3D Product Design Case Study
ROLE
Worked as the Lead UX/UI Designer alongside a Product Manager and the Director of Design to do end to end product design and craft a brand new 3D software product.
DELIVERABLES
Delivered feature sets, user workflow, information architecture, wireframes, and high fidelity, interactive mockups. Worked with an engineer to estimate feasibility and implementation of features. Had the opportunity to create 3D assets in Maya for an initial prototype. Also, completed secondary research, then created and delivered a research brief presentation.
Collaborated with team to synthesize research, complete affinity mapping, define problem, create journey maps, craft personas, plan and execute a design immersion, and both create and present a user research brief presentation to various stakeholders and executives.
Collaborated with team to synthesize research, complete affinity mapping, define problem, create journey maps, craft personas, plan and execute a design immersion, and both create and present a user research brief presentation to various stakeholders and executives.
PROBLEM
HMW enhance fashion designers' creative process from collecting to incorporating inspiration in order to generate a large body of ideas?
Software built specifically for fashion designers that allows them to sketch in 3D, edit in 3D, and export digital assets does not currently exist. Multiple fashion brand partners that we've created digital 3D assets for have had conversations with various stakeholders about developing our internal 3D software into something that would seamlessly fit into a fashion designer's workflow and enable them to design 3D garments.
Throughout the discovery and research stages, we learned again and again how fashion designers are using software built for graphic designers and character artists, then using their personal (or company wide) hacks to create the assets they need for their process. Fashion designers are extremely busy in their day to day workflow and are eagerly awaiting tools built specifically for them that enable them to work more efficiently and spend more time on the creative side of things.
There are a few competitor products in the market that enable designers to create 3D garments, but only by first digitally drafting a 2D technical pattern and digitally sewing it together. Through our research, we found that many designers do not have knowledge of technical patternmaking and have no desire to learn it, as it's not part of their job.
Throughout the discovery and research stages, we learned again and again how fashion designers are using software built for graphic designers and character artists, then using their personal (or company wide) hacks to create the assets they need for their process. Fashion designers are extremely busy in their day to day workflow and are eagerly awaiting tools built specifically for them that enable them to work more efficiently and spend more time on the creative side of things.
There are a few competitor products in the market that enable designers to create 3D garments, but only by first digitally drafting a 2D technical pattern and digitally sewing it together. Through our research, we found that many designers do not have knowledge of technical patternmaking and have no desire to learn it, as it's not part of their job.
SOLUTION
A 3D CAD system that enables fashion designers to collect inspiration in one place and design in 3D.
SCOPE & CONSTRAINTS
Our nimble team was tasked with conducting new research (while also using research that had already been done for the project) and doing end to end product design to craft a 3D design tool for fashion designers with high fidelity screens being delivered to developers by August. The main constraint was the size of our team - one product manager and one UX/UI designer (me) worked on the project full time, while the Director of Design lead us through with some parts of the project, such as the design immersion and persona development.
PROCESS
RESEARCH
Interviews were completed in person or over video with fashion designers, technical designers, patternmakers, and decision makers at fashion brands and 1-3 members of our team. After the discovery phase was complete, we synthesized the research and started crafting the UX strategy. I owned design for the vast majority of the project and also lead competitive research.
AFFINITY MAPPING
COMPETITIVE RESEARCH
PERSONAS
Through the research we crafted three personas and narrowed it down to one user for this product. Jordan is a detail focused designer whose responsibilities are a mix of designing garments and building technical packs for these garments that will be handed off to manufacturers overseas. Jordan often feels overwhelmed, needs to work fast, and has to communicate technical instructions while keeping design integrity
DESIGN IMMERSION
We were lucky to have such brilliant colleagues who were very excited about this project. We planned and executed a design immersion to bring the larger team together to generate lots of ideas in a short amount of time. Every team had a designer and facilitator and teams rapidly iterated on different challenges, then tested their physical prototypes on real users. After the three rounds of iteration and user testing had concluded, we ended the day by having each team present their findings. We gained a plethora of new insights and ideas that were extremely valuable during the next steps in the design process.
FEATURE SETS & USER FLOW
Thanks to our nimble team, I had the opportunity to own some responsibilities that are more traditionally led by a Product Manager. One of these responsibilities was building out the feature sets. I compiled feature sets based on the research data and then collaborated with an engineer to estimate feasibility.
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WIREFRAMES
I had the opportunity to show very early wireframes to a fashion brand partner during the discovery phase. This led to data and insights that enabled us to move forward in a more intentional way.
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3D ASSETS
(button, cap sleeve, bell sleeve)
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MOCKUPS
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MOOD BOARD:
A central place to collect, organize and reference inspiration throughout the entire fashion design process. 
GARMENT EDITOR:
Edit and iterate on a digital garment directly in 3D, similar to creating a physical garment IRL. 
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CROQUIS EDITOR:
Create custom avatars and draw garments directly on an avatar. 
RENDER IMAGES:
Simple 3D rendering that enables fashion designers to export images and files with different backgrounds, lighting, etc. to various stakeholders and partners. 
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LEARNINGS
Learned more about end to end product design, including even more user research methods, research synthesizing methods and UX frameworks. Also, learned a more efficient Sketch workflow and Sketch to Invision workflow. With the knowledge I have from this project, next time I would insert more research into the middle and later stages of the design process to collect more data and enable validating assumptions quicker and effortlessly communicating design decisions to stakeholders.