I would categorize myself as someone who enjoys fashion. I like buying clothes and trying on new outfits. However, when it comes to getting ready for work I find my self stuck in front of my closet repeating the same question in my head; “What on Earth am I going to wear today?”. Most of the time I browse Instagram or Pinterest to get ideas for outfits, but I usually come across pictures of outfits with things I don’t have in my closet. Usually, I end up wearing some variation of the same thing because I don’t have time to try on and plan outfits I want to wear.

When I sat down to think about an app I would really want, I decided on an app that would allow for easier outfit planning. Something that allows me to see everything I have in my closet and easily mix and match different pieces. I wanted to ideate something that I would genuinely want to use myself on a daily or weekly basis. That’s how I came up with StyleSync.

What is Ideation?

Ideation is the creative process of coming up with new ideas. Ideation is usually used to further conceptualize an initial idea. In this case, I’m ideating on an initial app idea. Ideation is important and the first step in the creative process because it’s critical to have a fleshed out idea in order to move on with further steps. Without having a fully conceptualized idea, it’s more likely that you will run into road blocks when you’re further down the line in the process. Fully thinking about what you want your product to do will not only save you time, but also help to avoid complications when you get to stages like prototyping or testing.

What is StyleSync?

StyleSync is a smart closet app that allow for easy outfit creation and styling. It works by prompting users upon sign up to take high quality, well lit photos of the clothes they own. The app’s AI then analyzes and sorts the clothes by type, color, and season. Users may override the categorization manually. After the closet is created, users will take a short style quiz for the app to learn about their personal style. The app’s main feature is the drag and drop outfit creator where users can drag items out of their closet and drop them onto a style board to create an outfit. Outfits can be saved and shared to the inspiration board for other users to view, save, and interact with. Users can also plan and schedule outfits with the calendar feature. StyleSync also features a random outfit generator where StyleSync will give the users outfits based on any parameters they set. The goal of StyleSync is to save users time when getting ready for the day and avoid the dreaded question of, “What should I wear today?”.

Ideation Methods Used

To further ideate on this concept, I used the following ideation methods:

Worst Idea Ever

The Worst Idea Ever method was very fun to explore. While some of these ideas seem silly or ridiculous to think of for an app, it was interesting to be able to reverse engineer what would make an app good from what would make it bad. I feel like the outcome of this ideation session was very beneficial for me to think about what users wouldn’t want.

Reverse Brainstorm

Similar to the Worst Idea Ever, I also tried Reverse Brainstorming by asking myself the question, “How can we make StyleSync a terrible and unusable app?”. This also helped me to identify potential issues or frustrations that users would face if the app wasn’t fully thought out. I felt the difference between this and Worst Idea Ever was that the Reverse Brainstorm allowed me to get down to deeper details than more general situations like I came up with previously.

What Did I Learn?

What I learned from this exercise is that it’s important to use ideation methods to think of potential frustrations users might face so you can avoid them in later stages of prototyping. I think this will help to save time in the entire creative process. I also learned that using multiple ideation methods is key to getting all ideas out on the table. With every new idea you have, it’s important to give it the opportunity to grow through ideation because you might not know initially what its potential is.