I Felt Like I Need to Fit in Someone Else's Body - Understanding Body-Centered UX Design for Online Fashion Shopping

Paper Title

"I Felt Like I Need to Fit in Someone Else's Body - Understanding Body-Centered UX Design for Online Fashion Shopping"

Publication Info

• Topic area: Body-centered UX design in online fashion retail
• Keywords: Online fashion shopping, body-centered design, feminist HCI, inclusivity, user experience, body image, emotional labor, co-design, body maps, e-commerce

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Despite decades of refinement in online fashion retail usability, female shoppers often experience emotional labor, self-doubt, and frustration due to a lack of inclusivity, poor sizing tools, and inadequate representation of diverse body types.
• Significance: These issues negatively affect women’s self-confidence, well-being, and shopping satisfaction, highlighting a gap in addressing emotional and embodied aspects of UX design in fashion e-commerce.
• Motivation and related work: Previous research has focused on usability, cognitive decision-making, and technical solutions like virtual try-ons, but has largely ignored emotional and body-centered experiences. Feminist HCI principles and body-centered design approaches have not yet been applied to online fashion retail, leaving a significant gap in understanding and addressing these issues.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A body-centered UX design framework for online fashion shopping, informed by feminist HCI principles, emphasizing inclusivity, emotional well-being, and transparency.
• Novelty:
  1. Documentation of emotional labor and negative experiences in online fashion shopping.
  2. Development of design implications focusing on inclusivity, predictive UX of wearing/caring for garments, and transparency.
  3. Validation of these implications through iterative prototyping and body-mapping studies.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Exploratory survey (n=31) to identify key issues.
  • Co-design sessions (n=9) to critique existing platforms and generate design ideas.
  • Iterative prototyping (two rounds, n=5 and n=8) to refine a high-fidelity prototype.
  • Body-mapping study (n=14) to compare emotional and embodied experiences of conventional shopping vs. the prototype.
  • Analysis through thematic coding, affinity mapping, and collaborative visual analysis.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • 65% of participants reported poor representation of their body type or skin color in online retail.
  • Frequent feelings of anxiety, frustration, and self-blame were associated with sizing issues and failed purchases.
  • The prototype elicited positive emotions such as confidence, comfort, and excitement, with participants feeling “seen” and “cared for.”
• Advantage over baselines:
  • The prototype significantly reduced negative emotions and mental load compared to conventional platforms.
  • Features like diverse models, personalized avatars, and transparent information were highly appreciated and improved user confidence.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Evaluation included think-aloud usability tests, emotion assessments, and body-mapping comparisons.
  • Metrics focused on emotional responses, inclusivity perception, and usability feedback.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Limited participant diversity (e.g., no trans women or disabled individuals).
  • Prototype features require further testing for scalability and real-world implementation.
  • Future work should expand to other user groups (e.g., non-binary individuals) and explore broader societal impacts.

Summary

This study applies feminist HCI principles to online fashion shopping, revealing how current platforms impose emotional and cognitive burdens on female users. By focusing on inclusivity, body-centered design, and transparency, the authors developed and validated a prototype that significantly improved user experience. Key features included diverse models, personalized avatars, and detailed garment information. The findings demonstrate the potential of body-centered UX design to transform online fashion retail, offering actionable insights for industry and academia to create more inclusive and supportive platforms.