Canditch
Sustainable
Fashion
In todays world, fashion trends change almost every week, making the global fashion trade one of the worlds leading polluters. Fast fashion contributes to 10% of the global carbon production and 20% of water pollution. Canditch can be used as an educator and shopping assistant that helps consumers reduce their fashion footprint.
Project Scope:
Design Research
UX/UI
Brand Identity
Illustration
Copywriting
Product Design
My Role:
UX Lead
Design Research
User Testing
Prototyping/Wireframes
Video edit
UI design
Project Duration: 8 weeks, Spring 2023
Tools Used: Figma, Figjam, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premier Pro
Team:
Angelina Lodes- UI Lead, Illustrations, User Testing, Design Research, Copywriting
Farrah Nobles- Research Lead, Prototyping/Wireframes, User Testing, Copywriting, UI design
Problem Statement: Fast fashion is a leading polluter and the general public is unaware of it’s harm. It can be hard to shop sustainability due to expensive price tags and companies greenwashing consumers.
Goal: To educate shoppers on the waste produced by the fashion industry and create a tool that helps them reduce consumer spending by shopping sustainably.
Outcome: We created Canditch, an educational tool that promotes sustainable fashion and helps users shop sustainably.
Current Problems with
Shopping Sustainably
Brands are not fully transparent when marketing their products as “green” or “eco-friendly”. There are no laws or regulations surrounding sustainability, letting brands mislead customers.
Greenwashing
Most people are aware of fast fashion, but don’t know the extent of it’s impact, or what they can do to help.
Education
For ethical shoppers, there are not many resources that share sustainable options or educate consumers on fast fashion.
Resources
Pricy
The sustainable fashion on the market is often a lot more expensive than mass produced clothing, thus turning consumers away from shopping sustainably.
What Make Fast Fashion Harmful
Toxic chemicals have created poisonous rivers.
Dying, Bleaching and processing results in 20% of overall water pollution in the world.
Water Pollution
Waste
Over production gets sent to landfils and burned.
Unsold clothing from thrift shops ends up in landfills located in the global south.
Synthetic fabric results in waste that cannot be re-used or recycled.
Unethical labor practices results in forced labor
Garment workers in are currently not paid the minimum wage and often operate in poor working conditions.
Labor
Synthetic fibers are the number one cause of micro-plastics in our drinking water.
Synthetic fibers also do not last as long and result in more clothing being thrown out due to shrinkage, losing elasticity and in many cases it is unable to be mended.
Fabric Choice
Survey Questions
Do you typically shop for clothes in person or online?
Have you ever rented an article of clothing before?
Where
What do you look for when purchasing clothing?
Does price affect your opinions on the quality of clothing?
Value
Have you ever gotten an article of clothing repaired?
To what extent would you consider your clothing worth saving/repairing?
Repair
Do primarily purchase clothing that is new or used?
What might turn you away from shopping for used clothes?
Condition
How often do you purchase new articles of clothing?
How many items do you purchase when shopping?
Frequency
What do you do with clothing that you no longer want?
How often do you clean out your closet?
Unwanted
48% of shoppers do not consider materials (fabrics, water, labor) used when shopping for clothing
79% of consumers find that price is the most important factor when shopping for new clothing.
50% of shoppers purchase new clothes at least once a month or more
Only 30% of consumers shop for used clothing
Survey Takeaways
We are aiming Canditch to primarily females in the age ranges of 25–34 and 45–54. Through our research we found that women are more frequent shoppers and more likely to shop sustainably. We also discovered that younger shoppers primarily shop online, while the older generations prefer to shop for clothing in person.
Target Audience
User Persona
eco-friendly fashionista
Taylor, Gene 36
Frustrations:
-Fashion trends change too quickly
-Feels wasteful getting rid of good clothing
-Doesn’t know how to shop for sustainable options
-Unaware of greenwashing in fashion industry
Goals:
-Look good while keeping up with the newest trends
-Shop more sustainably
-Reduce fashion footprint
“I love keeping up with the latest fashion trends, but they come and go so quickly. Now I only wear an article of clothing a few times before it’s out of style and I feel wasteful getting rid of it.”
