SENior design project / feb – May 2025
LittleDressCode: the Mobile Closet
TIMELINE
Feb 2025 – May 2025
SKILLS
Product Design, Product Management, UX Research, User Testing
CONTEXT
Senior Web Development class
TEAM
1x Product Designer/Manager (Me)
4x Engineers
CONTEXT
Creating a mobile app that blends fashion and tech
This project involved exploration of the following areas:
Web Development
Product Design
Product Management
UNDERSTANDING
We began by analyzing scope & brainstorming
SOME GUIDING QUESTIONS
What our initial research and brainstorming revealed about how users want to interact with LDC
Simplicity > complexity
While many closet apps complicate things with endless features, we set out to do the opposite: keep it simple and make it last
It's fun to plan outfits!
At first, we grappled with the question: why would people want to use this app? Through our early explorations, we discovered there was expressed interest in this product
Navigation should feel effortless
Browsing outfits and collections needs to be quick, clean, and intuitive
KEY INSIGHT
The true challenge isn’t storing clothes, it’s helping users navigate them. Our insight was that effortless navigation, not more features, is what makes a closet app useful.
Organization of the app
Next, we spent time considering the hierarchy of the app
How do users think about and organize their wardrobes in real life?
Data structure mapping
We also defined metadata attributes at each level to allow for filtering and tagging
User behavior analysis
We interviewed peers to learn how people intuitively organize clothes, and found that a 3-tier system felt both natural and flexible
A visual hierarchy showing how individual clothing items combine into outfits,
which are then grouped into collections, with attributes applied at each level
Wireframing
Brainstorming–with a focus on simplicity
Insights from wireframing that guided how we simplified the user experience
We explored multiple wireframe iterations and user flows to strip the app down to its essentials. Our goal was to balance clarity and functionality, making it easy for users to log in, navigate their closet, and create outfits without friction.
Keep the closet at the center
Clarity in navigation matters most
PROTOTYPING
Prototyping the core experience
Our initial prototypes allowed us to do some preliminary user testing
With our wireframes as a foundation, we next started on the high-fidelity prototypes. Prototyping allowed us to test flows quickly and refine how users interacted with their closets.
Using a design system across screens maintained a unified look and feel
End-to-end flows
Prototypes covered the entire journey, from onboarding to creating and saving outfits
Consistency matters
Our design system in action
neutral base color palette, bold accent tones, flexible button and input styles, iconography, and navigation elements
Design
I drew on my technical background to collaborate closely with developers
Technology choices that powered the app
We used React Native Expo for cross-platform compatibility across Android, iOS, and Web, allowing real-time previews as we were working on it.
The app is coded in Javascript, styled with CSS StyleSheets and Material UI for icons. For the backend, we used Firestore for user authentication and data storage. Uploaded images are saved to S3 Bucket and the link to it was returned for the Firestore schema.
What I worked on:
Styling & components
Front-end features
File structure
FINAL PRODUCT
An simple & clean app where users can upload and organize their closet
Favoriting & filtering clothing items
Users can favorite items they love and filter by tags like tops, color, or style, making it easy to find pieces quickly.
Adding a new clothing item
To upload a new piece, simply snap or choose a photo. The background remover AI will separate the piece, and then you can add it straight into your closet.
Additionally…
We also added a share option, so that the user can share clothing items, outfits, and collections with friends.
Creating an outfit
Combine saved items into a new outfit, with options to tag by style, season, or fit for better organization.
Creating a collection
Group outfits into themed collections, adding yet another level of organization.
TAKEAWAYS
What this project taught me
Success is built on shared effort
Working closely with my classmates allowed us to work rapidly and utilize different skillsets. We definitely had some bumps in the road, but this was always able to be resolved through shared effort.
Having an organized design system makes processes much easier
Maintaining an organized design system, especially once we got to coding, was enormously helpful in streamlining our workflow and reducing inconsistencies.
Things usually don't go as planned
Projects rarely unfold exactly as envisioned. This taught me the importance of staying flexible and being willing to adapt an approach on the fly.