How Everlane Sells More Than Clothes

DESIGNFIELDGUIDE.COM PRESENTS...

...AN AWESOME APP DESIGN CRITIQUE

Hi! I’m going to walk through Everlane’s app “as a user” and reveal my insights so you can learn how to think like a designer and design better.

Oh, who am I?Four years as a visual and interaction designer at Google. Before that, I started a mobile app company with some friends that was acquired by Google.Now I teach design at DesignFieldGuide.com

PS props to useronboard.com for coming up with this awesome format for teaching and sharing.

Let’s walk through a situation that a person downloading Everlane might have...

“I want to buy a gift for a friend who loves Everlane.”

(mini-me)

First I have to find the app on the App Store.

Interesting. They’re promoting things that aren’t clothes in the image carousel.

It made me wonder for a second “Is this the right app for buying clothes?” I see a bike and something about inviting friends… ?

If you have a lot of organic downloads (like, people just find you on the App store randomly) make sure your app store images clearly explains what your app is.

I *think* that Everlane did this because most of their users download the app after already making a purchase on their website, so its OK to feature “non-clothes” since their customers already know what Everlane is.

The App Store listing is like their home page because it’s the first experience I have with the app.

My friend recommended Everlane to me, but I still want to read the reviews.

Oh jeez, lots of 1 stars. I’ll forgive the app if they’re old reviews, but these are recent. Looks like it’s buggy.

This is a fantastic description of the benefit of shopping with Everlane.

It would have been helpful to read this on one of the screenshots because I’m not familiar with the brand like my friend is.

Whaaat! Real-time weather wardrobe recommendations! Cool. I’ve never seen this from a clothing company.

I guess this is what they were hinting at in the App Store screenshots.

This is cool. It’s an example of how their mission statement of being transparent plays out in an unexpected aspect of their work.

Ahh. I can breathe.

Their logo reminds me of something...

B A T M A N

B A T M A N

...nailed it.

Asking for permission to send me notifications is a nice way to prime me before the iOS modal pops up unexpectedly.

..but to make it even more likely I’ll hit OK, I would swap these two bits of copy. Always start with the benefit.

Be the first to know about new product launches and

announcements.

How? Receive Everlane Notifications by hitting OK on the next screen.

OK back to the real app..

Signing up with email

Whaat? After logging in, I was dropped into my account page.

You should definitely drop me off where I can browse…

Let’s try logging in with Facebook instead to see what happens.

Logging in with Facebook

Facebook never filled with any real content, but you can see that blue, so it’s recognizable.

The transition was super quick.

This time it dropped me into Home where I could browse clothes.

OK, now I’m actually buying a sweatshirt.

Lots of stuff that is not “buy clothes” in this app. I guess they are more interested in building community and a brand than letting people quickly buy stuff.

Is there even a search?

OK time to find that sweatshirt.

This is the gift I’m going to buy her. Let’s choose a color...

Visually this page is beautiful and functional The photos are square (like Instagram) so they feel well-balanced. There’s a light, airy feeling to everything on this page. The combination of serif and san-serif feels refined. Serif for the products, and sans-serif for the navigation. It’s subtle, but makes a difference for a company like this.

Nice, big call-to-action here makes it easy and obvious what to do.

They kept the price with name of product (like the last screen). The price could also go next to ADD TO BAG. I would guess that distancing the price from the call-to-action leads to more clicks. It feels less expensive to hit that button :)

This “loading” state is nice. Its VERY clear, and gets me to pause for a moment and not do other things on my phone that could potentially crash the app in the middle of a purchase.

Looks like the bag has been updated with my one item… super subtle.. also it’s super subtle that is in fact a “bag.” The bag icon is better than a cheesy shopping cart, but I think the icon designer can get it a few notches closer to looking like a familiar bag.

Nice! This is a great time to teach me something, right after I bought a product. Im in a good mood, and done with the task I had earlier.

Let’s try it out.

(long-pressing)

A small circle appears...

OK, this is familiar. Cool.

OK, this is familiar. Cool…

… but no thanks.

Let’s checkout

Apple Pay is a default, so I dont even have to type in a credit card.

Something tells me I might be back to this app to buy more stuff...

Using Touch ID…

Touch ID is so cool..

...and we’re done!

This is it? There is so much opportunity to do something cool here.

● A list of what I bought● A photo of the team or

factory that produced my clothes thanking me

● A little bit more about the Everlane brand

● How long I can expect it to take for me to get my stuff

Unrelated to Everlane, but that notification is great because I have confidence that I was charged the right amount.

After purchasing, exploring the real-time wardrobe recommendation feature.

I’m done with what I needed to do, so let’s poke around. Here’s that thing that impressed me in the details of the App Store.

Another prep screen before the iOS notification. They did a better job here leading with the benefit, but still could improve it.

Get morning outfit suggestionsbased on your local weather

Turn on Location Services so we know what the weather is like where you are. Hit OK on the next screen.

Great copy here. Very clear.

Not bad. Unlike other weather apps, there’s a big photo of what I should wear. Great!

So that’s Everlane!

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