Nordstrom Inclusive Sizing
Addressing the challenge of shopping online and finding the right fit for diverse body sizes.
My Role
Lead UX Designer, researcher, project manager
Client
Nordstrom
Focus Areas
UX, IxD, Research, Strategy, iOS app
Team
3 UX designers, 1 content designer
Problem statement and Nordstrom's hypothesis
80% of Nordstrom customers return items purchased online due to fit issues. Nordstrom suspected this was driven by a lack of tools to find the right size, and they wanted us to design a solution that would beter serve customer needs and reduce the rate of costly returns.
Discovery of a bigger problem led to effective solutions
Nordstrom asked for a specific set of features based on their hypothesis, but my work led to the discovery of a deeper problem and resulted in delivery of new insights and features they really needed to solve their customers challenges.
What I did
Led research and design strategy that unveiled complex user issues.
Spearheaded interaction design process, built a prototype and usability test
Delivered an impactful narrative to support design solutions
Why I was successful
Uncovered surprising insights during research that allowed us to be strong advocates for users
Usability testing validated effectiveness of creative and novel features
Effective communication of research and design decisions that impressed Nordstrom
Research uncovered insights that challenged Nordstrom's assumptions
We knew that poor fit leads to costly returns for Nordstrom, but I had questions I needed to answer before I felt confident in designing solutions.
My research revealed a number of insights that helped inform the direction of the project, including one that stood out from the rest.
People blame themselves for fit issues
After 13 interviews and 87 survey respondents of Nordstrom's customers, there was a clear pattern that people think they are at fault because of their bodies.
This self blame also frustrates users when companies don't work to solve fit issues, and leads to them shopping elsewhere.
Interestingly, the fashion industry overall wasn't doing a lot to solve this challenge. This revealed an opportunity for Nordstrom to become a leader in inclusive size & fit and an advantage over the competition, while reducing return costs.
Key research insights
😔
People blame themselves for fit problems
📈
Users want data from real people when making purchasing decisions
👖
Fit issues are personal and present unique challenges
🧰
More tools for finding fit lead to higher confidence and accuracy
Reframing the design challenge
After extracting insights from the research, I wanted to revise the question from Nordstroms brief to keep our team focused on the issues I had uncovered.
Revised based on research
How might we empower people to embrace their unique shape and be confident in their purchases?
From Nordstrom
How might we allow customers to see personalized product information based on their preferred size so that they can be more confident in their purchases?
Size was not the problem
It was really about fit and the unique shape of an individual, which is so much more complex than just a size. This clarification helped keep us focused on user needs through the rest of the project.
Design Solutions
We built a suite of tools that focused on several features we hypothesized were critical to empower customers when shopping.
Concept sketches present during a client check-in
Early wireframes from rapid ideation sessions
Building the flow to create an intuitive feature
Results
“If Nordstrom had this feature I would use the app more often. Seeing people my size instead of models that don’t look like me is so refreshing.”
Usability testing
Usability testing revealed positive results across all features. In general, testers reported increased confidence in ability to select the right size for their unique shape.
100%
task success rate on four out of five features during usability testing
100%
said our design was significantly better for finding fit over current app
75%
used size guides or reviews first, validating the importance of updates
8 usability test participants | 3 comparative test participants
Using insights to build empathy and buy-in with Nordstroms teams
Nordstrom was thrilled with our results, and the presentation had a big impact. The research insights, especially that people blame themselves, was an emotional moment for the Nordstrom design team that resonated with many in the room. We presented to a larger group of stakeholders and were able to creat buy-in for tackling the issue.
Results show that these designs worked well for users, and it confirmed my research findings that customers need multiple size and fit solutions to feel confident in their purchase.
Focusing on a suite of fit solutions will improve customer satisfaction, and help people find clothes that actually fit them, all while reducing expensive returns.
Nordstrom has already begun rolling out several of the features in the iOS app, and I'm proud to see the impact my team has had on the millions of Nordstrom customers.
Learnings
This project taught me so much about the value of user research, and that if left unchecked, our assumptions and biases and can lead to designs that don't actually meet user needs.
We were successful because we resisted the temptation to jump into to designing features. Nordstrom's brief was originally very solution oriented, without fully understanding the problem. By challenging assumptions and building empathy, my team and I were able to build the right solutions for customers based on the actual problems they faced. This led to widespread buy-in across a diverse group of interal stakeholders.