Sustainability Made
Simple: UX Design as a Tool for Promoting Sustainable Fashion to Young Adults.
By Emma Byamugisha
01 January 2025
The Fashion Industry: A Visual Language of Self-Expression
The fashion industry has placed itself as a cornerstone of self-expression and culture, with Davis (1994) noting clothing to be a form of communication that differentiates individuals in terms of taste, social identity, etc, expressing fashion as a visual language which was once reserved for the upper class via luxury fashion, allowing them to signal their wealth and status to others (Davis, 1994; Lurie, 1981; Paul, 2019). However, over the years, technological advancements have been made, and the privilege of self-expression has been granted to the working class through the emergence of fast fashion.
The Emergence and Growth of Fast Fashion
Fast fashion refers to the rapid growth in the production of inexpensive, low-quality clothing that often mimics popular styles and trends (Kelleher, 2024). Though it emerged in the 20th century, the fast fashion market did not peak till the 21st century, as it was estimated to be worth over USD 106 billion in 2022 and is predicted to reach a value of 185 billion US dollars in 2027 (Statista Research Department, 2024). This has been achieved with brands such as Shein successfully allowing their consumers to get more value for their money (Linden, 2016). The global ultra-fast fashion retailer Shein operates on a customer-driven model, focusing on testing products in small batches and restocking what is on demand (Hayes, 2024; Shein, n.d.). This allows them to be more efficient and provide their users with high-fashion looks quickly and at a fraction of the price, with the average cost of a Shein-branded clothing item being £7.90 (Hooker, Jones & Thomas, 2024; Pyle, 2022).
The Double-Edged Sword of Fast Fashion
Although fast fashion was created with positive intentions and has positive impacts, such as feeding the working class’s desire to obtain luxury and prestige fashion products (Lee, 2009) as a means to establish their identity (Belk, 1988), despite their inability to afford it. Its rapid growth has led to widespread and devasting environmental and ethical consequences (Niinimäki et al., 2020).
The production and disposal of low-cost, trendy garments contribute significantly to exploitative labour practices. Hewamanne (2021) demonstrates the extent of the exploitative practices in her study that focuses on female workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and draws the conclusion that the lockdown increased workers’ exposure to various forms of modern slavery due to having limited options to support themselves and their families.
Regarding environmental impacts, fast fashion is recognised as a leading contributor to landfill waste, emitting greenhouse gases and toxic atmospheric pollutants such as carbon dioxide (Simpson, 2023). This claim is supported by the United Nations Climate Change (2018), which estimates that the fast fashion industry is responsible for approximately 4-5 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions annually. If current growth continues and no changes are made, fast fashion emissions are predicted to double by 2030 (Quantis, 2018). Furthermore, each year, 92 million tons of textile waste is produced globally, and it is expected to be 134 million tons per year by the end of 2030 (Kerr & Landry, 2017).
Addressing Consequences of Fast Fashion
To solve the wrongdoings of the fast fashion industry, change must be implemented in policies and procedures. Due to businesses not being willing to change their practices as they have already achieved their goal at a low cost via unethical means, the process of change will have to start with its consumers (Webster, 2023). Consumers can play a crucial role in minimising the effects of fast fashion by practising “slow fashion,” meaning they buy fewer but higher-quality and more sustainable pieces of clothing (Kelleher, 2024).
However, many consumers do not know where to start when it comes to transitioning from fast to slow fashion, as many online resources are either too brief or fail to provide information on what materials to look out for, the best brands to shop from, etc. or they are too bulky and hard to get through making the process feel too intimidating. My website aims to solve this problem by building an informative, interactive and user-friendly website that guides others on how to transition from fast to sustainable fashion.
In this article, I will outline how I plan to employ user experience (UX) research methods and design principles to help refine my guide’s structure, functionality, and usability. This ensures my major project is successful in its goal of being educational and user-centred. Examples of potential visual and interactive elements are also discussed.
UX Research and Design as a Tool for Promoting Sustainable
One of the first steps of UX design is to identify a target audience. I have decided that my website will target young adults aged 18-25 (Gen Z). This is because they are influential consumers setting trends and rely heavily on online platforms for information and decision-making. This is supported by Francis and Hoefel (2018), who note Gen Z as digital natives and highlight their reliance on social networks due to being used to searching for information online, which is why they regard digital media and social networks as channels of social influence that affects individuals’ attitude formation. This has been picked up on by companies such as Etsy and Unilever, who have created strategies to target Gen Z shoppers and have taken advantage of their influencing power (BBC, 2021).
