Project Type: UX/UI Research & Design (Web & App) · E-commerce UX · Graphic Design · Photography

Some design artifacts and metrics are not shown due to NDA. The emphasis here is on my UX research process, design rationale, and collaboration with stakeholders.

Team: Yinbin Chen (Supervisor), Darcy Lu (UX Designer), Heather Nicklas (Operations & E-Commerce), Elene Lagurashvili (Marketing)
Role: UX/UI & Visual Design Intern
Timeline: August 2025 - Present
Tools: Figma, Adobe Photoshop / After Effects / Lightroom, Canva, Shopify Analytics

Context

APHRODITE BRANDS GROUP is a premier fashion and lifestyle brand management company dedicated to elevating brands through strategic innovation, storytelling, and experiential retail. One of the main brands I work with is YNYG Forever Young , a handcrafted woven vegan leather handbag brand.

My internship sits at the intersection of UX/UI, brand, and content. I contribute to:
• Improving the Shopify e-commerce experience for YNYG Forever Young website
• Conducting UX research and designing flows for an AI Stylist / Wardrobe mobile app
• Creating visual assets, photography, and marketing materials that support digital campaigns and pop-up events

Workstreams

1. YNYG Forever Young's Shopify E-commerce UX
I audit and refine the shopping experience, focusing on accessibility, navigation, content strategy, and conversion, informed by both customer feedback from in-person pop-ups and Shopify Analytics.

2. AI Stylist & Digital Wardrobe Mobile App
I support UX research and early product design for a mobile app that recommends outfits based on temperature, occasion, and the user's own wardrobe, combining AI styling with a digital closet.

3. Brand & Marketing Visuals
I design posters, Instagram promotional graphics (including New York pop-up events), email banners, and photography-based visuals to support campaigns and tell the brand story consistently across channels.

UX Contributions - YNYG Shopify Website

Accessibility & Clarity
• Adjusted color usage to avoid harsh pure black/white combinations and improve readability.
• Introduced a color-coded system for product status (new, sold out, pre-order) to make inventory states clear at a glance.

Content & Conversion
• During competitor research, I discovered brands using blogs effectively to explain craftsmanship and values.
• Proposed adding a blog section for YNYG to highlight handwoven techniques, vegan leather sustainability, and styling tips, while also supporting SEO.
• Designed a blog layout in Figma that includes a “Stay Connected” subscription area and product cards for bags mentioned in each article, allowing users to add items to cart directly after reading.

Flow Testing & Checkout Experience
• Collected pain points from customers at offline events, especially around remembering the product name and navigating online returns.
• Walked through the entire online purchase and return flow as if I were a new customer, identifying issues such as duplicated coupon sections and confusing jumps to summary pages.
• Requested a coupon from my supervisor to test the full journey end-to-end, then created a Figma prototype to visualize improvements.
• Collaborated with the team to update the flow; afterwards, my supervisor reviewed Shopify Analytics and observed improved completion trends.

Campaign & Special Pages
• Designed a Black Friday promotion page concept with a darker, gated experience and countdown timer to encourage registration for exclusive access. View implementation
• Studied Black Friday strategies from brands like Coach and Ralph Lauren to inform the UX and content approach.

Design Highlights

UX Contributions - AI Stylist / Wardrobe App

Competitive Analysis
• Tested a wide range of styling and wardrobe apps, including AI-based tools, human stylist services, and digital-only closets.
• Built a competitive analysis table comparing features, onboarding, and which parts of the product are accessible before registration.
• Studied onboarding flows from Uber and Duolingo to understand how they guide first-time users and encourage sign-up.

User Flows & Wireframes
• Designed a first-time user flow chart focused on how users discover value before committing to registration.
• Sketched low-fidelity wireframes for onboarding, AI outfit suggestions based on temperature and occasion, and favorites.
• Created personas, a journey map, onboarding wireframes, and two high-fidelity interfaces: one for scanning clothes into a digital wardrobe, and one for the home screen with AI-generated outfits.

Design Focus
Across this work, I explored how to balance:
• Giving enough functionality to unregistered users to build trust
• Choosing the right moments and screens to prompt registration
• Keeping the interface clear while the underlying logic (AI + wardrobe) remains complex

Key Takeaways

This internship continues to teach me how to design UX within real business contexts, where e-commerce performance, brand storytelling, and product strategy intersect. I've learned to connect in-person customer feedback with online user flows, to identify issues through careful observation, and to propose multiple design solutions backed by clear rationale. Through frequent communication and iteration, I learned how to advocate for UX decisions and align stakeholders around necessary changes, while balancing visual storytelling with clear, accessible interaction design.