UX Research: Fashion and Sustainability in Digital Products.
How might we improve digital product design to facilitate responsible consumption?
The fashion industry is the second-largest polluter globally, just after the oil industry. (Sustain your style) We manufacture over 100 million clothing items every year, and there are already clothes existing on our planet to dress the next six generations. In the UK, an item has been worn an average of ten times. 350,000 items are sent to landfills every year. ("Generation Rewear" by Vanish).
After completing two user research courses with the Interaction Design Foundation, I started this project to explore online user experience in fashion and sustainability.
Using the semi-structured user interviews method, I interviewed ten women in the UK aged between 26 and 45 to answer the question: How do people make conscious decisions to shop fashion responsibly?
That means
What sustainability issues do people care about?
How do they shop based on those beliefs? Do they put their principles into action when shopping?
What problems do they find when trying to shop responsibly?
So what?
We can design solutions that enable people to find responsible products so that they can make a statement with their purchases and thus create a healthier shopping loop.
From my interviews, I found key themes and insights into how can product design help facilitate more responsible consumption.
Improving the user experience of a digital product by itself will not make a company reduce its footprint on the environment or improve the conditions of textile workers. Bigger, fast fashion retailers invest more in user experience and make their products easy to use. Even when people would be willing to pay a higher price for better quality and responsibly produced items, they tend to favour convenience and ease of use and buy from big retailers. The lack of trust in digital transactions also makes people want to buy from bigger companies, perceiving them as more trustworthy.
There are also conflicting perceptions of sustainability. My interviews showed that people view sustainable options as expensive and aspirational, not accessible for the greater majority. There's also no clear relationship between the cost and benefit of buying sustainably. Companies' impact on the world is challenging to track, so consumers can't measure the impact of their choices.
So, how can product design help?
Some factors can improve the user experience online and help the user feel more confident and make better decisions. These include helpful product information, good customer support, secure checkout processes, legitimate reviews, and precise product comparisons.
Brand experience and perceptions of sustainability work on the emotional side. To improve on this, we need to think about how can we bring sustainability into the mainstream and make it the default choice instead of an aspirational factor for a niche audience.
We can also design new solutions to create good habits and support the users in making more sustainable choices. Not everything about fashion and sustainability has to be related to a commercial transaction. New technologies such as blockchain bring new possibilities, and fashion brands are already taking advantage of that. New products are helping people get more access to clothes recycling, organising their wardrobes and tracking their environmental footprint.
I summarise the main themes that surfaced in my interviews and where I think product design can help to facilitate responsible consumption:
- Make sustainability the default option
- Improve the user experience on mobile
- Improve the security of digital transactions
- Improve user control over spending - support user goals
- Improve the findability of sustainable options
- Use technology to provide more reliable information
- Improve the quality of product information online
- Improve UX and CX of second-hand marketplaces
- Create new solutions for new user needs
- Co-create with customers
Research Goals
This study aims to learn more about the consumers' behaviour and buying habits in fashion, emphasising ethical consumption.
Previous studies have shown a gap between mindset and action, where the consumers' environmental awareness doesn't necessarily translate into practical pro-environmental actions (Figuereido Aleixo, Mafalda). But also, 88% of people would like brands to help them make sustainable choices (Generation Rewear). So I want to learn more about the blockers or issues consumers face buying responsible fashion products to find opportunities and provide insights into potential design projects.
Theoretical keywords
- Responsible fashion
- People's decision-making when shopping
Research question
How do people make conscious decisions to shop fashion responsibly?
That means
- What sustainability issues do people care about?
- How do they shop based on those beliefs? Do they put their principles into action when shopping?
- What problems do they find when trying to shop responsibly?
So what?
We can design solutions that enable people to find responsible products so that they can make a statement with their purchases and thus create a healthier shopping loop.
Methodology
My learning goal was to explore why people care about supporting responsible businesses but don't necessarily shop from them. Also, to find out how could we reduce this gap by improving the user experience of online stores.
My key results were:
Interview 10 people.
Understand the factors that influence their decision-making and their ideas on sustainability.
Produce a report exploring the relationship between people's behaviours regarding sustainability and user experience in online shopping.
