Levi’s
Secondhand Closet
Combating Fast Fashion with a Trusted Brand
Expanding the Levi’s Secondhand project into a mobile app to emphasize accessibility in the fight to combat fast fashion.
The Secondhand Closet App fills a niche for an online secondhand clothing service backed by a brand that emphasizes sustainability, accessibility, and quality.
UX/UI Design
The creation of this app was focused on building off of what Levi’s already had. The branding for the Levi’s Secondhand project is a slightly modified version of their main brand identity, and my designs are a continuation of this.
Product Design
The focus of this project was to build a product that fit with Levi’s brand identity while filling an important niche for a crucial cause.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Problem
Fast fashion creates over 100 million tons of textile waste
each year. According to goodonyou.eco, fast fashion is “cheap, trendy clothing, that samples ideas from celebrity culture". The goal is to cheaply make and sell styles that are still hot, and then, sadly, discard them after a few wears.
Without the right tools and resources, the average person is left to fend for themselves when fighting against the threats to human rights and the environment.
The Solution
The well-known Levi’s brand is already working to combat the evils of fast fashion. Using the basis of their existing platform, Levi’s Secondhand, well-loved clothing can be recycled and passed on to new owners, thereby extending the product life and preventing it from becoming fabric waste. According to Levi's; "keeping clothes in rotation for an extra nine months reduces carbon, waste and water footprints by around 20 to 30% each. That’s something we can all feel good about."
Highlights
Insights from the later research revealed that the purpose of the design needed to be altered in order to achieve the goal of changing consumer practices. This change enables Levi’s Secondhand to better meet the needs of customers while promoting sustainability.
PROJECT SUMMARY
The Need
Depending on who you ask, fast fashion can mean many different things. It’s a huge and pervasive issue, and everyone has at least some idea of what it means and what its impacts are, but we need a unified front to make a real difference. If we want to combat the environmental threats imposed by fast fashion first, we need to educate, and second, we need to facilitate.
The Result
For the design, I used different tools and methods to research users’ mental models of the fashion cycle. With these insights, I pivoted and adjusted the Levi’s Secondhand brand to fill a niche in the market.
ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES
My Roles
UX/UI Designer
User Researcher
Data Analyst
FRAMING THE PROBLEM
Problem Statement
The rise in fast fashion has devastating effects on the environment and is detrimental to human rights in textile factories. Despite the existence of sustainable alternatives, people still have limited access to these resources because of a number of issues including finances, convenience, lack of knowledge, and limited supply.
Thrift shopping, one alternative, only meets some user needs and the market has been flooded by fast-fashion trends and gentrified by the middle and upper class.
Hypothesis
Other existing digital products fail to meet the needs of the average consumer because they only cater to the wealthy. My solution will address this gap by putting thrift shopping on your phone, and enabling users to be as specific as they want when shopping second hand.
DESIGN ARTIFACT: PROTO-PERSONA
PHASE ONE: DISCOVERY
Problem Evolution
I started out with an idea to promote the cause of sustainable fashion. Learning more about how the fashion cycle has become progressively more wasteful and more exclusive inspired me to want to design something that could solve some issues of fashion waste,
while utilizing established trends like online shopping,
subscription models, and thrifting.
At first, I set out to find hard facts and data to support the need
for my design. What I uncovered is that fast fashion has created environmental, economic, and human rights crises since its inception.
Proto-Persona: Ollie
My initial research led me to create a proto-persona whose needs would guide the remainder of the research. Ollie is meant to represent the younger generation of consumers who are environmentally conscious, and trying to shop sustainably on a budget.
PHASE TWO: DISCOVERY
Ideation
The current market for sustainable fashion comes at a higher cost to current users. In order to make sure they’re making the best possible choices as a consumer, they have to spend time researching company policies and ethical standards, weighing the expense of purchasing sustainable items, and evaluating their own past purchases and personal style.
Because of this, there are a lot of barriers to entry when beginning to build a sustainable wardrobe. In order to outline the scope of the project, I built out a journey map to represent the current user journey as well as a proposed map for the ideal outcome.
DESIGN ARTIFACT: CURRENT USER JOURNEY
DESIGN ARTIFACT: PROPOSED USER JOURNEY
DESIGN ARTIFACT: WHO PRODUCES FAST FASHION
IA Guerrilla Test
Based on the services already offered by Levi’s Secondhand, I built
an expanded IA to enable users to complete tasks that would help achieve the goals of education and facilitation to fight fast fashion.
