EcoChic: Sustainable Fashion
🚨 Assumption
Consumers seek sustainable, high-quality brands but struggle with discovery and affordability.
💡 Solution
A mobile app to find clothing that matches user values, budget, and style, while promoting sustainability through longevity and intentional consumerism.
💼 Roles: UX Designer, Researcher
⌛ Timeline: 4 months
🥊 Impact
Users can easily adopt sustainable fashion habits without monetary prerequisites
“I will never have to say the words ‘I have nothing to wear’ again”
Research Methodology
🏛️ Market Research
Analyzed the sustainable fashion landscape through articles and social media
👩💻 Consumer Interviews
Identified consumer priorities of low-to-mid income sustainable fashion enthusiasts
📊 Consumer Survey
Validate interview insights with a broader audience and confirm concept viability.
Research: Exploring Sustainable Fashion
Explored sustainable fashion space with the lens of a first-time consumer to identify opportunities for growth.
🌱 Sustainability Gaps
High-end fashion pursues sustainability, but falls significantly short.
💰 Overpriced Sustainability
Companies known for quality and sustainability are often too expensive for average consumers.
💧 Mainstream Dilution
Mainstream success often compromises brands' dedication to quality and sustainability.
⭐ Ethics-Only Ratings
User-friendly rating websites focus solely on ethics, not product quality.
📱 Mobile Apps
No mobile apps assess quality and ethics during the shopping experience.
Research: Consumer Interviews
Discovered sustainable fashion's inaccessibility to lower-income groups and its neglect of average consumer pain points. The interviews explored e-commerce experiences, brand attraction, and retention, focusing on core topics to gather comprehensive insights.
🧮 6 interviews
👤 Demographic: Low to Mid Income
📹 Location: Online over Zoom
⏲️ Duration: 30 - 45 minutes
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Can you share your experiences with shopping in e-commerce and traditional retail spaces?
What are the benefits you've experienced when shopping online for fashion products?
On the flip side, can you tell me about any drawbacks you've encountered in e-commerce or traditional retail spaces?
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What factors influence your decision to choose e-commerce over traditional retail when shopping for fashion?
Are there specific conveniences or advantages that make you prefer online shopping?
Have you noticed any shifts in your shopping habits towards e-commerce? If yes, what prompted these changes?
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What challenges or difficulties do you face when engaging in e-commerce for fashion products?
Are there specific aspects of the online shopping experience that frustrate you or that you find inconvenient?
How do these challenges compare to any drawbacks you may have experienced in traditional retail spaces?
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How important are brand values when making a purchasing decision for fashion items?
Can you recall a specific instance where a brand's values influenced your decision to purchase or not purchase a product?
Are there particular values or ethical considerations that you actively look for in the brands you choose to support?
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Could you share with me some of the brands you tend to engage with the most in the fashion space?
What specific values or characteristics of these brands resonate with you the most?
Are there any common themes or values that you consistently seek in the brands you prefer?
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In your opinion, what benefits do you think e-commerce offers that traditional retail spaces may lack?
Conversely, are there aspects of traditional retail that you believe are better than e-commerce for fashion shopping?
How do these perceptions influence your overall shopping preferences?
Common Themes
Interviews revealed purchasing decisions were often based on time efficiency, shopping experience, and access to information. With a lower emphasis on ethics.
Affinity Mapping highlighted low-income consumers' need for affordable, quality sustainable fashion. Promoted focus on clothing longevity and personalized purchase suggestions that align with consumers' values, concerns, and budget.
Research: Consumer Survey
Uncovered key factors in spending habits: challenges in the e-commerce space, roadblocks to finding high-quality sustainable products, and factors contributing to brand loyalty.
🧮 12 Survey Responses
👤 Demographic: Mid to Low Income
Roadblocks to Sustainable, High-Quality Brands
90% of survey responses said discoverability was a major roadblock to converting to sustainable brands.
90%
70% of survey responses claimed price or greenwashing factored into opting-out of sustainability trends.
