User Research ⋅ Behavioral Change
Fast Fashion User Research
Fast fashion consumer behavior research in Taiwan. Aimed to reduce the unnecessary consumption of clothes.
User Research ⋅ Behavioral Change
Fast fashion consumer behavior research in Taiwan. Aimed to reduce the unnecessary consumption of clothes.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The trend of fast fashion has been increasing in Taiwan and caused not only the waste of clothes but also environmental issues. Our team aimed to do user research on unnecessary consuming behavior beyond undergraduate and find out the solution.
PAIN POINT-
enables the users to face various problems, including financial and appearance anxiety.
USER-
who started to have financial controlled ability to buy for their own clothes.
goal-
caused by excessive consumption, and get them to move on to change.
DURATION
3 months (Sept 2018-Dec 2018)
New Taipei City Computer Association
MY ROLE
Design Lead - User Research, Visual Design, Media Promotion
BACKGROUND
In recent years in Taiwan, influenced by the fast fashion trends blowing from Europe and the US, the traditional fashion industry has been subverting. Fast fashion focuses on shortening the production cycle, increasing the frequency of releasing new products, and constantly introducing new products. By removing cheap, neat, and beautiful styles of clothes, consumers are enticed to consume by their "wants" instead of "needs."
Under the temptation of fast fashion, college students often consume unnecessary clothes or buy clothes beyond their actual needs, resulting in a lack of money, wardrobe space, and other extended problems that affect their quality of life.
We saw the relevance of this issue to our daily lives, not just some distant part of the world. So we hope to shout out to the public to reduce unnecessary consumption and cherish clothing resources.
process
By following the double-diamond model, we are able to discover and define the problem, develop a solution, and deliver the solution into practical actions.
DISCOVER
To understand more about the users, we conducted the following two methods to gain more insight on the issue.
First of all, through a large number of news and literature search, we understand the issue of fast fashion, as well as the entire industry from front-end production to back-end consumer trading caused by waste.
And here are the findings...
Consumption behavior is interrelated with the context of consumers.
However, it is worth noting that the consumption behavior itself will also affect the self-concept of consumers, and thus affect the self-identity. Therefore, the behavior of consumption and the sense of identity are mutually shaping the dynamic process.
By the literature research, we understand that the sense of identity is the deepest reason, which will eventually extend to other problems and make the project too complicates to finish within 3 months. We decided to only focus on the problem of consumer's explicit behavior.
To understand users' experience, we immerse ourselves in the situation of consumers who go to a clothing store to buy clothes. By thinking our own experience and brainstorming the possible reasons why consumers decide to buy or not to buy.
And here's what we found...
Not enough space for storaging the clothes.
Some fast fashion clothes quality is bad, and can't wear many time.
Can't think of a situation to wear the clothes.
Users are influenced by the fashion trends and would like to buy the latest fashion trends.
As users grow up and get into college, their clothing style has changed and need new outfit.
When the users body shape change, they also need to consume new outfits.
Due to the fast fashion, clothes price are very low and enable the users to throw them away easily.
Users sometimes get teased by friends about their originally outfit and would like to consume new clothes.
Necessary consumption such as clothes for different situation.
DEFINE
As long as consumers buy extra clothes that they do not need, it is a kind of unnecessary consumption. We decided that excessive consumption should also be included in this topic.
Therefore, the topic is finally focused on the "unnecessary consumption behavior of consumers".
Based on the empathizing stage, we created a user persona to help us understand the user deeper. After creating the personas, we can build up a solution better for the students.
is our main target users.
to enable them to buy their own clothes.
to show their own personality.
Based on Sarah's persona that we created, we additionally built up a journey map that indicated Sarah's experience when going into a physical shop to shop for clothes.
Here are the key takeaways.
Develop
Next, we come up with solutions to problems. We reignite ideas and build on other people's ideas to find multiple possible solutions. By using the scenario below, we think of the possible solutions.
"A customer is standing in the shop ready to consume. However, there are tons of clothes in his house only wore once or never been worn. The staff and his friends keep telling him that he looks good in the clothes. He is now in the dilemma whether to buy or not to buy."
We created the solution following the three stages.
At this stage, we want to generate as much solutions as we can.
Select possible solutions based on efficiency and time limited.
Start to execute the solutions and modify after each try.
...and I have my HMW statement to help me focus throughout the whole project.
Ideation
By using post-it to brainstorm for solutions, we clustered into three main solutions.
Both online and off line's challenge games to raise people's attention of by attending interesting games.
Short dummies and memes to raise people's attention online and make them spread the news.
Find an opinion leader to speak about the fast fashion topic to use their influence in audience enable people to change.
Creating a fast-fashion consumer behavior for dummies and promoting it online would be the most effective way to reach and impact a larger audience.
Compared to organizing challenges or collaborating with influencers for workshops, which may be time-consuming and could result in less effectiveness, developing a comprehensive cheat sheet allows us to refine the overall execution plan.
SOLUTION Showcase
Due to the online channels where we can only passively wait for individuals to click on our information and cannot actively reach out to them, we have also brainstormed offline "flash events."
We conduct on-site promotions, distribute relevant promotional materials to introduce our ideas to them, and simultaneously invite them to share their experiences with us online. This integration of online and offline activities complements each other, generating greater benefits.
Online activities primarily aim to "broaden" the topics, while offline activities aim to "deepen" the understanding of our concepts.
Solution
Using Facebook's fan page to promote offline activity and increase the visibility of every post to share our idea. Posts we shared in the fan page:
Giving out statistics for wasting the clothes and shouting out to consumers to think before buying.
Sharing the information for flash events.
Some good articles about fast-fashion's waste.
Result
1370 Reach
58 Share
Solution
We went to the night market which mainly sells clothes to promote the idea of thinking before buying.
We gave out little bookmarks in night market that have tips to help consumers decide to buy the clothes or not. Later, we uses Google Sheet to collect feedback.
Sharing the information for fast fashion by holding a small promotion in the night market.
Result
131 Reach
38 Feedback
Context on the Bookmarks
Left:
"Do you still have money to spend in the end of the month?"
Right:
"We have come out with a solution!
Before buying, think of the THREE STEPS:
1. Do I need the clothes?
2. How often will I wear it?
3. Is the clothes durable?
From now on, the life of the clothes is decided by YOU."
key takeaways
By following the double-diamond model, we are able to discover and define the problem, develop a solution, and deliver the solution into practical actions.
Design is a constant process of improving the experience of end users. In every design stage, there is always feedback to be found by end users to optimize.
Those design thinking methods are tools for the team to help empathize and find out the pain points of the users. It can be modified to best fit the team's need.
When doing design thinking, always brainstorm with the team to find out more ideas and possible thoughts. People may cover and build on each other's ideas to make it more complete.
