“It’s kind of an annoying thing to have to spend money on because it’s so temporary.”
– Whitney, interview subject
Content & UX Design
Shopping for maternity clothes sucks. I discovered this firsthand when I became pregnant at the end of 2023. I didn’t like most of the clothes, didn’t want to spend money on things I’d only need for a few months, and didn’t want to contribute to fashion waste.
And so I asked myself:
How might I empower a more sustainable, cost effective approach to shopping for maternity-wear?
I worked on this project alone, focusing on UX research, writing, and design.
Two months.
By nature, solo projects have limited resources. I was restricted to what was achievable alone.
I suspected that I was not alone in my struggles with maternity-wear shopping.
I conducted user research which confirmed this. I spoke directly to three new moms and conversation mined is spaces like the r/babybumps subreddit and Facebook groups.
I discovered that concerns about the cost of maternity-wear were common. My interview subjects, as well as social users, mentioned affordability as a key concern. One of the main reasons highlighted was the temporary nature of the clothes.
“It’s kind of an annoying thing to have to spend money on because it’s so temporary.”
– Whitney, interview subject
Along the same vein, I discovered that a thriving, informal reuse cycle for maternity clothes already exists.
All of my interview subjects told me they’d received maternity clothes hand-me-downs. Similarly, through conversation mining on the r/babybumps subreddit, I found that users frequently turned to brick-and-mortar thrift stores and online secondhand clothing marketplaces like Poshmark and ThredUp when shopping for maternity clothes.
“Every woman in my life who was done having children was like: Take all of my maternity clothes!”
– Kit, interview subject
“All my maternity clothes were given to me by multiple friends… I bought nothing.”
– Gill, interview subject
Despite this, there is no existing app dedicated to facilitating a secondhand marketplace for maternity clothes.
Sure that I wanted to explore creating such an app, I conducted a competitor analysis of the existing secondhand marketplace space to inform what I would build. I looked at apps including Poshmark, ThredUp, Kijiji, and the Buy Nothing Project. I also spoke to my interview subjects about their experience with these types of apps.
Through interviews, I learned that my users were familiar with more generalized secondhand marketplace apps and had experience with using them (most commonly Facebook Marketplace). I also learned that they were far more likely to use their mobile devices than desktop or laptop computers when using these apps.
To inform the app's design, I looked at the design of competitors, looking for patterns. A few key things that emerged were:
Shipping also emerged as a common challenge. Shipping creates complexity for users: on top of selling their used items, they also have to figure out the logistics and factor in the costs of shipping.
Some of the platforms I looked at (Poshmark and the Buy Nothing Project) attempted to overcome this by negotiation deals with USPS or Canada Post and productizing flat rate shipping labels. Another one (Kijiji) circumvented it altogether by focusing on being a local marketplace.
After completing this research, I knew that my audience would be open to the idea of such an app, and that the app should be mobile-first.
I also knew a few key design patterns to consider. I also realized I needed to consider the shipping question and decide whether to pursue a more locally-focused marketplace, or something more wide-reaching.
I began by developing two user journeys: one for buyers and for sellers. I used these user journeys to identify potential painpoints each usergroup might encounter.
The buyer's user journey.
The seller's user journey.
Next, I carefully considered the question of shipping. In the end, I decided to keep the scope narrow and avoid the complexities of shipping. Focusing on creating a local marketplace was the best way forward.
I knew this decision would work for my users, since I'd learned in my interviews that they were most familiar with locally-focused secondhand markets like Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji.
Next, I created a short onboarding flow geared towards collecting two key pieces of information: postal code and size.
The onboarding flow aims to collect postal code and size.
Size is collected so that shoppers are be shown results in their correct clothing size. This is an optional field, as it is more relevant to buyers than sellers.
In my user research, I learned some shoppers struggle with understanding their changing bodies and figuring out their correct maternity clothing size. This is highlighted as a pain-point in the user-journey above. I made sure to include copy that offers guidance in this area.
Postal codes are used to connect buyers and sellers who are near each other, since I decided to focus on creating a local marketplace.
The body copy below the heading provides guidance on what size to use, since this can be a pain point for users.
Getting into the meat of the app, I knew I wanted to prioritize filtering and making shopping easy. Research indicated that maternity clothes shopping is generally not a “fun” activity, the way other shopping sometimes can be. Instead, users are looking to fill holes in their closet left by their growing stomachs, and are mostly concerned by functionality.
Because of this, I decided to forgo convention and prioritize filtering and search over a homepage feed. This allows users to get straight into finding what they’re shopping for.
The app's homepage presents shopping categories rather than a feed.
Once an initial selection is made, results are shown in a feed. By default, results are shown in the user’s size, if they have set one. The copy along the top is dynamic, changing to reflect which filters the user has set.
Different filters can be set to help narrow down the search. My design include dynamic copy along the top which changes to reflect filter settings.
The copy at the top changes depending on what filters have been set.
Users can filter by clothing type, size, price, and brand. These filtering patterns are reflective of the common patterns I saw during competitive research.
When it comes to making listings, users’ can choose to either list individual items or bundle groups items together.
Through my research, I noticed that purges and closet clean outs are common. Moms who are done having kids often wanted to get rid of clothes in bulk, and are willing to sacrifice profit for convenience. I wanted to ensure they had a way to do this with Bumparoo, so I included a “bundle” option in the posting screen.
The placeholder text for the Title and Description fields change to provide different guidance if “bundle” is selected.
I wanted to ensure there was a consistent experience between shopping for items and listing them for sale. Clothing type, size, price, and brand are all collected in the listing user flow in a way that mimics filter functionality.
When users successfully post a listing, they are given a small moment of celebration.
While working on this app, I looked at three key user flows: onboarding, shopping, and selling. Several more flows and features would need to be built out to take this app into completion.
There are also some complex business challenges beyond the scope of UX that would be required to get it off the ground—namely, developing the user base, as well as a monetization plan to offset costs.
However, I believe that there is absolutely room for an app like this in the market. I am always open to chatting about it if you agree.
You can reach me at allison.brown.work@gmail.com
View the prototype