Design UR Flip- Flop : Providing a selling and communication platform to fulfill the problems faced by amateur footwear designers in the local footwear industry

Abstract

One of the oldest trends that have embraced humanity ever since time immemorial is Fashion. People involve in fashion not just to look good, but to market themselves in the Society. The trade of fashion designing has taken long steps in its own evolution and with the growing trend of ICT, fashion designing has developed into it extent. Footwear Industry is something under fashion industry. With the march of time price of a pair of Footwear has a greater value than a whole dress. With the technological development, now is a time when footwear designers all over the world can connect, collaborate and Share knowledge easier than ever before. But in Sri Lanka, the major drawbacks identified were that there is no dedicated platform which enables a direct two-way Communication between the industries. Footwear designers are in the foot of fashion designers and footwear designers are isolated in the society. The determination of the project is to identify the main problems which cause the material and technology they want for production of their designs, and sell them to a broader Market. The footwear industry consists of professional footwear designers who runs the industry, while there are the amateur designers who are isolated and wishful to emerge in the footwear industry through creativity and interactivity. However, the problem within the Sri Lankan industry is that there is no dedicated platform for the amateur designers to bring out their creative ideas and share and sell their designs amongst the Professionals so they may seek professional advice and expertise. Also, it was imagined that it is tough for them to manufacture the designs they make to the market due to the lack of resources and manpower and sponsorship to make the factories. The solution plat form enables such designers to collaborate and obtain or share resources needed for the manufacturing of footwear designs, and sell their products to a general market through the website. In order for the project to be successful, a thorough study of the problem domain was conducted which shows the problems for selling footwear designs faced by amateur footwear designers. Actually, author has worked for 6 months in a well reputed Footwear Company in Sri Lanka. So, they have given amateur footwear designers a low recognition. They reject many designs without any advices. A reliable literature survey was conducted to further identify the situation of the current footwear design industry, which assisted in the formulation of the requirements of the system. Afterwards the most fitting project approaches and methodologies were applied to the project in order to ensure a smooth flow of activities in delivering the objectives on time. These requirements were used to construct the prototype for the solution called “DesignURFlip-flop”. The requirements were successfully mapped onto the prototype and then evaluated by users and industry experts to ensure that the requirements were met successfully, and the author hopes that the solution be implemented further with Improvements.