URBAN OUTFITTERS INTERNSHIP

Help optimizing 900+ warehouse employees experience

Final Product 🏆

Throughout 12 weeks, I helped redesigned the mobile interfaces and Iconography. The product then underwent development into products after my internship and successfully improved warehouse employees working experience.

Single-Handed Friendly

The redesigned interface allows warehouse workers to use it with one hand, freeing their other hand to hold racks of clothes. This design significantly enhances ease of use and efficiency.

New Iconography 📙

The redesigned iconography inspired Nuuly UX Team to explored the customer-facing website transitioning to Dark Mode. For the next 12 weeks of the internship, I continuted to explored "The Dark Mode Guidebook" for Nuuly.

The Problem 🚩

Warehouse employees experienced frequent accidental taps and struggled to navigate through complex menus because they were holding the cloth with one hand and interacting with the mobile device with the other, leading to slower task completion times.

Poor Interaction Design

Warehouse employees were holding racks of clothes while and interacting with mobile devices on one hand

Delays

The confusion with poor hand interaction leads to delays in perfoming tasks

😕

Confusion

The confusion caused by the iconography libraries

"We only use the device with one hand
and busy holding clothes on the other hand."

Who Am I Designing For? 🤔

I'm designing for...
Workers age range from 40-60 years old
I'm designing for...
They work under bright light conditions with expose to eye fatigue
I'm designing for...
They often wear glasses and struggles with readability
I'm designing for...
...And who English is not their primary or first language

A Warehouse Visit 📝

Field Studies
To gain deeper insights, my manager and UX Team conducted an on-site visit to observe how employees interacted with our app in a real-world environment.
Talking To Warehouse Workers
During the visit, I closely observed employees as they navigated the app while performing their daily tasks. It became evident that many employees were, indeed, using the app with one hand while holding items in the other. Observing employees use the app with one hand while holding items confirmed the need for our project to minimize interactions and enhance usability for Single-Handed Mode

The Unexpected Problem 😱

During the visit, by talking to the warehouse employees, we discovered that issues extended beyond the home screen to the confusing iconography. Many icons did not have clear meanings. In a warehouse setting, there are much more complicated tasks like "Inbound", "Outbound", "Inventory count", and many others, which the current iconography does not adequately represent. This confusion worsened delays and hindered efficiency.

Design System 🎨

Iconography Evaluation
The in-depth evaluation of the current iconography was conducted. The pain points being identified include varying visual weights disrupt the hierarchy and ambiguity in representation causes confusion, resulting in errors and delays
Sketching
Sketching various ideas helped shape the design decisions. I analyzed each icon for its visual style and meaning, following my mentor's recommendations.

I realized the importance of having a standardized design system to make the icons look consistent. My mentor recommended examining some well-known design system libraries like Fluent Design System by Microsoft and Carbon Design System by IBM. Inspired by these, I developed comprehensive iconography guidelines.
Iconography Guidelines 📐
The guidelines break down the construction of an icon, including aspects such as visual weight, line weight, and line break corners. They ensure that all icons maintain a uniform appearance and are easily recognizable. These guidelines covered:

Visual Weight: Ensuring each icon maintains a balanced visual weight, making them easily identifiable at a glance.
Line Weight: Standardizing the line thickness across all icons to create a cohesive look.
Corners and Line Breaks: Defining the radius for rounded corners and the style for line breaks to ensure consistency.
Symbol Clarity: Making sure each icon clearly represents its function, especially for complex warehouse tasks like inbound, outbound, and inventory count.

➡️ Creating these guidelines not only improved the current project but also provided a framework for future design consistency within the company.

What Icons Make Sense To You?
I conducted user interviews from employees in the warehouse to gather feedback, guaranteeing that the icons were not only visually appealing but also intuitive and user-friendly. Conducted interviews with warehouse employees to ensure the icons were visually appealing and user-friendly. The process involved multiple iterations and feedback loops. I collaborated closely with the UX Design & Developer team to make necessary adjustments and improvements, ensuring that the icons met the project's objectives.
Final Iconography 🏆
After four weeks of work and mentorship and through several iterations, the redesigned icon system was finalized. The new icons received a lot of positive feedback. Some icons were redesigned with the branded "Nu" logo, indicating Nuuly's branding identity.The transformation included:
Incorporating Nuuly Branding: The redesigned icons featured the "Nu" logo, which reinforced brand identity and familiarity among users.
Enhanced Clarity and Functionality: Each icon was meticulously crafted to ensure it accurately represented its function.
User-Centric Design: Feedback from warehouse employees was integral to the redesign process, ensuring the icons were intuitive and user-friendly.
Outcomes 📝
The redesigned iconography was successfully implemented and is currently in active use. The positive feedback highlighted the effectiveness of the redesign in enhancing usability and user satisfaction.

