Scapsense

Gaining control of items in the wardrobe

Team

Carolina Vaz-Pires
Linh Dang
Derya Şengül
Elīna Zīle
Linda Paulauska

Industry

Software Development

Discipline

Service Design, UX

Deliverables

Business Model Canvas
Value Proposition Canvases
Clickable Prototypes
Landing Page
3-Minute Pitch

Year

2024

This project ran over five months during the Innovation Lab course of my master's programme, with a five-person team. My specific contributions involved product research, contextual interviews, facilitating project meetings, task allocation, and building the landing page.

We started broad with a self-confidence platform spanning styling, mindfulness, and career development, and had to learn to let go of assumptions quickly. Through four business model iterations, nine value proposition canvases, and multiple rounds of user testing, we narrowed to a focused wardrobe app.

The core insight is that the problem isn't a lack of clothes, it's a lack of clarity about what works together. Scapsense is a digital solution for those who feel overwhelmed by a closet full of clothes yet nothing to wear. It provides suggestions to get extra essential pieces that allow them to create even more outfits, together with what they already own. With the Scapsense mobile application, people can upload their clothes to unlock a world of outfit combinations, all tailored to their preferences. Also, it offers a match scan feature that significantly aids shoppers in making better purchasing decisions by identifying items that match their existing closet.

A full wardrobe but nothing to wear

Most people own more clothes than they wear, yet still feel stuck every morning. Shopping adds to the pile without solving the problem. At the same time, fast fashion's environmental cost is growing harder to ignore.

The core insight we found is that the problem isn't a lack of clothes, it's a lack of clarity about what to wear, what works together, and what to sustainably let go of.

From broad idea to focused product

The project began as "Confidence Lab," a comprehensive matchmaking platform for enhancing self-confidence across styling, mindfulness, and career development. Through structured discovery and testing using Strategyzer test and learning cards (i.e. semi-structured interviews, a discovery survey, a search trend analysis, and a payment model test), we progressively narrowed down to a focused wardrobe app. Each method either confirmed or overturned an assumption, directly shaping the next design decision.

Phase 1: Initial idea and 1st Business Model Canvas (BMC)

  • Came up with a broad confidence platform with specialists in styling, mindfulness, career, and more.
  • Diverged in many directions with no clear customer target.
  • Phase 2: Narrowing and Customer discovery

  • Pivoted to personalised styling.
  • Specified on three customer segments (Value Proposition Canvas - VPC): Whole-Self Wellness (General), Eco-Conscious, Eye-catching & Quality (Niche), coming with the 2nd BMC.
  • Phase 3: Testing and 3rd BMC

  • Interviews revealed comfort and mood matter as much as aesthetics.
  • Eco-conscious users became the primary focus.
  • Phase 4: Final product and Validation

  • Converged on Wardrobe Maximisers as the primary segment, Eco-Conscious as secondary.
  • Built prototypes, ran an Instagram split test, and changed the official name to Scapsense.
  • What we learnt and what it forced us to change

    Comfort and mood matter as much as style.

    Interviews showed users didn't just want to look good, they wanted to feel right. Outfit choices were strongly tied to mood, occasion, and even weather. Our initial VPCs were built around aesthetic and sustainability values, missing this entirely.

    Challenge

    Our personas were too style-focused

    Opportunity

    Added mood, weather, and comfort as core filtering dimensions in the app

    The real pain is combining what you already own.

    Users didn't struggle to find clothes they liked, they struggled to combine what they already had. "I don't know how to wear it with anything I own" came up repeatedly. This reframed the product from a shopping assistant to a wardrobe organisation tool.

    Challenge

    Our first BMC assumed shopping was the primary user job

    Opportunity

    Wardrobe digitalisation and outfit generation became a must-have

    Sustainability awareness is high, while brand knowledge is low.

    Users expressed genuine concern for sustainability, but couldn't name sustainable brands easily and struggled to find second-hand options that matched their style. The majority cited sustainability as a reason for buying second-hand, but mainly as a bonus to lower prices, not a standalone motivator.

    Challenge

    Sustainability alone wasn't strong enough to drive a purchase decision

    Opportunity

    Curating thrift and sustainable brands inside the app removed the discovery friction that users couldn't overcome on their own

    Willingness to pay was lower than expected.

    The payment model test revealed average willingness to pay of €6.30/month, with most respondents leaning toward pay-per-use rather than a subscription. Only 22.9%–25% were interested to very interested in paying monthly, putting our original subscription-first model at risk.

    Challenge

    Subscription revenue alone couldn't sustain the business at realistic conversion rates

    Opportunity

    Pivoted to freemium and pay-per-use, added brand-sponsored content and vintage store data as parallel revenue streams

    Colour analysis was the highest-interest feature.

    Search trend analysis showed top keywords, including styling, colour palette, capsule wardrobe, held monthly search volumes of 30k–63k. Facebook users in particular showed the strongest engagement with personalised colour recommendations, above all other feature concepts tested.

    Challenge

    Colour analysis requires a selfie and AI processing which is technically complex to get it right

    Opportunity

    A high-demand, low-competition feature that no direct competitor offered as a core free entry point

    Additional features users asked for across interviews:

  • Mood-based outfit suggestions
  • Second-hand options
  • Renting / Donating / Selling
  • Virtual try-on
  • Weather-adaptive outfits
  • Real-time stylist
  • Style spectrum visualisation
  • Sharing your closet
  • From paper sketches to clickable prototype

    Using the MoSCoW method for feature prioritisation, we defined must-have features for rapid paper prototyping. Paper prototypes validated the onboarding flow and surfaced a critical UX issue in which the entry journey assumed too much prior knowledge, requiring an extra instruction layer beforehand. This was caught before any hi-fi work began.

    The Figma clickable prototype covers four core flows: New user journey, Outfit suggestion, 4-pc outfit generating, Match scan.

    Having the clickable prototype ready, we ran a paid Instagram split test targeting women aged 18–35 in London with two distinct creative directions, €12 spend each within two days, a live landing page (scapsense.framer.ai) tracking visits. The sustainability-led option slightly outdid the other on the metrics that matter most (+27% more website visits, +60% more profile visits), validating both angles as efficient brand hooks and positioning going forward.

    A validated concept, ready for development

    Product

    Mobile-first. Wardrobe digitalisation, AI outfit suggestions, sustainable shopping integration, and Match Scan camera feature.

    Business model

    Freemium (50 items) + €5.99/month. Additional revenue from brand-sponsored content and data partnerships with vintage stores.

    Market positioning

    Competing with Indyx, Acloset, Stylebook, Whering, differentiated by sustainability integration and Match Scan, which no direct competitor offers.

    Financial projection

    Latvia-based team keeps costs lean. Break-even projected 2027, first profitable year targeting ~€130k net.