Clothing app concept

African tailoring, at your fingertips. Kitenge is an app that lets you design clothes and support the creation of African fashion. By enabling users to personalize clothing the way they want, they can send design requests to a network of tailors for production of a handcrafted garment.

Role: Lead UX Researcher and Designer
Timeline: 2 months
Part One

Introduction

Background

As someone who grew up in Uganda, I have been asked one too many times, during my trips back to the United States, if I lived in the jungle. I didn’t - I lived in a large, cosmopolitan city, in an image of Africa that didn’t exist in the west. In this image, fashion is not a key component of visual culture.

A quote from Shailja Patel's Migritude best exemplifies this concept:

“They are the noble savages, staring out from coffee table books. Africa Adorned. The Last Nomads. Backdrops and extras for Vogue fashion shoots. Stock ingredients for tourist brochures ... They are the myth of tribal splendour. Everything about them is foreign ... Their “timeless culture” is the stuff of children’s books, of Western fantasies. They are everyone’s dream of people untouched by modernity.” (Shailja Patel, Migritude)

Stereotypes of Africa, including animal prints and tribal motifs remain a source of inspiration for Western designers. In reality, the creative expression and output of fashion designers in Africa is so much more than what is portrayed. African design today can include a mixture of African and Western cultures, where African designers will blend the two. This is most often seen done by local tailors, who create Western and African inspired clothing.

THE PROBLEM

Narrowing the problem space

Having been to a garment tailor in Africa numerous times, I thought about how I used these services - including their skills, techniques, and fabric choices - as an outlet of sartorial creativity. Having clothes tailored is a common cultural practice across Africa, and I wanted to look into ways of making it more accessible to those without access to this culture of tailoring.

On the global scale, the African fashion industry is not very significant, but that’s not to say that fashion isn’t big business in Africa. The combined apparel and footwear industry is estimated to be worth $31 billion. This industry is expanding, due to growing interest in Africa’s traditions, including its vibrant fabrics, such as wax and printed dye cotton, and the high quality of African craftmanship. 

$31 billion
size of Sub-Saharan Africa’s footwear and apparel industry
1%
Sub-Saharan Africa's textile and apparel industry share of world exports
Design question
How might we open Africa's fashion industry to global demand, in order to connect interested consumers of bespoke African fashion to African tailors?
Part two

Research

PRIMARY RESEARCH

Interviews to gain deeper insights

In order to delve deeper into my design question, I conducted qualitative primary research. I arranged three interviews to gain deeper insights and knowledge about the concepts of African fashion in the West and the practice of having clothes tailored. The first research objective was to understand what fashion means to the participant and how they use tailoring services. The second objective was to understand what the experience of garment tailoring in Africa was like.

Each interview was scheduled for 30 minutes, and I interviewed people who live in the United States, have lived in or traveled to Africa, and have experience working with tailors.

Insight 1: Passion for African culture
Throughout my interviews, I noticed that my participants were extremely enthusiastic and passionate about where they came from. They noted that without access to tailoring, they felt as though their self-expression was limited. Through fashion, the participants are able to connect with their cultures and express their individuality.
Insight 2: Establishing trust
Trust is an important concept which influences people's decisions to find a tailor. They are usually recommended tailors from trustworthy people in their network, or spend a lot of time establishing trust with a tailor so that they can be confident they’ll receive good work.
Insight 3: Ethical labor and fashion 
Participants were interested in sourcing local materials, buying from local businesses, having fair transactions, reducing environmental waste, and being transparent about their practices. These factors influence them to use tailors to create custom and quality clothing.
Part Three

Synthesis

USER PERSONA

Understanding the user by personifying interview insights

Based on the themes derived from the interviews, I felt that I had enough information to construct a user persona. Naledi, the subject of my persona, brings to life the most pertinent pain points, behaviors, and motivations from the interviews I conducted.

EXPERIENCE MAP

Empathizing with the user through an experience map

To understand what Naledi is seeing, thinking, and feeling throughout the journey of finding and using a tailor service, I created an experience map. With this, I could identify opportunities to ease Naledi’s frustrations.

With the artifacts for understanding the user assembled, I saw opportunities to design a service  which allows users to design clothes and have the design sent to a tailor who could produce it for them. Because not everyone can design clothes, there would need to be a way to provide them with clothing templates that they could customize. It would give them the right amount of freedom but also ensure that the clothes can be designed by the user, and constructed by a tailor, both easily. This opportunity would also be a good way to communicate a message about the fashion and culture of Africa, through the use of imagery, fabrics, and branding.

Part Four

Ideation

USER PERSONA

Establishing the main functionality and task

At this point, I was at the start of the second diamond of the Double Diamond Model. I had defined the problem, decided what to fix, and was about to test potential solutions. I authored epics and user stories to explore potential features and functionalities that would improve the experience Naledi has with tailoring. These would be translated into a digital solution and allow me to choose a specific task to focus on for the problem space.

TASK FLOW

Building out the necessary screens and features to complete the task

The task I chose to focus on was to “customize a garment and send it to tailor”. If the solution to the problem were a mobile app, then I would approach the task from a mobile point of view, and build out screens for an app. While constructing my task flow, I kept in mind the flow of screens and decisions the user and the system would make throughout the task.

