Slick Chicks responsive website redesigN

Interact with the prototype on invision

Learn more about the research findings

BRIEF

Slick Chicks is an adaptable underwear brand on a mission to empower women. You may be wondering, “What is adaptable underwear?” Although our official assignment was a website redesign, we quickly realized that with such an innovative and unfamiliar product, there were other obstacles that we needed to first overcome before diving into design.

After learning more about the product and the company mission, our team listed out assumptions and started empathy mapping. This would provide us with guidance as we began the research process.

Research

We first evaluated the competitive and comparative landscape amongst other underwear and mission-driven brands.

Through this research, we accomplished the following:

Feature Analysis to identify common and unique features
Nielsen Norman Heuristics Evaluation to evaluate the usability of Slick Chicks and competitive websites
Block Diagramming of competitor websites to evaluate content strategy
Observational Field Research to observe in-store experience at competitive retailers

From here, we kicked off user research by conducting usability tests on the existing website. This would help us to better understand where users were dropping off or losing interest, as well as provide us with a baseline for the usability results of our redesign.

We conducted tests with five women, all unfamiliar with the brand, and received consistent responses:

Users considered the brand inclusive, woman-centric, and relatable, in reference to the images and copy on the homepage
However, users were unsure as to how the product would be relevant to them; they considered it to be more for pregnant or physically constrained women
100% of women had difficulty navigating to other pages

I felt really frustrated [not being able to put on my underwear] because it's such a simple task that you do every day and I just couldn't get it done very easily - Woman, Recently Injured, 25-34

Using this feedback, we created a screener survey to qualify users for further interviewing.

The survey was open for three days and received 40 responses (78% between the ages 25-34) distributed amongst frequent gym goers, hikers, physically disabled or injured, and pregnant women.

Based on these results, we determined rough personas and chose the following types of women to interview:

Primary: Women that have physical, mobility limitations (e.g., pregnant, physically disabled)
Secondary: Active women that frequent the gym, workout, hike

The goal of these interviews was to learn more about the underwear shopping and wearing experience, and to document initial impressions of Slick Chicks. We interviewed 11 women and sent out a detailed survey to 3 pregnant women that were unavailable for interviewing. We compiled the most significant sentiments into an affinity map in order to determine the problem and MVP. Significant findings include:

Purchasing underwear is typically not a frequent task for women; either they shop out of necessity or it’s a spontaneous purchase
Being physically constrained (pregnant, physically injured) can make the simple task of putting on underwear a cumbersome one
No one wants to think about their underwear throughout the day: having underwear that are appropriate for the situation (working out, wearing tight clothing) is crucial

SYNTHESIS

After synthesizing the user data, we were able to finalize our primary and secondary personas, as well as create tertiary personas (or archetypes) that were based on shopping behaviors. We decided to use archetypes in order to account for the expansive and diverse Slick Chicks audience.

With these users and personas defined, we were able to make design decisions and prioritize features that would benefit both existing and future users.

problem

Women with chronic/long-term physical constraints need a way to easily find underwear that works for them because they want to feel confident and independent.

Proposed solution: A redesigned website that feels inclusive and relatable, and makes the experience of shopping for underwear enjoyable and engaging. This would be achieved through:

Inclusive imagery: Including high-resolution images of diverse women at all stages of life (different ethnicities, life stages, ages)
Streamlined messages: Minimize the amount of text shown and break up text with icons, images and white space.
Natural and warm colors and imagery: Including hues of pink, green and gold as well as images of real women that are not models and/or photoshopped
Surprise and delight: Adding testimonial messages and hints of ‘empowerment’ throughout the website (via imagery, quotes)

With the fundamental elements in place, we could focus on how to portray the brand, product, and company mission throughout the entire website.

Design

After this, we began sketching and promptly digitized our first prototype. We tested seven users and found that the most significant changes that needed to be made involved copy.

For instance, 33% of users were confused about where to click to learn more about the product. We changed the navigational tab from “How they Work” to “How it Works,” and in our second usability test, 0% of users had trouble finding the correct page.

Additionally, the first prototype had “Meet the Chicks” in reference to the underwear, and 40% of users were confused by what this meant. Therefore, we changed it to “Slick Chicks Underwear” to be more inclusive to users that were not familiar with the brand.

DELIVER

We finalized the prototype, mobile design, style guide, research report and other deliverables and presented to the Slick Chicks team.

Brand persona

This was an incredibly rewarding project to be a part of, and I hope to have more design opportunities in the future that will similarly help to empower overlooked communities.