VirtuDrip

Links

• Live website: https://virtudrip.co/ [not latest version]

• Project demo: https://youtu.be/xIGHTBhde4U 

• Code/repository: https://github.com/Houtong-Cats/houtong

Inspiration

The global fashion industry is facing a major challenge with rapidly increasing online returns. Clothing is the #1 most returned online purchase, and the average return rate of online apparel orders is 25% (almost 3x as many returns as in-store purchases). We believe this is because customers struggle to visualize products in terms of the look, feel, and fit of items. 

Online returns are not only inconvenient and costly, but they are also extremely wasteful and environmentally harmful. It is often standard practice for retailers to send returns directly to landfill because it’s more cost effective than processing and reselling items.

What it Does

VirtuDrip is a virtual fitting room that is reimagining fashion and personalizing the online shopping experience. Users can try on items from a wide selection of tops, bottoms, and accessories to find their perfect style, fit, and colour in clothes. Our product helps buyers shop online with confidence and avoid unnecessary and wasteful returns.

How We Built It

We built this using a Vite, React, TailwindCSS tech stack. For the frontend, we first designed it in Figma, then translated the designs slowly into code. This operation took many iterations. In the meantime, the backend team took this time to read up on the (horrible) Camera Kit documentation. It had many limitations and many “hacky” things were done to avoid roadblocks. However, we are happy that we created something we actually enjoyed building and are proud of.

Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

Ryushen: Worked as a team leader, contributed and helped with the product vision, component architecture, and feature implementation. As well as making ramen to keep the team fed and happy.

Grace: Learned Tailwind CSS and contributed to the front end for the first time. Redesigned the brand identity halfway through the project and designed endless iterations of the UX/UI mockups. Also trusted 3 complete strangers from Ottawa to sleep over at my house. 

Qasim: I implemented the snapchat API for the clothes to fit on in a 3D manner, and having it scale dynamically depending on the distance to the screen.

What We Learned

We learned how to collaborate as a team so we don’t kill each other 👍

What's Next?

We want to incorporate accurate sizing guides and enable users to upload custom links or photos of clothing items for a more personalized virtual fitting room experience. We also wanted to explore using hand gestures to swipe between different articles of clothing and make it easier for users to try on different items from a distance. Also considering if it’s necessary to add onboarding tooltips or tutorial screens.