Conscious Closet.

Initial Conception

The problem wasn't what people were buying. It was why.

Most people who overbuy clothes aren't shopping because they need anything. They're shopping because they feel like they have nothing to wear, and that feeling is easier to act on than to question. The solutions that exist address the wrong moment: thrift apps and ethical brand directories help people buy better, but none of them interrupt the impulse before it becomes a purchase. What's actually missing is a clear picture of what someone already owns and the confidence that it's enough. I wanted to design for that gap, not the sustainable shopping experience, but the moment before someone opens a shopping app at all.

The Goal

To create an app that allows users to see the clothes they own at a glance, generate completely new outfits based on their style preferences, and save their favorite looks for later.

Research

Why do people spend money on clothes they don't strictly need?

17 responses. The data confirmed the core assumptions. A few responses pushed the thinking in directions the initial brief had not fully considered.

How might we?

These questions helped pinpoint users' core needs and shaped the direction of the app's design.

• Equip people with the ability to resist buying into the trends they see
• Encourage the development of users' own personal style
• Help users use the clothes they already own
• Decrease the amount of waste created by fast fashion

The first question became the north star. The others were real concerns, but resisting the impulse was the root of the problem. Solve that and the rest followed naturally. Every core feature was designed to address that moment before someone opens a shopping app.

User Archetypes

After gathering survey feedback and defining how-might-we statements, two user archetypes emerged that shaped the design work that followed.

Execution

I led all UX research, information architecture, and high-fidelity UI design. My collaborator contributed the custom icon set and the shopping plugin concept.

Low-Fidelity Mockups

The transition from research to lo-fi design led to choosing an app format for its high frequency of use. The focus was on immediate outfit creation. No bookmarking, no load screens. Pick up the app and have a new outfit in seconds.

Lo-Fi Takeaways

1. The card style of the onboarding quiz proved unnecessarily confusing. In testing sessions, users repeatedly paused and second-guessed their selections, breaking the flow before the app had even started.
2. Eliminating the separate home screen and guiding users directly into the closet proved more effective. A dedicated home screen added a layer of navigation without serving any real purpose. The closet was the destination every time.
3. Custom icons became a necessity for closet navigation. Users brought up the photography requirement as a concern early on, flagging it as too much friction to make the app part of a daily routine.

UI & Visual Design

Building a cohesive visual system.

For the high-fidelity transition, I built a visual identity around warmth and personality. Soft rounded edges, a gentle palette, and Manrope chosen for its clarity on small screens.

High-Fidelity Testing

The app in action.

The defining decision in the hi-fi phase was tone. The visual system needed to feel playful, warm, and rounded. Something you would actually want to open, not something that felt like admin. A palette of creams, pinks, and pastel reds with Manrope as the typeface and soft rounded edges throughout gave the app a personality that matched the behaviour it was trying to encourage: a gentler, more considered relationship with your wardrobe.

The prototype was built to walk through the full core loop: viewing your digital closet, adding new pieces both manually and by scanning a tag, and generating new outfits from what you already own. Testing surfaced one thing worth noting: users responded especially well to the saved outfits tab, appreciating the ability to revisit past looks they had already put together.

Reflection

What this project taught me.

Conscious Closet never shipped, and that's part of what makes it worth reflecting on. A complete design cycle, from research through polished prototype, teaches you things that shipping on time sometimes skips. Three of them stuck with me.

Future Improvements

1. Enhance clothing representation for better outfit visualization.
2. Improve the flow for manually adding pieces.
3. Expand functionality with a shopping plug-in that interrupts the impulse to buy before it becomes a purchase.