Tjacket 2.0Redesigning a 'hug jacket'
2014 - 2016
Scope: Industrial design, UX research, UX/UI design I worked closely with Weiliang, the design co-founder of Tware and Jun Yuan, a fellow industrial designer with expertise in the fashion industry on this project. James our CEO and Khengwah, Janyn and Zach from the marketing team also contributed greatly to UX research. |
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First: a bit of context
This project took place about year after I joined Tware - it was my first ‘UX’ job. Back in late 2012 when I first joined them, they were a team of 3 and the phone I was using was a blackberry. Entrepreneurship, hardware and garment manufacturing were new to most of us and it was a journey filled with lots of learning.
It stretched over 3 years because we had several projects going on and also explored different pivots during this period - doing exploratory research in areas such as the eldercare market as and when opportunities came up.
It stretched over 3 years because we had several projects going on and also explored different pivots during this period - doing exploratory research in areas such as the eldercare market as and when opportunities came up.
Challenge
Tjacket is an app-controlled jacket that provides therapeutic deep pressure for people with sensory needs.
The first version of the jacket was soft-launched in 2013 and by 2014, we knew we had to fix something.
Sales were stagnant and the product seemed to be one of the key problems. The jacket had usability and functionality issues and feedback from our customers varied widely.
The first version of the jacket was soft-launched in 2013 and by 2014, we knew we had to fix something.
Sales were stagnant and the product seemed to be one of the key problems. The jacket had usability and functionality issues and feedback from our customers varied widely.
We knew that (as with most therapy interventions) the jacket wouldn’t work for everybody and it had to be tried on before you could know if it was effective. We had a 30-day money back guarantee in place to address that but the shipping cost from returns was significant as many of our customers were international.
Process
Consolidating existing knowledge
One of the great things about working in an early stage startup with a very small team is that you get first hand experience in many parts of the business and plenty of direct contact with your users and customers. By the time I started on the redesign of Tjacket, I had interacted with our users and customers in multiple parts of their product journey and we had a much clearer idea of the various buyers and users of the jacket:
I also had information from our early pre-production pilot study with 12 users. As we had supplied the jacket prototypes and mobile phones to control the jackets to interested participants for the trial, they were not truly accurate pictures of how the product would be used by a customer. However, they did provide insight into the motivations of potential users. Some of the usability issues identified then had not been fully resolved as well.
User Interviews
We started a feedback program - offering customers a discount on their jacket if they chose to participate.
I interviewed them when they received the jacket, and 4 weeks after.
I compiled findings from the interviews into
I interviewed them when they received the jacket, and 4 weeks after.
I compiled findings from the interviews into