Client
Breathing Outdoors
Role in project
UX/UI designer
Services
UX/UI Design
Research
Branding
Year
2025
About this project
An outdoor clothing mobile app for sustainable fashion choices.
As part of the Google UX Design Certificate, I was tasked with creating a mobile app and responsive website for Breathing Outdoors, a new outdoor clothing and gear brand. Unlike established competitors, many current outdoor retailers rely on third-party sellers or have outdated apps, leaving an opportunity to design a trustworthy, accessible, and visual-first experience.
Overview
Gaps in existing outdoor retail apps.
- User research revealed clear frustrations:
- Language: Apps relied heavily on text with little multilingual support.
- Trust: Content often felt like advertising rather than credible information.
- Accessibility: Few apps included features such as text-to-audio, live captions, or bionic reading.
- Visuals: Interfaces were text-heavy and lacked engaging, image-led design.
Challenge
Redefine outdoor shopping.
- The challenge was to position a new outdoor brand in a competitive market by designing an app that not only sells products but also builds trust and supports users with accessibility and inclusivity in mind.
Design principles
A restrained palette of warm amber, kraft beige, and deep espresso brown brings tactile, natural warmth.
- Simplicity
- Keep flows intuitive and uncluttered so users can focus on exploring products, not navigating the app.
- Credibility
- Design for everyone by embedding accessibility features as core functionality, not add-ons.
- Immersion
- Lead with imagery and visuals to create an inspiring outdoor shopping experience.
Approach
User-centered and iterative.
- Research & persona
- Created Reena, a passionate climber, to map goals, frustrations, and needs.
- Journey mapping
- Charted Reena’s flow to highlight opportunities for a smoother shopping process.
- Brainstorm & ideation
- Used Crazy Eights to generate solutions from accessibility features to community-driven tools.
- User flows & goal statement
- Defined a primary flow: Homepage → Product Page → Checkout → Track & Trace.
- Wireframing & prototyping
- Built low-fi paper sketches and digital wireframes before developing a clickable prototype.
Usability study
Insights & iterations.
- Findings from moderated usability testing (5 participants).
- Navigation – Users completed 3/4 prompts but needed clearer CTAs.
- Accessibility – Highly valued but the icon wasn’t always identifiable.
- Checkout – Users wanted the option to jump directly to checkout after editing steps.
- Repairs Program – Appreciated but lacked a clear timeline of steps.
- Visuals – Engaging, but analytical users wanted hover boxes for more product detail.
- Filters – Users liked the categorization (men/women/kids, activity, clothing type) but wanted filters to match categories consistently.
Results
A more inclusive, visual shopping journey.
- The final design allowed users to: Navigate a clear, visual-first interface. Shop with inclusive accessibility features built in. Build trust with quality content and a repairs program that extends product life. Experience a shopping journey that feels simple, empowering, and authentic.
- Navigate a clear, visual-first interface.
- Shop with inclusive accessibility features built in.
- Build trust with quality content and a repairs program that extends product life.
- Experience a shopping journey that feels simple, empowering, and authentic.