Furthermore, Gen Z is in their formative years of developing purchasing habits; this can be used as an opportunity to instil sustainable practices that can have lasting impacts. Meaning that even though they are one of the biggest fast fashion consumers (Herron, 2023), they can be persuaded to engage in sustainable practices. Especially as they do have a growing interest towards sustainability (Herron, 2023).
However, it is important to note that Gen Z’ being a big consumer of fast fashion while displaying an active interest in sustainability implies their actions and beliefs do not align, this is known as cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957). To better understand my target audience, I plan on investigating this cognitive dissonance by looking at existing research on why it may occur and what barriers Gen Z faces when trying to become more sustainable.
Based on this research, my next step would be to create a questionnaire. The questionnaire will be sent out to six young adults who are consumers of fast fashion and trying to become more sustainable. This will help me gather insight into my target audience’s current fashion and purchasing habits, motivations and barriers regarding sustainable fashion. I have chosen to focus on six young adults as it is recommended for small projects such as this one, researchers use a sample of 6-10 participants (Fugard & Potts, 2015). Furthermore, this will help to avoid data saturation, which refers to the point of data collection whereby no new information emerges from the dataset (Marshall et al., 2018).
From the data I collect from the questionnaire, I will create user personas. The user personas will represent subgroups of my target audience; I have created an example of what I intend my personas to look like here. The success of user personas lies in their ability to apply said knowledge of users and make them characters that we can relate to and empathise with (Harley, 2015). I plan on using my user personas as a tool to spur user-centred thinking and guide my design process by ensuring the right questions are being asked. Sundt & David (2017) state user personas are a great way to address a common issue experienced by UX designers, the ‘elastic user’. This refers to when the team’s definition of the users shifts at different stages of the process, differing between team members, reflecting their own biases (Cooper, 1999). Creating a user persona will give me a solid definition of my target audience for me to look back on, minimising my own biases.
Using the clear definition of my users, user journey maps will be made to help visualise how users will interact with the guide in real-life scenarios; I have inserted an example I made here. For instance, in my user personas, Matt is a 21-year-old university student, who struggles with a limited budget, as he only earns £12 per hour, and Sarah is a 24-year-old young professional who is struggling to find clothes that are professional yet sustainable. The user journey maps will help me figure out what features I can add to my website that will act as a solution to their problems.
Information architecture is the process by which web designers decide how to organise their content and how it will be displayed on their website (Tankala, 2023). I plan on creating a strong information architecture to help structure the guide to be both user-centric and aligned to promote sustainable fashion. I will be using the following techniques to do so, content inventory, card sorting, and tailored interactivity.
For the content inventory, I will start by collecting all the existing content ideas, resources, and potential materials for the guide and organise them into specific categories, such as education, testimonials, etc., to identify any overlaps or gaps in my website. Card sorting is a user research method where participants organise a set of content cards into groups based on how they would naturally sort information. This is important as it will allow me to understand my users’ thinking processes. The findings from this method will directly inform the navigation bar structure and page layout as it will help me identify patterns in how my users group content. The tailored interactivity, e.g., filters for price ranges and material types, and search bars, ensures that users find the guide enjoyable to use and can customise their exploration of sustainable fashion.
Wireframes and prototypes will be used to help visualise the structure of the website and further identify any gaps I missed in the content inventory. Wireframes tend to be more of rough sketches, acting as a foundation for prototypes, which aim to make the wireframe more visually appealing and interactive. This is important for my project as my target audience favours visual content over text (Acodez, 2021; 2023). This is supported by Pearson (2018), who noted that 53% of Gen Z would rather watch a video than read something. In addition to preferring visual content, Gen Z is also hyperconnected via mobile (Acodez, 2023). Therefore, my website will also be taking a mobile-first approach. This approach has been recommended as it prioritises adaptability in web design, associating it with accessibility (Allsopp, 2000; Wroblewski, 2011). This encourages web designers to prioritise designing pages that adapt to different browsers, platforms, screen sizes, and user preferences, allowing for a more inclusive and accessible experience for all users (Allsopp, 2000). Here, I have attached an image of a low-fidelity wireframe I intend to use as inspiration when I create my own.
Conclusion
To conclude, fast fashion’s rise has revolutionised consumers’ access to clothing and has imposed significant ethical and environmental costs. Addressing these challenges requires consumers to become more educated on sustainable practices and their benefits, through the use of UX research and design techniques, my website offers an innovative solution to make sustainable fashion accessible and actionable to young adults. If I am successful in my goal of creating a guide on how to transition from fast to sustainable fashion and get my target audience to use it, I could empower Gen Z to become informed and responsible consumers, promote sustainability, and possibly increase consumption of slow fashion.
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