How Can Consumers Fight Fast Fashion?
Sustainable brands
Sustainable brands are transparent by sharing their entire production line from farm to shopping center.
They do not use plastic based synthetic fibers.
Sustainable brands are certified through a number of organizations that prove they are telling the truth.
recyceling fabric
Fabric recycling programs and circular economies are the future of sustainability.
Some brands offer incentive or discounts when you give them your old clothing that can be recycled and turned into new clothing.
Reusing fabric
The amount of clothing donated per year does not correlate with the amount of clothing bought from donation centers.
Buying thrift keeps clothes out of landfills and is a cheaper and more sustainable option than buying new.
Buying thrift
Use you own closet! Most clothing can be worn multiple ways to fit in with different styles.
Also try cutting and sewing to alter your clothes for the newest trend.
Toxic Cycle
Who is Promoting Sustainable Fashion?
Good on you is a website that rates brands sustainability based on the Fashion Transparency Index and CDP Climate Change and Water Security projects. Brands large and small are rated on a scale of 5 faces, smiling being the best and frowning being the worst.
Good on you
sustainable brand platform
Sustainable Brand Platform is a software that allows companies to convert their operative data into sustainability metrics. This gives companies a way to view their sustainability, while also holding them accountable.
Fashion transparency index
The Fashion Transparency Index is a sustainability review of the worlds leading 250 fashion brands and retailers. They are ranked on their level of public disclosure regauding human rights, environmental policies, practices and impacts.
How Might We’s
User Journey
Plug-in
User Journey
Interactive web story
User Journey
mobile app
Mission Statement/USP
The fashion industry is one of the worlds largest polluters. Ending fast fashion begins with consumer responsibility, but many shoppers aren’t unaware of how they can contribute.
Canditch aims to educate users on the harm of fast fashion while making shopping sustainably more accessible for consumers.
UI Elements
Video
Our team created a short video that explains the need and use for Canditch in the fashion industry.
Interactive Story
This interactive story is part of the Canditch website and shows the harsh reality of the fast fashion industry.
In this example users answer questions based on the the life cycle of a shirt and learn what really happens from start to finish.
Plug-in Activation
The Canditch browser plug-in is compatible with Google Chrome and when activated, transforms Google shopping into a source for consumers to find sustainable clothing options.
We wanted the experience to feel like shopping through Google but with the Canditch brand voice.
Browsing Sustainably
Once users activate the plugin, Canditch recognizes the clothing articles using neural networks and the user selects the item they want to sustainably shop for.
Canditch populates similar clothing from sustainable brands as well as E-thrifted options.
Mobile Onboarding
Canditch is also available as a mobile app since users still tend to shop in person.
This walk through gives users an idea as to how they can utilize the Canditch app while in store shopping
Mobile App Camera
Users can take a photo of clothing in a store or even on someone in the streets. Similar to the plug-in, Canditch populates items that relate to the photo allowing users to shop sustainably while on the go.
Candid Guide
Candid guide provides shoppers an on the go resource as to what brands and materials are sustainable and which ones are not. It also has tips for how to recycle and reuse clothing.
User Profile
Shoppers can access their profile through the app, the plug-in or by visiting the Canditch website.
Here they can view saved items, previously purchased clothing, images scanned from the mobile app and their sustainability rating.
Users are given a sustainability rating based on clothing brand, material, and amount of clothing purchased.
Working on this project I learned how important research is to the development of the project. In the beginning we came up with several ideas that sounded great on paper, but once we conducted research we realized that they just wouldn’t work out in real life.
What i learned:
With more time I would like to expand on the interactive story more. We originally talked about making it into an education game, but with the project time frame we just weren’t able to develop and illustrate what we were imagining it to be.
with more time:
Other Projects:
UX & Product Design Week
Wayformer
Bigfoot