Zara Mobile App Redesign
Overview
Zara is an international fashion retail company originally founded in Spain that operates through multiple commerce platforms, including a mobile application available on iOS and Android devices. The mobile app serves middle to upper economic consumers, high-fashion individuals, urban-located users, and fast-fashion consumers, primarily targeting Generation Z and Millennials.
The current application presents significant accessibility and navigation issues that create a negative user experience. This redesign project tackles navigation, accessibility, time constraints, and visual design issues to create a more streamlined and user-friendly shopping experience.
The Problem
The Zara mobile app, while featuring essential functions like saved favorites, nearby stores, order history, and extensive product details, fails to display these offerings in functional ways. The primary issues identified include:
Navigation Issues
The navigation bar is fixed at the top but lacks a background enclosure. When users scroll, images lay underneath the navigation text, making it completely unreadable. This issue persists throughout the entire interface on headers and navigation bars.
Accessibility Concerns
The text size and weight do not meet necessary accessibility standards. The app utilizes small, thin fonts that are difficult to read and become overwhelming when larger amounts of text appear on a page. This design fails to consider individuals with visual impairments, which accounts for at least 2.2 billion people globally according to the World Health Organization.
Information Overload
The interface presents an overwhelming amount of text and images, decreasing navigation ease. Users must sift through an abundance of content to find desired items, which time-conscious users cannot afford. While Zara's website prioritizes visual showcasing, the same number of images doesn't translate well to the limited mobile interface, resulting in a crowded visual design.
Poor Information Architecture
The product details page places numerous images and text in a poor information structure. Users scroll vertically through countless photos before finding essential product dimensions and care instructions. The sizing and color selection bar appears fixed initially but disappears as users scroll, creating confusion. The reliance on vertical scrolling over horizontal navigation causes user fatigue.
User Persona: Elena RodrÃguez
Elena RodrÃguez
Senior-Level Digital Marketing Manager
Biography
Elena is responsible for developing brand strategies for five to seven client accounts, leading creative presentations to executives, and managing a team of three junior marketing strategists. She maintains a sophisticated, professional appearance as part of her public-facing role and works in a fast-paced creative environment with a business professional dress code.
Outside of work, Elena has an active social calendar enjoying brunch with friends, attending art shows, and traveling two to three times per year. Her 50-60 hour workweeks leave little time for leisurely shopping. Recently engaged, she now has even less time due to wedding planning responsibilities.
Shopping Behavior
- Shops online 2-3 times per month
- Visits physical stores once every three months
- Checks Zara app 3-4 times per week for new arrivals
- Impulse buyer when seeing trendy items
- Experiences anxiety about items selling out quickly
- Prefers mobile shopping over desktop
- Relies heavily on product photos
Pain Points
- Limited time to shop in physical stores due to demanding work schedule
- Frustration when items are out of stock with no restock information
- App crashes during checkout process
- Tiny, thin text that's difficult to read on mobile devices
- Need to squint or zoom constantly while shopping
Goals & Priorities
- Product Reviews - Relies on online reviews before committing to purchases
- Efficiency - Values quick shopping trips to maximize limited free time
- Readability - Needs larger font sizes due to extended screen time at work
- Technical Performance - Requires a glitch-free, stable app experience
User Flow Comparison
To understand the full scope of improvements, it's essential to compare the existing Zara app user flow with the redesigned version. This comparison highlights the specific pain points addressed and demonstrates how the new design creates a more efficient shopping experience.
Current Zara App User Flow
The existing user flow reveals several friction points that slow down Elena's shopping experience. Navigation requires multiple steps, the product discovery process is cluttered, and the checkout flow includes unnecessary complexity.
Pain Points in Current Flow:
- Multiple unnecessary steps to reach product pages
- Confusing navigation structure with unclear categories
- Product information scattered across multiple screens
- Lengthy checkout process with too many form fields
- Disappearing size/color selection requiring backtracking
Redesigned User Flow
The redesigned user flow addresses Elena's time constraints by reducing the number of steps required to complete a purchase. The streamlined navigation, improved product discovery, and simplified checkout process enable her to shop efficiently during her 10-15 minute lunch break.
