Zwich are an exciting new clothes swapping start-up who are hell bent on making a huge dent in the unsustainable excess of the fashion industry, by encouraging users to swap thier preloved clothing.

Backward Design were approached by Zwich to take their very basic MVP and elevate the design and user experience for their V2.

User  feedback from the MVP was not favourable on the design front, with a clear need for a tone of voice and personality to be carved out for the company. Additionally there was a clear issue with the front end workflow in terms of signing in to the app.

Backward Design conducted a UX audit and identified the key issue as being broken fuctionality of the facebook signup  button. Additionally the basic design did not help build trust.

As a result, a redesign of the front end signup pages was conducted and the briken functionality was reconciled.

Additionally to help better guide users during the growth stages where fewer overall users and swaps would be taking place due to being in it’s infancy, we designed some better emty state pages, informing the user of the current state of play and guiding them with simple instructions to assist further engagement and discovery.

In terms of the core app UX (in terms of swapping clothes) the basic premise was to introduce a ‘Tinder-style’ swiping mechanism, to identify potential ‘swaps’. Users who matched and selected a ‘swap’ with each other could then open a dialogue via private messaging.

Backward Design produced wireframes, high fidelity protoype videos and eventually final UI designs using Sketch. Hand off to the dev team was by means of Zeplin.

Close collaboration throughout the process resulted in a design outcome that not only scored highly with their beta testers, but functioned far better than the MVP reducing friction and giving the app much more appeal for their primarily young and fashionable audience.

Furthermore, Backward Design were employed to create custom graphics for use in the App store, to promote the app to potential users.

COVID19 UPDATE: Due to the nature of this app promoting face to face clothes swapping activities, their early business growth has been severely scuppered by COVID19 and the lockdown measures, and all work is temporarily on hold.