Dress Your Shape-Old

Intro

Clothing is an important aspect of physical appearance and can determine the way that people define themselves and others around them. Each body shape is flattered by specific clothing styles, but finding the right styles to flatter an individual’s shape can be a complicated and daunting task.

For my undergraduate thesis, I created a high-fidelity prototype for a product that will solve this problem. Dress Your Shape is an online browser plug-in that provides an opportunity for users to filter for clothes that will flatter their unique bodies—from any corresponding retailer.

***NOTE—The target audience for the current is MVP is limited to cis-women due to availability of research.

Problem

People do not know how to dress to flatter their body shape

There is no particular type of clothing that makes everybody magically look better. Each person has a unique body that can be accentuated in different styles of clothing. Understanding how to dress for a specific body is complex math that involves proportions, comparisons, angles, and much more.

(Hidayati, et al., 2018; Ilnitsky, 2019; Nix-Rice, 2014)

Women's bodies can be represented by one of five body shapes. The five shapes are defined by specific proportions between the shoulder, waist, and hip width. For example, a triangle shape is defined by shoulders that are narrower than hips.

(Ilnitsky, 2019; Nix-Rice, 2014)

Managing Physical Appearance

Research has determined specific styles that flatter each of the five body shapes. The image below depicts and explains some styles that flatter women with triangle shaped bodies.

How might we support women in finding clothing styles that flatters their shape?

Ideation

I discussed two possible solutions with our target audience, cis-women who struggle to find clothing styles that flatter their shape.

Solution 1: Education Tool

The first possible solution was an education tool, where users could learn how to dress for different body shapes and test their knowledge.

From the interviews it became clear that understanding body shape is very complicated. Interviewees were interested in spending time to learn how to dress for their shape.

Solution 2: Browser Plugin

The second possible solution was an online browser plug-in that provides an opportunity for users to filter for clothes that will flatter their unique bodies—from any corresponding retailer.

Feedback was strongly positive, mostly highlighting the prototype's simplicity, effectiveness and personalized features. Interviewees preferred this prototype because it "does the work for you," providing straight forward solutions rather than complex explanations.

Based on this feedback, I decided to move forward with the browser plugin.

Growing up with a mother in the fashion industry, these ideas were common thought for me. I have always envisioned a future where women are able to find clothes that flatter their shape as an integrated part of the shopping experience.

For my undergraduate Thesis, I wanted to follow this dream and make it into a reality.

As I looked for Thesis directors, I received both positive and negative feedback on my idea. One of my professors, provided me with harsh criticism, acknowledging the fact that other companies, such as Stitch Fix and provide users with similar opportunities.

While addressing the same problem I shifted the solution to focus on education rather than shopping tool. Instead of assisting users through the shopping experience, the new solution would teach users how to style their body shape, empowering them to shop for themselves.
The first possible solution that I created to solve was an education tool. The purpose was to teach users how to dress for different body shapes.

I created a low fidelity prototype of my idea to test the new solution of group of potential users.

Settings

Professor's Room

Fashion Guru

Pose Estimation

Filtered Shopping Experience

After recognizing the complexities of dressing for a specific shape we shifted our solution to be more empathetic towards the user.

Instead, we provide that information to the user as an integrated part of the shopping experience. This prototype would work on any online clothing store, so that users could dress for their shape from their favorite sites.

This prototype is very simple. Users are able to scan their body and get exact measurements, then based off those dimensions users can filter for clothes that will look good on their shape!

Interviews showed that...

Product Goal

Prototype a browser plugin that empowers women to dress for their body shape

I aim to create a prototype for a browser plugin that would enable women to filter through any online clothing site to find styles that flatter their specific shape. I call this prototype "Dress Your Shape".

Technical Feasibility

For the purpose of this MVP, I would need to complete two technical tasks.

Locate users' joint locations using standard phone/computer camera.
Calculate distance between joints to determine body dimensions.

Part of my research was to prove that it is possible to complete these tasks with current technology.

Determine Joint Locations

Human Pose Estimation can detect and process human posture with just a standard mobile or computer camera.

(Chen et al., 2020).

Pose OSC is an open source human pose estimation software that gathers data from an RGB image to determine joint location on either the X and Y or the X, Y, and Z coordinates.

Calculate Distance

The outputs of the human pose estimation are the x and y locations (on an RGB image) of the user's shoulders, waist, and hip locations.

These x and y coordinates are sent to Max MSP, a visual programming language, where I was able to calculate the distance between those coordinates.

On the right side of the video below you can see the distance (in pixels) calculated between joint locations in real time.

Users can then be identified as one of the five body shapes based on the proportion of the distance between their shoulder, waist, and hip width.

The current Dress Your Shape prototype is comprised of two parts:

The experience of a woman using the Dress Your Shape plugin on a made up site called "Santo Spirito."
The Dress Your Shape company website, where users can gain information about what Dress Your Shape is, how it works, and why it is important.

Final Design

1. Filter for "My Shape"

2. Dress Your Shape Message

3. Image Capture Screen

4. Pose Estimation Check

5. Completion Message

6. Filtered for Triangle Shape

Reflections

Importance of Dress Your Shape

No prior company has created a technology that allows women to filter through any online shopping experience to find styles that flatter their body. Dress Your Shape will empower women to feel confident in their physical appearance and take the stress out of the shopping experience.

Future Development

IMPROVED TECHNOLOGY

Future iterations will include:

A “Dress Your Shape Profile” would save users’ body dimensions and allow them to log in and seamlessly filter for “My Shape” on any associated website.
Collaboration with similar companies such as 3DLook and Sizer to recommend sizing.
Generate style recommendations based off exact body shape, rather than a group that she fits into.

INCLUSIVITY

The current state of Dress Your Shape is targeted at cis-women, because there is much more research available for this demographic. Future iterations should inclusive to all genders.

USER TESTING

This MVP has not yet been tested on users. Future research is to be conducted to ensure the accuracy, usability, and validity.

Personal Relections

Dress Your Shape is a dream that I have been wanting to create for as long as I can remember. I am very grateful to have worked with such a brilliant and supportive team who have helped me bring this dream to life.

I almost gave up on this dream early in the ideation phase because of negative responses. Instead of giving up, I used those responses as fuel to fully pursue Dress Your Shape. From this experience, I learned that if I really believe in something I should respectfully fight for it, regardless of contrasting opinions. I am very proud of how far this project has come and I hope to pick it up again sometime soon.

Dress Your Shape