The Bow
“Because formalwear shouldn’t be forever in your closet or the landfill.”
capstone project
Name
The bow
Year
2025
role
ux writer
As part of a multidisciplinary team of designers, I worked on The Bow, a sustainable fashion solution for Calgarians. My role focused on UX research, interface design, and user journey development. With a background in user experience and a passion for accessible design, I helped shape a platform that allows users to rent second-hand formalwear—providing an affordable and eco-conscious alternative to fast fashion.
Our Problem Statement
Many people in Calgary face the challenge of affording formal attire such as bridesmaid dresses or groomsmen suits for special occasions like weddings, graduations, and galas. These garments are often expensive, worn once or twice, and left unused, contributing to personal financial stress and significant fashion industry waste. This creates an opportunity to rethink how people access formalwear—through community-based, affordable rentals.
Product Design
UX/UI Design
User Research
Group Work
UX Writing
Design Thinking
Product Design UX/UI Design User Research Group Work UX Writing Design Thinking
1. understanding the bow
Many people in Calgary face the challenge of affording formal attire for special occasions such as weddings. anniversaries, or graduations. Buying these can be outright expensive, especially when they are only worn once or twice and then often forgotten about.
This cannot only be a stretch financially, but it also contributes to overproduction and therefore creates an environmental impact. Fast fashion and formalwear waste are growing issues — 100 million tonnes of clothing are produced each year, and 92 million tonnes end up in landfills.
Through early discussions and framing exercises, we recognized two key pain points:
Cost: The high one-time cost of formalwear is prohibitive for many people, especially students and young professionals.
Waste: The majority of formalwear ends up sitting unused in closets, contributing to overproduction and environmental waste.
We also identified an underserved gap in the local Calgary market for inclusive, stylish, and easily accessible rental options tailored to a community-conscious audience.
2. User Research
To understand more of The Bow, we did some research to see if our capstone project has a place outside of our brainstorming. To validate our assumptions, we conducted surveys and competitor analysis. Key findings included:
88.9% of respondents said they have formalwear in their closets that goes unworn.
61.1% would like to consign older formalwear.
72.2% prefer to buy formalwear, but this was often due to a lack of attractive rental alternatives.
61.1% agreed it’s hard to find second-hand formalwear they like.
These insights helped us understand that users would be open to renting—if the experience felt easy, fashionable, and trustworthy. There is a need for the solution that we have put together. We also built user personas based on our target audience, which included: budget-conscious event attendees, graduates and bridal parties and people interested in sustainable fashion. This was important to do because it gave us an even more specific understanding of what our ideal users would need from The Bow.
3. Design Process
Once we narrowed down the identity of The Bow from our survey results and personas needs and pain points, we were then able to get started on the design. We organized work through a Trello board and created a brand style guide. We chose to only develop The Bow as a website to be more a more official option when renting or consigning formal attire. Lo-fi wireframes and FigJam feedback sessions shaped our iterations. With the use of Figma, we were able to create wireframes which then aided our low and high-fidelity prototypes, refining navigation and interface elements.
As a team, we went through the user flows (as seen above) and studied them to understand how best to create the prototype. The Bow has two sides to it: the user renting clothes and the user consigning their clothes. Therefore, we wanted to be able to design a simple flow for both processes. Single questions on one webpage. We kept in mind the rental process, and how to best simplify the steps, along with shipping and return details accessible. During this stage, we referenced platforms like Fitzroy Boutique and RentFrockRepeats to determine best practices in second-hand formalwear retail interfaces. Core features for the website included product listings with size filters, an intuitive checkout process, consignment options, and account functionality.
Our team is made up of UX Designers and a Graphic Designer. Once we began working on the UI, we worked closely with our Graphic Designer to best implement The Bow’s brand guidelines. Our collective passion for The Bow led us to strive for upmost class, therefore including small design choices such as an envelope shape for the navigation bar with a stamp of The Bow’s logo.
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These are the wireframes for the initial design of The Bow. From the start, we wanted to achieve a simple and cohesive structure to the website all while showcasing as many clothes without overwhelming the user.
4. Solution and review
This project was our final Capstone project and we attended the SAIT CapCon 2025 to present The Bow. We had a table for our team and it was our responsibility to attract attendees to our project. Together we created flyers that we gave out that had a QR code containing information about our project and our LinkedIn contacts. We had two monitors with a revolving presentation of The Bow and our user research results, and we had a large infographic designed by our Graphic Designer.
The Bow was met with great reviews. People who came by, whether they were students, members of faculty or members of the industry had a lot of praise for us and The Bow. It was fantastic to attend and to share our passion for The Bow. We received an A+ for our presentation and for the whole class.