Designing a better shoe shopping experience for (very large or small) women's shoes.
Product Overview
Duration: In Process
Team: Chelsea Davis & Kyra Harrington
Skills: Research, User Interviews, Surveys
Tools: Survey Monkey
My Role: My key responsibilities were creating a survey, executing user interviews and synthesizing the research.
Background
I’m currently working on a side project that focuses on helping find extremely small or large size women's shoes on the Internet. The idea came when I met my friend, Kyra, who has size 12 feet and we bonded over our big feet (I have size 11). We both found it absurdly difficult to find stylish shoes in our sizes and wanted to explore other solutions.
The Problem
It's difficult to find women's shoes both online and in store that are size 5.5 and smaller or 11 and bigger. Most stores and brands only carry sizes 6-10 and there aren't many stylish options for shoes that fall outside of that "normal" range.
The Solution
Design is currently in process. Read about how I approached the research below.
Research Approach
Most stores carry sizes 6-10 because they can't return what doesn't sell.
Stores do not like purchasing shoes at the far end of the bell curve because they see it as wasted money. Since they can't return shoes, it's risky to purchase very small or large sizes.
It makes sense that stores don't want to buy too many "odd" sizes, but aren't people just getting taller along with their feet? I researched height and feet in the world today.
Women's feet are only getting larger.
According to a report by the National Shoe Retailers Associate, the average woman’s foot has grown by more than a size over the last three decades. At the beginning of the 20th century, the average woman wore a size 3.5 or size 4 shoe. The most common foot size for the American female is between 8.5 and a 9. This is largely due to the food we consume.
Nutrition affects our body sizes.
Obesity is a cause of larger feet.
In person interviews to validate my experiences.
I had an inherent bias that it was hard for me to find stylish shoes but I wanted to see if other women had the same types of issues as I did. Kyra and I interviewed 12 women with size 5.5 and below or 11 and up and common themes arose with both groups.
Most interviewees shopped at either Nordstrom or Nordstrom Rack because they catered to their sizes.
Loyal to department stores because of options.
Embarrassed and self-conscious to shop in store.
Wasted time scouring the Internet to find the right size and style.
Frustrating process to shop online.
Will spend hours “wasting time” browsing different websites trying to find the style they’re looking for. Most are loyal to department stores like Nordstrom because they offer their size and provide more options.
Embarrassed to shop in store.
Women with small feet would be told to try out the kids section and women with big feet would be told to try out the men’s section. They prefer to go to places like Nordstrom Rack instead because there is no sales person to make them feel self-conscious and all of the shoes are displayed so you can try them on yourself.
“Sales people often times tell me to try out the kids section. It’s just an insult!”
Always settling on shoes.
There is always a compromise on style since there aren’t very many shoe options. Women find shoes that “will do” but they’re never exactly what they want so they usually settle.
“I recently bought boots with a pointy toe. I hated the front but I really liked the back. I ended up buying them. It feels like I’m always settling.”
Feels like a "freak" or not normal in society.
All the women I interviewed felt as if they were an outcast in society and the shoe brands were against them. It became very apparent that there is opportunity to ease this emotion with design and branding.
“Often times we get punished not only for having big feet but for also having to pay a lot of money for shoes.”
Recognizing my own biases and learning from them.
Not interviewing the transgender community.
A couple of women I interviewed mentioned that I should speak to transgender women in the community to get their perspective on this issue. I was embarrassed to admit that I failed to interview transgender women, but at the same time I learned something new. I realized how important it is to simply talk to as many people as you can. Each interview comes from someone with a different path, a different perspective and each opens your eyes to what's important to them.
Posting a survey to online forums to get a wider range of insights.
We posted an online survey to various niche groups for Dutch and transgender women to get more insights from different people. By doing this we were also able to get contact information from respondents willing to help with further research.
We received 40 responses from people who shopped for women's shoes and were sizes 5.5 and below or 11 and above.
Survey key learnings:
- 81% shop in store at places like Nordstrom Rack because they carry hard to find sizes.
- 78% buy casual shoes because they come in odd sizes (sneakers, flats, boots) so they're easier to find.
- Most spend between $101 and $150 on a pair of shoes. They're okay spending a little more on a shoe that fits their size and style.
Visiting stores to immerse ourselves in the experience.
Many women we talked to said they liked shopping at Nordstrom Rack and DSW because the shoes are out on racks so they can try them on without having to deal with a sales associate. There's no embarrassment having to verbally tell someone your size.
Nordstrom Rack photo courtesy of Business Insider.
Many brands carry size 11 and size 5.
We found 30+ brands who carried size 5.5 and below and 11 and above. DSW only carried up to size 11 and down to size 5, though. Nordstrom Rack had options up to size 13 and down to size 4.
Yellow stickers indicating size 11 and 12 shoes.
"Unusual" shoe sizes are labeled with bright colors.
The bright color designs made it easier and quicker to navigate through the stores.
We felt like an outcast shopping for shoes.
At DSW a sales woman approached us and asked if we needed help. We said yes do you have sizes 5 and below or 11 and over and she responded with "Oh, that's going to be tough to find. You might want to go to to the sneaker section." While again the experience of shopping on your own was nice at the end of the day the emotions of feeling odd came rushing back.
Next Steps
- Talk to transgender women.
- Synthesize research.
- Make personas.
- Form a hypothesis.