70%
🛜 Online Shopping Impact
Product impact is crucial online, where most shopping occurs, but should also adapt to in-person experiences.
📈 Quality and Trends
Consumers care about both current product quality and sustainability, as well as a brand's social commitment over time.
💵 Affordable Sustainability
Consumers seek affordable products with long lasting quality and sustainability.
🤝 Information and Trust
Consumers want more information on products and practices due to general distrust, fueled by issues like greenwashing.
Research: E-Commerce Drivers
🖱️ E-commerce Convenience Reigns
E-commerce draws consumers due to its convenience, with shopping anytime and a vast product range.
🪷 Values Shape Brand Loyalty
Consumers gravitate towards brands aligning with their values, highlighting the growing importance of ethics in purchasing decisions.
🛒 Checkout Process - Critical Points of Friction
Complex checkouts and limited product information often lead to cart abandonment and dissatisfaction.
🤝 Trust and Reputation Matter
Trust and reputation builds brand loyalty, driven by transparency, positive reviews, and loyalty-building initiatives.
Sources
Insights were gathered from a cumulative assessment of the following sources SmartInsights, Become.co, Insightssuccess, Growave, & Market Business News.
TL;DR
Consumer loyalty is shaped by brand values like sustainability and ethics; however, consumers still prioritize product quality and affordability amid economic challenges.
Problem Statement
Consumers prioritize affordability and quality in fashion over sustainability, despite valuing ethical practices. Consumers need accessible, high-quality, sustainable fashion that enhances eco-friendly awareness and adoption.
How Might We…
design a platform offering seamless access to quality, affordable fashion while cultivating sustainability?
Personas and Use Cases
Constructed four personas with use cases, linking consumer concerns to the app’s mission of promoting sustainable fashion.
Feature Sort
Brainstormed features focused on providing desired information while offering varied activities beyond education.
User Flow
Defined user goal of finding affordable, sustainable fashion and created a user flow, focusing design on essential features to streamline discovery and purchase path.
Deliverable
A digital prototype aiming to decrease consumerism by prioritizing consumer values, creativity, and sustainability in fashion.
Product Design
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Mapped layout and hierarchy, capturing a comprehensive user flow.
Design Critique
Layout didn't align with the product's ethos.
UI too boxy, lacking elegance associated with fashion industry
Mid Fidelity Wireframes
Elevated experience through customization.
Applied psychological principles and mental models to the UI, carefully considering haptics and interaction design for an optimal mobile experience.
Heuristic Evaluation: Shneiderman's Eight Golden Rules
Add sustainability dialogues to align with consumer priorities.
Enhance "My Closet" features to meet user needs and app functionality.
Expand user flow to discover products and brands beyond search.
Standardize layouts for Brand, Product, and Material Info pages.
Align Dashboard UI design with the rest of the interface.
Style Guide
Color Pallet
Earthy tones to evoke sustainability for primary and secondary colore
Tertiary color that conveys the happiness and fun of the fashion industry
Typography
Serif font for headings to reflect the industry's elegance
Sans-serif font for body text to meet usability standards
High Fidelity Wireframes
Focused on micro-interactions and interface with the aim of bringing the experience to life.
Reflection
The Art of Adaptation
Developing EcoChic showed the value of adaptability. Initially focused on a specific solution, research revealed it wasn't viable as it overlooked key user issues. Instead of starting over, I refined the approach to align with the product's mission—educating users and providing alternatives that supported sustainability without inconvenience. By tailoring solutions to consumer needs, I delivered an experience that addressed their values and pain points.
Design with Purpose
Effective design reflects a company's mission and values. For EcoChic, this meant combining elegance, fun, and environmental consciousness. Through thoughtful color, typography, and interaction design, I created an stylish and engaging experience. By focusing on haptics and drawing inspiration from social media, I ensured the design resonated with users while supporting the brand’s mission.
Demo
For my thesis review, I presented mobile and desktop versions of the application in a video demo and in-person presentation, outlining the problem, solution, and impact.