With the artifacts for understanding the user assembled, I saw opportunities to design a service  which allows users to design clothes and have the design sent to a tailor who could produce it for them. Because not everyone can design clothes, there would need to be a way to provide them with clothing templates that they could customize. It would give them the right amount of freedom but also ensure that the clothes can be designed by the user, and constructed by a tailor, both easily. This opportunity would also be a good way to communicate a message about the fashion and culture of Africa, through the use of imagery, fabrics, and branding.

Part Five

Iteration

SKETCHING

Putting pen to paper in the sketchbook

What content, layout, and interactions could I have in a mobile app for fashion, tailoring, and Africa? I looked to the internet for inspiration and began sketching concepts in a notebook. These sketches included ideas for features, screens, components, and icons.

I then selected the most compelling features and made more detailed sketches. During this stage I focused on essential copy, labels, and layouts.

I also sketched a template with variable content that could be used for each screen. This layout would be repeated throughout the app's screens for consistency.

WIREFRAMES AND TESTING

Obtaining real feedback from users through testing

After sketching came wireframes. Without making visual or stylistic decisions, I was able to focus on the features and functionality of an effective user experience. When designing with a set grayscale palette and simple typography, it was easy to try out new layouts.

I conducted two rounds of user testing, each with five different volunteers, to see where my designs could be improved. I took notes and recorded all feedback, then decided which improvements were most feasible and impactful. With this information I revised my grayscale prototype after each round.

Part Six

Visual Design

BRAND IDENTITY

Deciding on a brand name

I began to develop the brand which would be adopted by my app. It needed to convey a contemporary and fashionable Africa.

To decide on a brand name, I thought about what could best represent fashion in Africa. When I think of the fashion I observed when living in Africa, I usually think about the signature wax batik printed cotton, which is used to construct clothes for men and women all over the continent.

Ultimately, after discussing the options with a few Swahili speakers, I decided to go with Kitenge. Based on this name, those who speak Swahili are able to immediately understand that the app has something to do with fabrics and prints. And those who don’t speak Swahili can tell that the word is of foreign origin and can spark their curiosity.

BRAND MOODBOARD

Inspiration and evoking a mood

I then assembled a moodboard to bring to life a visual narrative for my app, Kitenge. The concept of this moodboard is retrofuturistic Swahili. I was inspired by my recent trip to Kenya, where I spent most of my time on the Swahili coast. The moodboard incorporates swatches of African fabrics and simple shapes derived from these complex patterns, as well as art suggesting a retrofuturistic land in Africa.

VISUAL IDENTITY

Designing Kitenge's brand assets

I selected my brand colors from an assortment of colors extracted from the moodboard. The colors were categorized into primary, secondary, and accent colors. I then examined typographic and branding design inspiration and iterated a series of potential wordmarks for Kitenge. I sketched these out and accompanied them with digitally typed wordmarks. I also designed a logo to be used for the brand, as well as on the app icon. The logo was inspired by a pattern found in kitenge fabric, and resembles a sun rising behind hills.

HIGH-FIDELITY DESIGNS

Applying visual treatments to the final prototype

The visual identity and high-fidelity design stages of the process were my favorite. I love playing with colors, fonts, and imagery to convey an unspoken message. Every small design choice tells a story. I started with the mobile app screens, where I applied the 60-30-10 color ratio, accounted for spacing and hierarchy, and sourced interesting icons and imagery. Overall, the visual direction for the UI is influenced by the neubrutalism trend, defined by modern typography, exposed grids, and contrasting colors.

Interact with the prototype →

DESIGN SYSTEM

A source of truth for the user interface

The design system I built using Brad Frost’s Atomic Design methodology served to communicate the appropriate usage of app components and elements. I wanted to achieve visual consistency by defining a unified language to be used throughout the app.

Part Seven

Reflection & Learnings

CONCLUSION

Reflecting on the past 10 weeks

It was an incredible experience designing my own passion project. I am proud of the work I put into this project and of how much I’ve learned. That being said, with something so personal, I don’t think I could ever be completely satisfied with the final outcome. I wish I had the time and resources to conduct primary research with actual tailors, considering that they are one of the main stakeholders in Kitenge’s platform. I had to work with assumptions, which got me through the project for now, but would certainly be an obstacle in the future.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Key takeaways from this project

I gathered many important learning outcomes from this intensive design process, which I hope will improve my skills as a designer constantly in iteration.

Find a variety of users for research
I felt limited to a specific demographic group during the ideation and interview stage. In reality, apps can reach more people than the designer intends, and it is their responsibility to ensure high usability for all users. Plus, a wider variety of insights and themes can be gathered from talking to many different users.
Test early and often
Testing can be done at almost every point during the design process, not only at the prototyping stage. Personas, ideas, and sketches can be tested to determine their feasibility. The more input and critiques, the better. I made several critical revisions based on user feedback throughout the process.
Set timers and move on
I often found myself struggling to make small decisions such as the final brand colors or the name. I reflected on the fact that true perfection is unachievable, and as long as I could justify my decisions, I needed to trust my gut and decide. I started using timers and allotting a finite amount of time to complete set tasks.
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