Improvements in Redesigned Flow:
- Streamlined navigation with clear category tabs
- Flip cards allow quick product browsing without leaving the page
- All product information accessible in one location
- One-tap checkout for users with saved payment information
- Persistent size/color selection bar throughout shopping
- Reduced steps from product discovery to purchase completion
Key Outcome: The redesigned flow reduces the time to complete a purchase by eliminating unnecessary steps and consolidating information, directly addressing Elena's need for quick, efficient shopping during limited free time.
User Flow Scenario
Context: Elena wants to purchase a specific black blazer she saw in a Zara advertisement for her upcoming conference. She won't have time to visit Zara's physical store as she has meetings all week.
Intention: She intends to navigate the Zara app to search for the blazer, select her size, add it to her cart, and complete checkout during the last 10-15 minutes of her lunch break.
Primary Task: Purchase a black blazer from Zara's mobile app.
Possible Secondary Tasks:
- Use the Search feature with keywords (black blazer)
- Use the Filter feature to filter results by color (black)
- Navigate to the Women's Blazers page
Design Solutions
The primary goal was to improve the purchasing process based on a user persona of a busy professional with acute time constraints. Without taking away from the secondary target audience, I focused on providing users with a faster checkout process.
Flip Card Product Display
Created flip cards for product images that provide price, sizing, color options, a "saved favorites" button, "add to bag" button, and an ellipse that navigates to the full product page. This allows quick decisions without excessive scrolling.
Streamlined Checkout
Redesigned the shopping bag with flip-through tabs and bottom buttons for shipping and payment information. Users with saved information can immediately click "Place order" for instant checkout.
Fixed Headers with Background
Created fixed headers accompanied by fixed backgrounds. Images and text scroll underneath the bar without jeopardizing readability. For the women's product catalog, navigation displays as tabs so users can accurately tell their current category.
Enhanced Typography
Increased font size and weight, choosing typography that maintains Zara's professional aesthetic while improving readability. This addresses accessibility concerns for users with visual impairments and those experiencing screen fatigue.
Improved Information Architecture
Placed all product information directly underneath the product image. Additional product images scroll horizontally instead of vertically. Title and price remain fixed on image cards, visible regardless of scroll position.
Dedicated Filter Tab
Filters feature has its own tab for personalized browsing. Selected buttons turn dark gray with white font to signal saved selections. Upon clicking apply, users navigate directly to their filtered page, emphasizing personalization and engagement.
Before & After Comparison
Before
- Unreadable navigation bar when scrolling
- Small, thin fonts that strain eyes
- Overwhelming text and image overload
- Poor product page information hierarchy
- Excessive vertical scrolling causing fatigue
- Disappearing size/color selection bar
After
- Fixed headers with solid backgrounds
- Larger, bolder, accessible typography
- Streamlined content presentation
- Logical information structure on product pages
- Horizontal scrolling for secondary images
- Persistent product details and pricing
Prototype
View the interactive prototype to experience the redesigned user flow and interface improvements:
Results & Impact
The presented redesign prototypes address the core pain points that Zara mobile app users face. By simplifying the menu structure and product pages, streamlining the checkout process, and enhancing navigation and readability, the app's interface transformed into a more user-friendly and human-centered experience.
Expected Outcomes:
- Reduced time spent on purchasing items from the platform
- Lower frustration and cart abandonment rates
- Higher user satisfaction rates
- Competitive advantage over other fashion retail apps
- Improved accessibility for users with visual impairments
- Better support for time-constrained professionals
The key goal was to find a solution for time constraints experienced by busy individuals, which the redesign solves with a "fast fashion" purchasing process that matches Zara's brand identity.
Key Learnings
This project reinforced the importance of designing with accessibility as a core requirement, not an afterthought. The World Health Organization's statistic that 2.2 billion people globally have visual impairments highlighted the critical need for readable typography and proper contrast.
I learned that mobile design requires fundamentally different approaches than desktop design. What works on a large screen with ample space doesn't translate to a 6-inch mobile display. The constraint of limited screen real estate forced me to prioritize essential information and create more efficient navigation patterns.
Creating detailed user personas like Elena helped me maintain focus on solving real user problems rather than just making aesthetic improvements. Understanding her 50-60 hour work weeks and need to shop during lunch breaks directly informed the flip card design and streamlined checkout process.