Product Family
A design system–like framework tailored for consumer goods designers
Senior UX Designer / Core Product Team / 2022-2023
Domain Backround
Centric PLM for apparel designers is like Figma for designers in Tech
Size Chart
is the data sheet where the garment structure details are defined
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Bill of Material
is the data sheet where all the materials used in the garment are defined
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The Problem
" How might we design faster when dealing with a large scale of products? "
A variety of Centric apparel customers produce dozens to thousands of products per season. Many products are related with similar core design elements, but some variety by the fit in the shapes, the materials, the artwork, etc. None of the features in Centric PLM supports Fashion Designers well enough in their design workflow with so many related products. There was a click-heavy back-and-forth design process between related products...
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Understand The Core User Needs
What does it mean when users say "I wish I could design faster"?
Fashion designers needs to handling large volume of products per season, numerous of which are related products. Now the million-dollar question is, what are exactly slowing them down and how might we support them to design faster? After lots of engagement with our customers, we were able to drill down to the actual user needs.
Up to 90%
Common Components
Variations
User Need 1
A single location to manage
A single location to manage core common components and build out related products quickly
User Need 2
Flexibility to alter
Flexibility to alter, refine and manage variants on products with precision and ease
Framwork Blueprint
Reinvent the design framework for apparel designers in Centric PLM
After workshops, we've analyzed diverse use cases encompassing various tasks. We redefined a new framework that supports component management between related products in a much more organized and scalable manner.
A signle location to manage all Products
Back and forth between Products to udpate each
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We offered 4 routes between Product Family and Products to fully support the efficiency and flexibility needs in apparel designers' daily tasks.
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Start From MVP
Mass update Products from Product Family
This key feature significantly simplifies the process of updating related products by decreasing the time required for each update. Nonetheless, the tasks for apparel designers can become intricate and challenging, especially on a large scale in each season.
How might we help users manage complexity in multiple scenarios easily?
User scenario 1
Mass edit components from Product Family
- Add/update the latest label material to ALL or some related Prdocuts
User scenario 2
Be inclusive with variations between sibling Products
- Replace collar button in Product Family, but only impact the Products with that collar button.
Design Explorations
I started exploraing the synchronization framework that works for all the user needs
Option 1
Mass push changes to all Products
Pros:
Mass editing is super easy
Cons:
Each Style may have some variations. The direct push from the Product Family approach is not inclusive of Style variations
Option 2
Mass push changes to all Products
+ Confirmation at Product level
Pros:
Each Style can choose to accept the updates accordingly
Cons:
The mass edit case could be very click-heavy
Option 3
Hard push + soft push
Pros:
Offers flexibility with targeted methods to efficiently manage updates at scale for diverse cases
✅
Design Iterations
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Starting from this MVP feature, my design goal is to provide an understandable format that best supports usability and efficiency, as well as a scalable structure that's adaptable to the rest of the scenarios.
The synchronization logic involves numerous complex cases. It's our mission to keep the hard work behind the scenes and bring a seamless experience to our users
Step 1 - Set up how and what details to update
Flexibility for multiple scenarios
Provide clear instructions upfront for users to choose whether to affect all products or include variations among products.
Support for scalability
Step 2 - Decide which products will be impacted
Solutions In Other Flows
A scalable and cohesive pattern across 10+
scenarios helps with user confidence and efficiency
The workflow across various scenarios is already complex. Providing a consistent sectional structure in a predictable way for each scenario can be extremely helpful for variations, potentially reducing the learning curve and improving efficiency.
When mass updating multiple Products from Product Family, it's a 1 to many scenario. Sections are used to support the different types of structure in Size Chart and Bill of Material
Size Chart
Bill of Material
Within the 1 on 1 mapping scenario, the section instruction communicates 3 types of restoring results: deleting / restoring / adding items.
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When pusing updates from 1 Product to 1 Product Family, there are 2 types of update results: updating / adding items.
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During the design process, I made sure to identify and introduce reusable components into our Design System
O1-a
Mass update products from Product Family
Feature Walkthrough
O1-b
Check out udpates at Product level
O2
Restore from the Product Family
O3
Promote Product Owned Files to Product Family
The marketing team begins by clearly defining the scope of the targeted product for effective launch planning.
Gather customer feedback
We received great feedback from customers, but they have also made new requests!
We want to be able to DIRECTLY CREATE & EDIT the Product Family at the Product level, without navigating away!
---- GAP
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What is the WHY behind the ask?
My PM and I brainstormed the complex user flow before we found the AHA moment!
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AHA!
Just like in
Users need a seamless way to convert an iconic Product into Product Family.
Figma, you can turn every single design file to a library file!
Promote a Product to become a Product Family
Design Gallery
How we did
Customers love it!
Feedback is vital for the ongoing improvement of this feature in Centric PLM. We aim to enhance user experience by tracking adoption rates, efficiency, and satisfaction, along with identifying areas for future enhancements. We look forward to receiving more feedback!
It's very powerful to be super high level at the Product Family level and specifically at Styles. Promoting a Product is the game changer that resolves the biggest concern with our existing Products!
---- GAP
The mass push and restore experience looks much more easier and friendly. Pushing products to Shape is very handy. This is exactly what we need!
---- Victoria's Secret
The mass push and restore experience looks much more easier and friendly. Pushing Style to Shape is very handy. This is exactly what we need!
---- Victoria's Secret
More Impact
Delivered a scalable systematic pattern solving more customer requirements that significantly contributed to our business growth ↑
This product family pattern is further leveraged and expanded in a series of projects where I led the design effort to resolve security issues and support cohesive customer experience in the collaboration process with suppliers.
Interested in the full case study?
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Let's connect
516.647.7628
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