| Author: | Ng, Sin Ying |
| Title: | Preference analysis and user experience design for online business of individualized fashion |
| Advisors: | Mok, Tracy (SFT) |
| Degree: | M.Phil. |
| Year: | 2024 |
| Department: | School of Fashion and Textiles |
| Pages: | xviii, 198 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | The fashion industry has experienced significant and enduring changes in recent years, driven by shifts in the consumer landscape and the growing demand for digital transformation and individualized fashion. To address the needs of fashion SMEs and consumers, this study aims to design a customized clothing online marketplace by combining a marketplace business model, mobile body measuring technology, and related customization functions. The study has involved a few tasks and is reported in six chapters: The first chapter investigates the current consumer landscape, challenges, and opportunities for digital transformation in fashion SMEs. Examples of leveraging digital transformation in industrial practices are thoroughly examined to identify research gap. The second chapter is a comprehensive review of the technology applications in fashion industry, focusing on virtual fitting technology, blockchain, and existing online business for customized fashion. Moreover, the concepts of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), Human-Computer Design (HCD), and User Experience (UX) are discussed, serving a foundation for designing online platform framework. The third chapter is an investigation on the needs of users, from a vendor or seller perspective, so as to understand the context of use and requirements of the proposed platform, by means of individual interviews. A total of 30 fashion SMEs, comprising 12 tailors and 18 designers, are interviewed to explore their experiences, perceptions, and concerns regarding the use of online marketplace platforms and their expectations of employing mobile body measuring technology in their businesses. The interview results were qualitatively analyzed with nine distinct themes identified concerning the perception of online marketplace platforms and seven themes concerning mobile body measuring technology. In terms of online marketplaces, the nine themes encompass various aspects such as efficiency, competition, policy abuse, return on investment (ROI), marketing strategies, customer base, customized aesthetic of marketplace, existing brand market segments, and customer insights. In terms of mobile body measuring technology, fashion SME respondents recognized its cost-effectiveness in addressing sizing issues for bespoke and ready-to-wear clothing orders. However, fashion SMEs expressed their concerns in terms of accuracy of the measurements and the ability of shape analysis, as well as the importance on the integration of human-centric experiences, such as incorporating virtual fitting feature to enhance on-body fit and visualization. The fourth chapter is an online questionnaire survey to gain insights from consumer perspective to understand their preferences for online fashion platforms and individualized fashion. The survey involved 162 respondents who were asked to rate opinion questions using a seven-point Likert scale. The results highlighted the importance of displaying products from different angles, providing close-up details with zoom-in functions, and presenting clothing on human models along with size information, such as size charts and size recommendation tools. Credibility cues, including product reviews and comments, seller reputation and ratings, and consumer-submitted photos, were also valued by consumers. The study also revealed a high expectation on the mobile body measuring technology. Furthermore, a comparison was made between the perceptions of consumers and fashion SME vendors, with both groups recognizing the importance of customer reviews and feedback, as well as mobile body measuring technology for size recommendation and clothing customization. However, there were differing views regarding the feature of virtual fitting. The findings of the two studies provide valuable insights for prioritizing key product information and features in the user experience and user interface design of online custom fashion platforms. The fifth chapter reports on the user experience design of a platform ic@fashion with key functions and user interface based on the results of the previous two survey studies. Both the mobile app and backend web-based prototype systems of Ic@fashion were designed and developed. The requirement specification, workflow and function analysis, as well as UI and UX design are reported, which are the main focus of the current study. In addition, the software architecture and coding tasks of the ic@fashion platform is also report, which were completed by other researchers. The sixth chapter is a system evaluation of the prototype platform, in which 20 human subjects (n=10 consumer group, n=10 vendor group) were recruited to complete six tasks scenarios, measured with both quantitative and qualitative usability evaluation protocols. All tasks achieved a remarkable 100% success rate, indicating a high level of effectiveness. Moreover, the ic@fashion app and backend website demonstrated satisfactory usability based on the SUS ratings, with mean SUS score 72.9 and 68, respectively, surpassing the average performance of other web-based tools and systems (threshold of 68 points) and could be classified as “good”. Based on the usability evaluation, 28 usability problems were identified and categorized into nine distinct themes. Based on the identified problems and usability test, suggestions and recommendations are finally provided for platform improvement. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | open access |
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