VeryU
Building a more localized system of circular fashion.
2024-2025 UX/UI Design & Branding
VeryU is an online platform connecting local second hand stores with shoppers, working together to reduce textile waste and build a more localized system of circular fashion. The brand aims to evoke hope, foster community, and make sustainable choices effortless.
Working closely with the founders, I researched the context and challenges of online secondhand shopping and selling, to define the problem VeryU was solving. For the stores, this led to designing an app, with a streamlined, AI-assisted upload process to minimize the overhead of selling online. For the shoppers creating a website with both conventional search tools and an innovative image similarity search feature.
Following the product design, I focused on branding to develop a modern, minimal visual identity, inspired by the concept of a capsule wardrobe and the pieces at play in tackling the textile waste problem while looking for the pieces that are Very Us.
The challenge:
For the stores:
Small local secondhand stores lack the resources to sell online. Many rely on social media, which is time-consuming and inefficient, or must compete with individual sellers on platforms not built for professional retail. They need a simple, low-overhead solution for having an online presence.
For the shoppers:
Online secondhand shopping often depends on luck. Finding an item relies on the seller tagging it with the exact terms the shopper uses. Shoppers shop online primarily to find specific pieces, but this is inconvenient and time consuming. Shoppers also face trust issues when buying from non-professional sellers. They need a secure way to shop from verified stores and search more precisely, without guesswork.
Strategy:
I joined the start-up as a consultant early on to shape the service end-to-end. After an initial expectations alignment on how the design process would work, I facilitated workshops with the founders to identify target audiences, their wants and needs, and how these could be aligned with the objectives of VeryU.
Scope:
Together with the founders, I defined the functional and content requirements needed to meet user needs, which helped identify opportunities for VeryU. I also conducted in-depth competitor analyses and heuristic evaluations, mapping prioritized journeys such as uploading and searching. I also researched how other industries offered similar journeys so that we could create solutions that are already familiar to users.
Structure:
I mapped out a blueprint of how the system works behind the scenes and how users interact with it. This was done by first creating a sitemap, and then creating detailed flowcharts that were iterated upon based on founder and investor feedback. A key focus was to design a fast and seamless upload and removal process for the stores, this was to minimize the overhead of having an online catalog, and to prevent item availability conflict between online and offline shoppers.
Skeleton:
I created sketches and low-fidelity wireframes, which I used as the basis to conduct interviews with the founders and shoppers. Taking this feedback into account, I re-iterated on the screens to make the customer journey come to life.
Surface:
Due to timeline changes, the prototyping had to be done faster than expected and delivered in phases, which complicated the visual design. I created interactive prototypes on Figma of both the app for the stores and the (responsive) website for the shoppers.
The solution:
For the stores:
An app, with a streamlined, AI-assisted upload process to speed up the upload process, and access to a shared online sales platform and a network of local stores and shoppers.
For the shoppers:
An online platform that connects them to their local secondhand stores, with accurate tagging and advanced search tools, with the ability to shop according to their personal style and values.