Understanding User Experience with Virtual Try-On and Design Implications for Online Fashion Shopping

Paper Title

Understanding User Experience with Virtual Try-On and Design Implications for Online Fashion Shopping

Publication Info

• Topic area: Virtual Try-On (VTON) technology in online fashion shopping
• Keywords: Virtual Try-On, online shopping, user experience, fit prediction, style exploration, adaptive systems, consumer behavior, e-commerce, identity expression, design implications

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: High return rates in online fashion shopping due to size and fit mismatches; limited understanding of how VTON influences real shopping behaviors and post-purchase experiences.
• Significance: Reducing return rates can improve consumer satisfaction, lower operational costs, and reduce environmental burdens. Understanding VTON’s role can enhance its design and adoption in e-commerce.
• Motivation and related work: While prior studies highlight potential benefits of VTON (e.g., increased purchase intention, enjoyment), they rely on surveys or hypothetical scenarios, failing to capture real-world shopping workflows. This study addresses this gap by examining VTON’s practical impact on shopping behaviors and experiences.

Solution

• Proposed approach: Conducted a between-subjects experiment to evaluate the impact of VTON on online shopping behaviors and post-purchase experiences.
• Novelty:
  1. Empirical evidence of how VTON reshapes shopping behaviors and decision-making workflows.
  2. Insights into users’ ambivalent perceptions between pre-purchase expectations and post-purchase experiences.
  3. Design recommendations for adaptive, user-centered VTON systems.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Participants (N=24) were divided into two groups (with_VTON and w/o_VTON).
  • Conducted pre-interviews, a shopping task (selecting and purchasing one item), and a post-trial evaluation after trying on the purchased item.
  • Behavioral metrics (e.g., exploration time, items viewed) and subjective metrics (e.g., satisfaction, similarity) were collected and analyzed.
  • Used IDM-VTON, a state-of-the-art VTON model, to generate virtual try-on images.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • VTON reduced item exploration time (318.17s vs. 550.92s, p=.043) and product detail reference count (0.92 vs. 3.25, p=.012).
  • Participants with VTON reported slightly higher satisfaction (5.67 vs. 5.00) and similarity (5.50 vs. 5.17) scores, though differences were not statistically significant.
  • VTON users requested virtual try-on for 76% of items on average, primarily during the final decision phase.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • VTON enabled more efficient shopping by reducing exploration time and product detail views.
  • Supported fit validation and exploratory style interactions, offering cognitive and visual support during decision-making.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Conducted with 24 participants (12 per group), balanced by gender and age.
  • Metrics included behavioral logs, subjective ratings, and qualitative feedback.
  • Controlled for variables like product category (white T-shirts) and platform.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Limited to Korean participants and a single product category; future studies should explore diverse cultural contexts and product types.
  • Small sample size (N=24); larger studies are needed for generalizability.
  • Current VTON systems lack precise fit representation and diverse styling options; future work should address these gaps.

Summary

This study investigated the impact of Virtual Try-On (VTON) technology on online fashion shopping behaviors and post-purchase experiences. VTON was found to reduce exploration time, support fit validation, and enable style exploration, though challenges like fit accuracy and limited styling options remain. The findings highlight the need for adaptive VTON systems that balance verification and exploration, provide precise fit representations, and manage user expectations through confidence indicators. These insights can guide the development of user-centered VTON systems, enhancing consumer satisfaction and fostering self-understanding in online shopping contexts.