Building tools for conscious wardrobes that celebrate sustainable choices

Jun - Aug 2024, IBM Accelerate Program - Design Track

Impact
Provided users with a practical and satisfying way to assess their wardrobe, reducing the urge for new purchases by 40%

Team
Krystal Li

Tools
Figma
Adobe Creative Suite

My Roles
UX/UI Design
UX Research
Brand Design

Project Overview

The IBM Accelerate Program's Design Track offers emerging designers the opportunity to apply foundational skills in user-centered design, prototyping, and IBM's methodologies with mentorship from industry professionals.

Our final project aimed to challenge our grasp of these learnings and knowledge of essential design tools through a real-world project experience of our choice. Thus, thinking about problems combining my interests in social media and sustainability, I decided to focus on the domain of circular fashion.

In a social media-driven world dominated by fast fashion, I aimed to tackle the barriers to a sustainable closet, addressing issues like limited knowledge, impulsive buying, and poor wardrobe organization.

Challenge

How might we empower young adults to better utilize their wardrobe, while making sustainable choices in sourcing and disposal methods?

Overview of Solution

Echo is a tool for conscious wardrobe management, empowering users to make sustainable choices by tracking, categorizing, and analyzing their clothing use.

In a time where consumerism often overshadows environmental responsibility, Echo seeks to foster a meaningful relationship between users and their wardrobe, transforming fashion into a mindful practice.

Design Process

01. Secondary Research

To gain a better understanding of the unsustainable impact of clothing and guide my focus on developing tools that encourage mindful consumption habits, I conducted research on current clothing practices.

Here’s what stood out:

60%

of the average closet
goes unworn

26B

pounds of clothing waste per year in the U.S.

gallons of water are needed to produce 1 pair of jeans

80%

of purchased clothing ends up in a landfill within 1 year

1,800

02. Interviews

In our needfinding process, I aimed to empathize with our users and gain a deeper understanding of their needs and pain points. I conducted 7 needfinding interviews to figure out user values, discover unspoken needs, and challenge assumptions.

I created empathy maps for two chosen interviewees in order to better identify and address their unique needs.

Here’s what I found:

Key Insights

  • People feel like they "have nothing to wear” even with full closets

  • Students feel they spend too much time choosing what to wear each day

  • Current clothing donation methods are often unknown or inconvenient

Thus, my problem scope became:

Many college students and young adults feel pressured to constantly buy new clothing to keep up with the people they see on social media, often resulting in impulsive purchases and wasteful consumption.

How might we empower young adults to better utilize their wardrobe, while making sustainable choices in sourcing and disposal methods?

03. Prototyping

I created a Low-Fi prototype using Procreate to illustrate our key task screen flows.
I then did prototype testing with participants to see if the flows and interface was intuitive.

Final Solution

Through my research, I uncovered that users often feel compelled to buy new clothes to avoid outfit repeats, leading to cluttered closets, decision fatigue, and limited awareness of responsible disposal options.

Echo empowers users to approach fashion mindfully by tracking and analyzing their clothing use to encourage them to make sustainable choices.

With features like:

  • personalized outfit recommendations

  • wardrobe visualization

  • accessible donation pathways

Echo alleviates daily decision fatigue, helping users feel more satisfied with their current wardrobes and more aware of routes to responsible disposal—all while fostering a more mindful relationship with their clothing.

Launch

In user testing, we confirmed that Echo’s features, especially the at-a-glance closet view, provided users with a practical and satisfying way to assess their wardrobe, reducing the urge for new purchases by 40%. People also enjoyed the map of donation centers, as it offered a clear, convenient method for responsible disposal, encouraging users to act on sustainable intentions.

Users expressed interest in additional features like tracking effective clothing usage over time to further support mindful choices. This feedback underscored Echo’s role in promoting sustainable habits and highlighted key areas for future enhancements to deepen users' engagement with their wardrobe.