Prototype ✏️

UX Audit & Ideation
Similar to the iconography redesign, I began a UX audit to evaluate all the pros and cons of the current interface to understand why it was difficult for users to interact with one hand. After a thorough evaluation, I identified several key issues and suggested solutions:

❌ Menu Complexity: The current interface had multiple layers of menus, making it difficult for users to quickly access frequently used features.
➡️ Simplifying Menu Structure: I proposed a more streamlined menu with fewer layers, allowing users to access key features with fewer taps.

❌ Small Touch Targets: Buttons and interactive elements were too small, leading to frequent accidental taps.
➡️ Enlargering Touch Targets: I redesigned buttons and interactive elements to be larger and more spaced out, reducing accidental taps.

❌ Poor Gesture Support: The interface lacked support for gestures, which are essential for one-handed use.
➡️ Enhancing Gesture Integration: I incorporated swipe and tap gestures to make navigation more intuitive and suited for one-handed use.
Sketching and Wireframes
I created sketches and wireframes to outline the new layout and structure of the interface. These low-fidelity designs allowed me to quickly identify and address potential usability issues.
Testing My Hypothesis
To test which layout would achieve faster access with one-handed interaction, I evaluated two different interactions: swiping versus scrolling. To test my hepothesis, I conducted an interaction testing to compare two menu prototype options and masure their performance. The protype was tested 20 times based on three hands' length sizes:  6" (Small), 7.35" (Medium) and 9.8" (Large)

The below videos were recorded from the Small hand testing.​However, the overall results show that one option emerged as notably faster. The Swiping options show to be from 0.8~1 second faster than the Scrolling option. This testing provides general understanding on our direction to redesign the interface.
➡️ Swiping allowed users to navigate more efficiently, reducing the time required to access different features and minimizing accidental taps.
High-Fidelity
Following the wireframes, I developed a high-fidelity prototype incorporating the new design elements and user flows. This prototype was tested extensively to ensure it met the project's objectives.
Design Iterations
Through multiple design iterations and user testing, we refined the prototype to improve usability. We simplified the menu display and allowed users to navigate via swiping and tapping. After revising several design iterations, our team decided to simply the menu display, as well as allowing users to have both interactions to navigate between screens: Swiping and Tapping

Final Product 🏆

The final product, delivered as high-fidelity desktop, mobile, and tablet experiences, underwent development into products after my internship. Now, the new interface design continues to be utilized internally.
✅ Single-handed friendly
✅ Intuitive visual design
✅ Simpler workflow

Single-Handed Friendly

The redesigned interface allows warehouse workers to use it with one hand, freeing their other hand to hold racks of clothes. This design significantly enhances ease of use and efficiency.

Intuitive Icons

Recognizing that not all warehouse workers are familiar with iconography, we implemented easily understandable and intuitive icons. This ensures that all workers, regardless of their background, can navigate the app effortlessly.

Learning Takeaways  📚

Working as a UX Design co-op at Urban Outfitters was my most professional experience outside of the classroom. This opportunity allowed me to apply classroom knowledge to real-world scenarios, gaining invaluable insights into professional UX design practices.

I learned that success in the real world extends beyond designing alone. t involves confidently presenting and justifying design decisions to stakeholders, demonstrating the importance of effective communication to design solutions for the users.

Inclusive Design 👴🏻

The project helps reinforcing the principle that great design caters to all, ensuring usability for diverse user groups.

Warehouses Are Big 📦

I visited multiple warehouse and got a chance to observe the "behind the scene" work at Urban Outfitters.

Convince Your Decision 💬

The real world is not just about designing, but also confidently presenting and justifying your decisions to stakeholders.

Just Ask The Question 🙋

It's okay if you don't understand something. Always actively asking to seek clarity if you have any questions.

Other Projects

Vanguard: AI Feedback Summary Tool

Saving $400K+ USD for Vanguard with Generative AI

View More
The Walt Disney: Designing Magical Experiences

Disney's Expansion into Southeast Asia

View More
SafePlate

Help groups with diverse dietary restrictions to find restaurants

View More
Rapid Prototyping: Gen AI Hackathons

Three hackathon projects using Gen AI to solve real-world problems

View More