Graduate Highlight: Joel Lee, UX Design

There’s no end to the talent that comes through BrainStation. Each season, we put that talent on display at Demo Day, which is an opportunity for graduates to showcase the work they’ve accomplished over 12 weeks to colleagues and employers.

We recently posted some of our last cohort’s best projects and we wanted to take a closer look at Shape, a platform created by UX Design graduate Joel Lee. 

Powered by artificial intelligence, Shape is an app that elegantly blends UX and data to help online shoppers find the clothes that will fit their body type best. 

To do this, Shape references the measurements of your favorite brands to suggest new products, providing fit diagrams and sizing comparisons to help shoppers find the best addition to their wardrobe. 

Joel hypothesized that providing detailed sizing information would make customers more confident when purchasing online, which would ultimately lead to more eCommerce sales. 

“I’ve always had an interest in fashion from independent to luxury brands and in some way helping out friends who had their own brands,” Lee said. “Over the past few years, I was doing a lot of work within the music industry and I didn’t want to repeat something that I was generally way too close to, but wanted to be challenged with new problems that were less pre-programmed.”

So, what was the first step in the design process? 

“First and foremost, research,” Lee said, adding that this part of the process was one of the main reasons why he decided to pursue UX design training. With a robust background in digital marketing and branding as an art director and designer, Lee was looking to add to his knowledge in UX. 

“I wanted to sharpen my skills in research and develop a stronger process of agile design, placing my focus on human-centered design,” he said. 

He also points out the importance of synthesizing data to identify customer needs and encourages “trying out new things to see how they test up against [previous] results.”

It wasn’t all easy of course. One of his major challenges was creating a diagram that would help customers understand an outfit’s fit based on the fabric and style.

“At first, most of the users had problems understanding how to use the diagram, it was fundamentally too complex,” he explains. “After a few rounds of UI testing, the issue was resolved by building a tooltip helping to explain the diagram and exercising visual recall during onboarding.”

The end result is an impressive platform that helps online shoppers select their next purchase with confidence. 

Lee will only continue to grow in UX design.

“The experience will continue to be an on-going process,” he said. “There’s still much to learn as there will be constant change.”

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Want to create your own design project? Check out our UX Design program curriculum.