Reflective Report

Working together in our group was a success as we all had a good balance of different ideas to incorporate into KALM. In the beginning, we all had the same objective for what we wanted our app to do, however, we all had different visual ideas which lead to a few meetings of amending the design interface.

Instead of allocating roles, we decided to work together so we could all stay on track and help one another using our individual strengths. My strength was analysing and collecting the data in the excel sheet. At the start of our project, I would have thought my strength was the designing process but I soon adapted a skill for data which came as a surprise to myself!

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One of the actions that I think we worked well on as a group was the logo. We all had our individual ideas incorporated into the logo; the hanger, the font, the monochrome colour scheme, the recycling triangle and the slogan ‘Recycle, Restyle, Rewear’. As this was one of the first tasks, this inspired us to continue the rest of our project as the five of us.

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Our group met regularly as we were all motivated to create our app to the best of our ability. The Adobe XD software was easy to use and anything we were unsure about we researched. Even though we had no knowledge on how to code or programme, we all spent time looking at YouTube tutorials to help us make some of our desired features like a scrolling page.

Originally, we wanted to have the user’s body in the ‘My Wardrobe’ icon so the user and other users could visually see what the outfit would look like on. However, this involved advanced coding and programming that none of us could accomplish. Nevertheless, we didn’t erase this idea and instead, we created separate clothing categories that were in body order.

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Another feature we changed was the purpose of the ‘Starred’ tab. Initially, we agreed to save our favourite outfits made for us into this feature, but after playing through the prototype, we felt that the outfits were quite repetitive. So to replace this, we changed the meaning of  ‘starred’ to favouriting a swap shop item as this seems better for the user experience.

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One task we did do separately was our presentation slides. The information was already completed as a group but we thought it was best to divide the slides so everyone could be familiar with what they need to present.

If we were to do our app again, we would improve the ‘Style Me’ tab to make it private for users so only their friends can see their wardrobe. We would also add seasonal clothing categories and install a calendar feature so users can plan what day they want to wear their outfit.

Presenting our app was successful and I think that the pitch showed how we worked well together as a group. The constructive feedback we received was noted and we agreed that the points made would all be great for future developments. One point made was to extend our target audience to all ages as the app would appeal to more people than just 18-30. Another point was to commercialise our app further and expand on our data collection by including clothing brands that are being swapped. This would be helpful to our company’s data collection because we will be able to see what clothing brands are most popular. We could also add a clothing brand filter to the swap shop search so that the user’s preferences are accounted for.

 

Prototype Report

What is KALM?

KALM is an app that helps users make the most of what’s in their wardrobe by swapping clothes and styling themselves or others at no cost.5

Our idea stemmed from the current environmental issues caused by the fashion industry. It made us all want to create a product that would bring the ease of recycling clothes to the forefront of the younger generation’s mind.

Unique Selling Point

Our USP consists on the basis of encouraging recycling through the awareness of environmental damage created by the fashion industry.

Target Audience

Our target audience is both males and females, aged 18- 30 years.

Logo and Style

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Our logo was created on logojoy.com. We changed the hanger into the recycling triangle to represent our company’s objective. The monochrome colour theme is best suited for our target audience.

Main Features

1My Wardrobe – Users can upload photos of their clothes and create their own outfits. They can also see outfits that have been made for them by other users.

2Style Me: Allows others to view the user’s wardrobe and style outfits for them. They can also use this tab to search for other users and create their outfits too.

Picture1Swap Shop: Displays clothes from other users that they are happy toswap. If the user likes one of their items, they can message the swapper and arrange an exchange.

4Starred: This tab stores all of the user’s favourite items that they have starred in the Swap Shop page.

How the App Works

If you click on the below link, you will be able to see a tutorial of the KALM app.

Tetrad

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Enhance: KALM enhances and amplifies the awareness of recycling and encouragement to recycle old clothing.

Reverse: There’s the potential for users to use the app for monetary/profit reasons or cyberbullying.

Retrieve: Bringing recycling to the forefront of our minds.

Obsolesce: Taking away the physical act of having to spend money on clothing.

Cost and Funding

We used howmuchtomakeanapp.com to gain an approximate cost for our app. It was estimated at $75,500.

Our app is free for users so the money we make will be from selling our user’s data (users accept this during the sign-up process) and sponsorship from charities.

Software Research

The software we used to design our app was Adobe XD. We looked at The app builder, Appy pie and Appery, but these apps didn’t look easy to use for beginners.

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The software we will use to store our data will be Oracle Cloud. We researched a few data storage software but Oracle stood out the most to us due to its positive reviews.

Data

The data we collect will be documented on an excel sheet. This will collect the following:

  • User info – age, gender, location and month joined.
  • User activity – social shares, swaps and average screen time.
  • User preferences – answers completed on the user profile.

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This data will enable us to:

  • know what features are most popular.
  • improve our app’s least used features.
  • filter our user’s search with their preferences.
  • sell this data to other businesses for them to incorporate this data into their marketing.

Future Developments 

  • To make the app work accessible on Android phones.
  • DIY Craft videos of how to recycle your items into other objects.
  • Advertising revenue – Greenpeace, charity ads, upcycling brands.
  • Option for charity donations

References

Kelly, O. (2011). McLuhan’s tetrads: what they are and how they work. Retrieved from hts://www.owenkelly.net/984/mcluhans-tetrads/