I then used OptimalWorkshop’s treejack tool to test my architecture and organization with ten college-aged users.
Because OptimalWorkshop only allows two tasks at a time, I had to be very selective about what I wanted to test, I decided that the subscription package and the custom profile were the two most important features that I wanted to make sure were accessible.
Both tasks had a 90% direct success rate and a 10% indirect success rate. The indirect paths were taken by two different people and the average time on each task was about nine seconds. For the first follow-up question, there was a 50/50 split - worth investigating “why”.
The second follow-up question gave some insight into the responses to the first. Though there were some definite wrong answers to this question, every company was chosen at least once.
One of the most interesting insights was that Urban Outfitters, a brand that carries sustainable brands, and Shein, a known fast-fashion online retailer, were selected by eight out of ten of those surveyed.
Pivoting
The preliminary testing that I did showed me that I needed to pivot my design to focus more on education. Fortunately, Levi’s already has a focus on education by publishing blogs on sustainable fashion with Off The Cuff.
I decided that I would conduct more research to gather qualitative data about the market position of Levi’s Secondhand and where they could fill a niche. In this stage, I also updated the tasks that I wanted to test, and revised the information architecture to accomplish the new goals of the design.
Qualitative User Survey
I sent a ten-question survey out to eleven college-aged individuals to gather more insight into the user base. The purpose of this survey was to gather consumer opinion on the product, as well as to gauge their understanding of fast fashion and the fashion cycle.
DESIGN ARTIFACT: WHERE DO YOU SHOP FOR CLOTHES?
DESIGN ARTIFACT: DEFINING FAST FASHION
The responses to the survey revealed that while most people in my target demographic have at least some idea of fast fashion and its effects, they may not be aware of the overall impact that it has. Many people shop from thrift stores, but there are barriers to thrift shopping as well.
The final question in the survey was “Do you buy sustainable fashion?” and I asked each respondee to elaborate on their answer. I knew I was on the right track with my process when I got this response:
“I would only buy sustainable fashion if I could, because of the guilt I feel from buying fast fashion (bad for environment, sweat shops, just wasteful). But I’m hindered by 2 things: 1) idk for a fact where I can buy sustainable fashion. How do I know a company isn’t lying? 2) fast fashion is usually very affordable/cheap. Sustainable fashion is usually pricy.”
Using the insights from the survey responses, I decided to combine the educational aspect with the onboarding flow for the product. Ideally, the design would connect users with the Secondhand brand by showing them how their efforts can make a real difference in breaking the fast fashion cycle.
PHASE THREE: DESIGN
Design Iterations
For the scope of this project, I initially planned to prototype three user flows. During the first iteration of wireframe designs, I created flows for onboarding, learning about fast fashion, and viewing subscription information. However, due to time constraints, and the necessary pivot of the project, I instead opted to further iterate on the learning and onboarding functions of the prototype.
After laying out all the information, the next important step was to capture the brand style of Levi’s. Their Secondhand branding is a similar approach to the main style, with a little more focus on minimal design and more muted colors. Because of the limited color palette, combinations and applications had to be very thoughtful and specific.
Current Iteration
The current final pass of the prototype uses quiet color application and purposeful imagery to appeal to a young, environmentally-conscious audience. The home page is personal to users, and combines individuality with a cause to motivate a change in consumption. The prototype is also designed to encourage return users to educate themselves more, and to boost their sustainable wardrobe.
The intersection of this product uses the brand messaging and imagery of Levi’s with the sustainable fashion tool of Secondhand, while also tying into the cause-based commentary from Off The Cuff.
CONCLUSION
Key Takeaways
The initial research phase of this project was what really made it exciting for me. Personally, I feel very strongly about sustainable practices when it comes to fashion. I am passionate about shopping second hand for clothing items, and I love educating people about the positive impact it can have. One of my favorite items I have thrifted is a pair of vintage Levi’s jeans!
In order for any product in any market to take hold, it needs to be able to connect with its audience. With this project, I aimed to make an impact through education. I believe that if more people were made aware of the effects of fast fashion, consumer attitudes would change for the better.
Next Steps
In order to bring this design to the next level, it needs to be tested with users. Since this is an ongoing passion project, I hope to complete user testing in the future. Additionally, I would like to complete the prototype to include more user flows so that it can move into development.