Omisha Chabria, a Drexel University senior in the Custom-Designed Major (CSDN), created an interdisciplinary degree blending data science, the business of fashion and user experience design, culminating in a three-term capstone project. With guidance from her mentor, CCI Associate Teaching Professor Tim Gorichanaz, PhD, she developed a user-centered e‑commerce prototype. Reflecting on her experience, Chabria highlights the value of self-directed learning, staying current with the fast‑moving fashion‑tech landscape and designing an academic path aligned with long‑term career goals.
“Have fun with it and do something you are interested in because this is a time where you can explore things you want to do. And who knows? It can become something you continue to pursue after school.”
Standing on the other side of her undergraduate degree, Drexel University senior Omisha Chabria offered this advice to students interested in the University’s Bachelor of Science in the Custom-Designed Major (CSDN). Chabria completed the program’s three-term capstone project this past November and will receive her diploma at Commencement in June 2026.
As she reflected on her time in the program in an interview with Drexel’s College of Computing & Informatics (CCI), Chabria noted how that project gave her the “opportunity to apply all that I have learned through classes of my CSDN concentrations and have the freedom to apply a more creative and innovative twist.”
Drexel’s Custom-Designed Major
The CSDN program is rigorous and requires its students to work independently as they envision, refine and manage a course of study composed of classes from across the University’s offerings.
“Student-driven” is how Chabria’s capstone project mentor, CCI Associate Teaching Professor Tim Gorichanaz, PhD, describes the Custom-Designed Major, with students working with advisers in the Pennoni Honors College to design their curriculum.
According to Chabria, her CSDN major focuses on integrating data science, the business of fashion and user experience & interaction design.
“The CSDN major gives students the chance to create a plan of study that brings together disciplines or anticipates global trends in ways that are more customizable and nimble than typical university degrees,” said Gorichanaz.
“For example, Omisha is interested in fashion and digital technology, and Drexel has strong degree programs in both those areas, but no program that combines both. With her CSDN major, Omisha has been able to create a major to do just that, which sets her up well for a career in fashion e-commerce,” he said.
As students reach their final year in the CSDN major, they start to plan for their capstone project. They create a proposal, which includes their research question and timeline, then submit it for approval.
The CSDN students then embark on the three-term capstone course sequence. At the end of each term, they present portions of their research to an audience, fielding questions about their projects and receiving valuable feedback and guidance. This process leads to their final term, during which they showcase their overall journey and present their completed research.
Omisha’s capstone project
One of the drivers of Chabria’s capstone project, “Enhancing E-Commerce for Clothing Brands: A User-Centered Approach,” was her curiosity about how a shopping website’s design and interactivity could affect a consumer’s purchasing behavior and brand loyalty.
Using all that she has learned “to explore innovative approaches to online clothing shopping,” Chabria decided to present “the development of an e-commerce platform that connects users to a brand through data-driven design.”
A screenshot of Chabria's prototype e-commerce platform.
“I just felt like it was the best way to display a cross-section between my three concentrations and, overall, just something I found was fun to do,” Chabria said. “It involved me setting time to conduct research and user-test people to see what people around me think as well as learn more through online research and stats.”
Her work yielded a realistic, functioning prototype of a user-centered e-commerce website shaped by “consumer feedback, user research and brand storytelling,” she said.
In contrast to what she sees as the tech industry releasing site and app updates detached from users and their needs, Chabria wanted to “see what is actually helpful towards users,” describing this approach as heavily influenced by the user-experience concentration of her custom designed major.
As Chabria worked on the final project, she divided her project into phases according to UX design standards, including research, design/testing and the final iteration of her site across her last three terms at Drexel, citing the benefits of Gorichanaz’s expertise in this area.
“He has experience in UX capstones and helped me [with] how to conduct and plan out the research aspect,” said Chabria. “I was drawn to picking Dr. G after being in his class, and I truly appreciated his outlook on teaching students and his methods of collaborating in the classroom.”
Tracking her work with a list and goal-setting helped her stay organized.
“I like creating a to-do list and just breaking it up into realistic goals and having a fallback plan in case I do not stick to what I planned,” she said. “I think a big skill is learning how to stay consistent on a self-guided project.”
Another skill to hone?
“A lot of it ties into keeping up [with] what's already happening in the fashion tech space as I feel like brands are already adapting and something is changing every day, so keeping updated and adapting my project as the industry changes,” she said.
Project milestones
Each phase culminated with a critique (or “crit”) from peers and advisors.
“The crits each quarter are an opportunity for CSDN students to gather feedback on their work-in-progress from an audience without background on their project. They serve as milestones for accountability, practice for the student’s communication skills and a chance to share,” said Gorichanaz.
“The first crit session is in 304 where you present your major and capstone proposal and what you completed. I presented the finding from surveys I ran and what is trending right now in the fashion tech space, which I found through online research. The format for 304 is more like a poster presentation where people are walking around looking at everyone's posters and listening to you as you go through a quick 3-minute rundown of info you present,” said Chabria.
“I helped Omisha design her poster and plan out her presentation, and then later digest the written feedback she got from audience members,” Gorichanaz said.
Chabria continues: “305 is an 8-minute presentation through a slide of what you did during that term and the progress of your presentation, and for 306, it’s about an hour-long talk about your whole journey and final project.”
At her final presentation on Nov. 14, Chabria presented her prototype website and walked her audience through its features, such as a digital closet of previous purchases, new matches curated to the user’s interests and suggestions from brands aligned with the user’s values. She also demonstrated how the site used gamification and novelty to keep consumers engaged, such as offering pieces one or two degrees removed from their preferences as a curveball style, the acceptance or rejection of which could further shape their next results.
A screenshot of the prototype's style curveball feature.
What’s next
Now that Chabria has completed her classes, she’s looking to the future, using the versatility of her major to market her skill set toward landing a job focused on entrepreneurship, innovation and impact.
“When I talk to people more in the creative or fashion aspect, I pitch more of the tech side and how I can bring those skills and mix it with the required role. Then on the flip side, when I am talking to more tech people, I highlight more of the fashion or user-centric side and how that impacts the way I think about how I use my tech skills. Either way, I always try to emphasis/bring it back to how we can make things more user-centric/friendly through the data we collect,” Chabria said.
Is a CSDN major right for you?
“I always suggest students work backwards by starting with their goals, as long-term as possible. That can be daunting, of course. But what sort of job would you like to have? What kind of work would make you feel really alive? Maybe it’s a role that already exists, or maybe it’s something that isn’t out there yet but you see an opportunity for,” said Gorichanaz.
“Then, working backwards, try to determine what skills and knowledge would set you up to be well equipped in that role,” he said. “If you find that your list of skills and knowledge span multiple different academic fields, then that’s a good sign that a Custom-Designed Major could be right for you!”
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