A guided experience to packing for your upcoming trips with suggestions from your wardrobe.
Solution
Rent premium quality North Face Gear for your trips in a hassle free manner.
Receive analysis on damaged gear and seamless customer care plugins. Schedule pickup for damaged gear for repair or refurbishment.
Personalised Purchase
Easy Rentals
Smart Packing
Buddy System
After Care
Nova suggests clothes based on personal needs, weather conditions, location and activity.
Nova can help borrow or lend North face gear and assist in shared packing and collaboration.
Leading the Nova project, I focused on research and conceptualisation phases, uncovering user pain points and designing features like personalised recommendations, gear sharing, and packing assistance to address core challenges. I also developed motion design for the conversational user interface (CUI) to express various moods, creating a more intuitive and emotionally engaging experience.
Client
Team
The North face
Me | Experience Designer
Malavika | Experience Designer
Lia | Experience Designer
Xiaoyu | Experience Designer
Nova
A CUI for The North Face
An award winning conversational AI designed to prepare you for any outdoor adventure.
Have you ever felt unprepared for an outdoor adventure or new weather conditions? Maybe you didn’t know what gear to buy, felt overwhelmed by technical terms, or struggled to figure out what was worth the expense. For international students adapting to new climates and beginners exploring the outdoors, these challenges can feel even more daunting.
Problem
Many users, from students adapting to new climates to outdoor beginners, struggle to prepare for weather and adventures. They find themselves overwhelmed with technical jargon, endless options, and high costs, leaving them unsure about what to buy or how to plan effectively.
An intelligent AI voice assistant for THE NORTH FACE that offers personalised recommendations on what to buy, wear, and pack based on location and past purchases. It also provides access to post care tips and rental options, ensuring users are always prepared for their outdoor adventures without unnecessary expenses.
Outcome
An intelligent AI voice assistant for The North Face
Research and Discovery
To understand the challenges users face, we conducted;
From the above we discovered the following;
Our primary stakeholders
5 interviews
25 surveys
10 usability testing of the current app
2 Fly on the wall observation at the nearest winter clothing store
Overwhelming Options
Users felt paralyzed by the number of choices and found technical terms confusing.
High Costs
Beginners hesitated to invest in gear due to uncertainty about whether it was necessary or worth the expense.
Lack of Guidance
Many users didn’t know how to pack effectively for specific weather conditions or outdoor activities.
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Key Insights
Feature Conceptualisation
The Design Process
How can we identify and design features that address pain points like decision making fatigue, high costs, and lack of guidance?
Our research revealed that many casual users lack the information to make informed purchasing decisions and rely on "experts" or friends for guidance. This highlights the need for a data-rich assistant that provides quick, intuitive, and dynamic support, acting as a friendly expert to help users stay well-prepared and fully equipped.
Identified opportunities to improve the experience, focusing on personalization, packing assistance, and cost-effective solutions.
Opportunities
Features
The new experience of The North Face
UX Motion
The Design Process
How can we use animations in the conversational user interface (CUI) to reflect user moods and enhance engagement without overwhelming them?
Nova’s States
Interface Design
The Design Process
How can we create a visually appealing, user-friendly interface that aligns with The North Face’s branding while simplifying complex processes?
To give Nova an appropriately connected system in which to live, we began redeveloping the current app experience.
Design System
Reflections
Focusing on users’ emotional connection to technology through motion design can greatly enhance their experience.
Designing with empathy for users’ challenges, such as cost and decision fatigue, leads to more impactful solutions.
Ensuring features were simple enough for beginners while still valuable to experienced users.
Crafting animations that felt intuitive and supportive rather than distracting.
What I Learned
Challenges
Next Steps
Enhance instructional features to provide real-time troubleshooting and setup guidance for outdoor adventures, ensuring users feel supported in any environment.
Expand AI capabilities to act as a personalized stylist, offering tailored gear and outfit suggestions based on weather, activity type, and user preferences.
Introduce real-time group trip planning to streamline coordination and shared gear management.
Impact 🍪
Prototyped the conversational interface on Voiceflow and tested it with a few users to gather quick feedback, ensuring the interaction felt intuitive and engaging.
Increased user confidence in preparing for trips and outdoor activities.
Positioned The North Face as a trusted guide, beyond just a gear retailer.
There would be an expansion of user base with cost effective solutions like rentals.
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