrowing down the focus as we began our ideation process. As much as a thrifting app sounded like a need, we also worried if the hunt of searching through racks was the thrill of it all, were we eliminating that aspect? It wasn't until we stumbled upon the idea of mystery boxes that we understood the need of the user and established the excitement and fun of the unknown. 
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ITERATION, ITERATION, ITERATION.
As we began our first steps into feature development, we struggled over whether a stylized box was really feasible. We wanted to incorporate a style quiz into our onboarding process, but soon realized it actually mislead the user as they were first introduced to our app and would add a big cost to the thrift stores, knowing they would have to personally curate and style each box. Cutting out those features was difficult at first, but ultimately streamlined our approach.
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FUTURE ADDITIONS
‍If we were to add or change anything to our app, we'd want to add the option for each store to decide and develop their own box selection and be able to promote their unique boxes instead of the structured tier system we began with. Adding on a subscription option was also up for discussion in our 'I like, I wish, What if' brainstorming session.