Method:
Semi-structured user interviews.
Location:
The interviews will be conducted remotely via video chat. Because of COVID restrictions, it's impossible to do them in the participant's home.
Equipment:
I'll record the interviews with video-conferencing software and take notes. I'll ask the participants to connect with a pc/laptop. As for photos, I'll take screenshots when necessary.
Conceptual Framework
To support my learnings, I conducted initial research to understand the landscape of fashion and sustainability as it is at the moment. I sketched a conceptual framework to help me develop the structure for my interviews.
“A common perception is that businesses only care about profit, at the expense of looking after their employees, their customers, and the planet.” (Brandwatch)
Operational definitions
Read here.
Recruiting Participants
The first step in my research was to recruit participants.
I set out to interview:
Average citizens with an interest in shopping responsibly
People who shop online
I invited candidates to complete the survey as a screener and as an initial gathering of primary demographic and behavioural data, ensuring the information remained anonymous.
Interviewing
I created an interview guide based on my conceptual framework. First, I let the participants talk about their experiences and discuss their topics in conversation. Then, I would steer the dialogue to cover all the subjects.
I made a conversation starter to engage the participants using cards. The idea was to simulate a fictitious fashion item with descriptions based on various aspects of shopping and sustainability and factual product information I found online.
The participant would select three cards that they thought were more relevant or interesting, and we would talk about them.
The aim was not to test these particular messages but to bring the topics into the conversation, always listening to differentiate when the participant's comments were speculative or pointed to actual behaviours.
I conducted a test interview and scheduled the rest of the participants over two weeks, each interview lasting approximately an hour.
I also compensated my participants for participating and conducted a post-interview survey to check everything was ok.
Processing Results
I recorded, transcribed and coded the interviews, and from the analysis, some patterns emerged. First, I grouped my tags in themes. They revealed a new conceptual framework of fashion, online shopping and sustainability.
User Personas
My research revealed two user personas. I chose these personas because they care about sustainability and want to improve their responsible shopping.
The differences between them are the time and dedication they’re willing to commit to fashion in general, leading to very different behaviours. Also, there’s the maternity persona, much overlooked but a critical stage in the life of many women. It comes with a very particular set of problems regarding fashion.
Insights
From my research, I uncovered ten ways that I think product design can contribute to facilitating sustainable consumption. You can read them here.
Reference List
Brandwatch. “New Research Reveals How Consumers View Brand Purpose in 2020”, 2020.
Charpail, Mathilde. “What's wrong with the fashion industry?”, Sustain your Style, 2017.
Chouinard, Yvon. “Let My People Go Surfing”, Penguin Books, 2016.
Eyal, Nir. “Hooked. How to Build Habit-Forming Products”, Penguin Business, 2019.
Figueiredo Aleixo, Mafalda. “Impact of Sustainability in Fashion on Consumer Behavior and Purchasing Habits”, January 2020, Catolica Lisbon.
Joyce, Alita. “What Makes a Dark UI Pattern?”, Norman Nielsen Group, 2022.
Nielsen, Jakob. “10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design”, Norman Nielsen Group, 2020.
Rauturier, Solene. “Can Blockchain Technology Make Fashion More Transparent?”, Good on You, 2022.
Tapscott, Don and Tapscott, Alex. “Blockchain Revolution”, Penguin, 2018.
Vanish UK, “Generation Rewear” documentary, 2021, YouTube.
Conceptual framework and operational definitions
Apparel Entrepreneurship. “Sustainability Certification Guide (2022)”, 2022.
Guinut, Aloïs. “Why French Women Wear Vintage and other secrets of sustainable style”, Mitchell Beazley, 2020.
ISEAL Alliance. “Sustainability Claims. Good Practice Guide”. 2015.
Kemp-Robertson, Paul and Barth, Chris. “The Contagious Commandments. Ten Steps to Brand Bravery”, Penguin Random House UK, 2018.
Neumeier, Marty. “Brand A-Z”, 2017.
Sink, Simon. “Start with Why”, Penguin, 2021.
Userlike. “6 Tips for Transparency in Business”, 2017.
Wikipedia. “Sustainability”
Projects
About me
Contact
lautecce@gmail.com