Stitch Niche is an application designed to assist with resizing and designing crochet and knitting patterns. Stitch Niche will help those of all skill levels be able to customize their patterns to fit their needs. Stitch niche is unique because it tackles the difficult task of resizing patterns that often requires a great deal of time and effort to do the calculations. This application hopes to make working on the projects you want to make a little easier!
In this first sprint, the Stitch Niche team focused on implementing the ability to generate or resize a rectangular pattern for either crochet or knitting. Below the UX team has outlined the research and outcomes of their contributions in this first sprint.
When the Stitch Niche team first began work on the project we began by first taking some time to research what crochet and knitting are in general. We did this by reading over the notes that were provided by the software engineering team and doing some general searching online for information such as: What is a stitch? What is the difference between crochet and knitting? Why is it difficult to resize patterns? And so forth… This small amount of initial research helped prepare us for the rest of our research.
When we began work on our first official research task we conducted a Competitive Analysis on five different applications for Stitch Niche. Competitive analysis is a research tactic that takes an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current/potential competitors for the application you plan to develop. Each of the competitors the UX team looked at were judged on five different categories: Strengths, Weaknesses, Quality, Price, and Platform. This was then compiled into a table that displayed each of the competitors side by side. This can be seen in the table below.
The second form of research we did was a heuristic evaluation of one specific competitor for Stitch Niche where we decided on Stitch Fiddle. The UX team chose to examine Stitch Fiddle due to its easy access, but the also plethora of features and its similarity to desired features for Stitch Niche. A heuristic evaluation is a method of determining usability problems in an application by comparing it to a strict set of guidelines. We perform this evaluation to avoid these issues within our project and find ways to improve.
Those guidelines were as follows:
- Visibility of System Status
- Match between the system and the real world *User control and freedom
- Consistency and standards
- Error prevention
- Recognition rather than recall
- Flexibility and efficiency of use
- Aesthetic and minimalist design
- Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
- Help and documentation
For each category, we provided a rating between 1-10 with 10 being that it performs that functionally well and 1 being it does not at all. Overall Stitch Fiddle was rated as a 7/10 based on the above requirements. This was mostly due to the very layered and simple UI that could be confusing and the user being restricted by not having an account despite it being an open webpage.
Using the results of this research we began work on our initial designs and planning with our team creating a variety of artifacts including user stories and concept art which are further analyzed in the next section and can be viewed on the main page.
In our competitive analysis, we found that many current applications catering to knitting and crochet users often lack user-friendly tools for resizing patterns. Many applications also lack clear skill-level indications, making it difficult for users to find patterns suited to their abilities.
The heuristic evaluation of Stitch Fiddle highlighted both strengths and weaknesses. It scored 7/10 for visibility of system status, providing quick feedback, and 7/10 for matching the real world, as it works as intended for most tasks. However, it scored only 5/10 for user control and freedom. while it's easy to undo a mistake, users still have limited flexibility overall. The app earned 8/10 for consistency and standards, making it straightforward to use, and 7/10 for error prevention. One of its great features was recognition rather than recall, which scored 9/10 because of easy-to-understand icons like checkboxes for undoing changes. On the downside, flexibility and efficiency of use only scored 6/10 because the interface can feel restrictive, especially for new users. The aesthetic and minimalist design also scored 6/10. It’s functional but visually lacking in the looks.
Personas and scenarios helped us understand that most Stitch Niche users will likely prioritize simplicity and ease of use over feature-heavy interfaces. Users want intuitive designs, quick pattern discovery, and easy-to-use customization tools.
In conclusion, Stitch Niche should focus more on providing user-friendly tools for pattern resizing, as this feature is lacking in existing knitting/crochet applications. Our competitive analysis shows that most platforms don’t offer intuitive customization options, while our heuristic evaluation of Stitch Fiddle highlights the need for a simpler, easy-to-navigate interface to avoid overwhelming users, especially beginners. Additionally, personas and scenarios confirmed that users value simplicity, quick pattern discovery, and clear skill-level guidance. Stitch Niche will prioritize these areas to create a more accessible and enjoyable experience for all skill levels.
Some caveats our UX team consists of individuals with limited experience in this field of knitting and crochet, which may influence the of the evaluations. Finally, due to the wide range of potential users, from beginners to advanced crafters, it was difficult to pinpoint specific needs across all demographics.