Collaborative Group Project
​Bhumika Keswani, Silvina Gil, Tanmayi Deshmukh
Design Research Capstone Studio
About
Explored various design research methods, emphasizing primary and secondary research and participatory design. Collaborated with my team, mapped opportunities, engaged with users, experts, and presented in-process work.
​
The course culminated in a final concept pitch, preparing us for the subsequent Design Strategy Capstone Studio.
Primary Research
Prototype Design
Secondary Research
Data Synthesis
Provotype Design
Year
2023
Role
Design Strategist and Researcher
Duration
4 Months
Challenge
Applied methods of design research and innovation in the fashion industry - through the lens of circularity and re-loving garments.
Industry
Fashion/ Fast Fashion + Sustainable Fashion
Assumptions
Buyers want to shop for sustainable fashion garments but lack the relevant avenues to make the conscious choice.
Tools
Primary Research:
Secondary Research:
User Interviews
Expert Interviews
Store Shadowing
Surveys
Literature Reviews
Online databases
Case Studies
Design Approach
Provocative Design
Provotype Testing
Outcome
Potential Areas of Interventions identified, Assumption validation and Target audience recognition.
In-depth Process
The fashion industry is the second most polluting industry, contributing 8% of all carbon emissions and 20% of all global wastewater.....
The Fashion Industry needs major interventions
600
Garment workers injured in 2022
64
Garment workers died in 2022
36%
Decline in garment usage over the last 15 years
Tapping the power in the buyer's hands
Strong consumer demands resulted in significant improvements in developing a waterless dyeing technology.
Why do people buy what they buy?
Individuals who exhibit compulsive buying tendencies often use image-related consumption such as buying clothes as a way to manage negative emotion and self-doubt.
Hyper-consumerism has diverse psychological effects on Mental well-being which often leads to a never-ending cycle of consumption and unhappier lives.
Primary Research
To further understand the relationship of consumers and their (fashion) shopping behaviours-
6
Store Shadowing
12
User Interviews
+
4
Expert Interviews
40
Survey Responses
Secondary Data Analysis
What did we uncover?
Price
+
Convenience
biggest barriers to consistent sustainable shopping​
Inconsistency between awareness and action​
​Significant influence of Social Media​
​​Second-hand fashion has the power for significant change if made easily accessible to the user
Need for-
Convenience
Why Circularity?
Wants and Needs
Reduced consumption isn't always scalable as needs and wants are ever-increasing
Fast Fashion Relevancy
Fast fashion stays relevant because of convenience
Unaffordable
Sustainability
Sustainable brands remain unaffordable
Toward Circularity
By 2030, the consumer class is expected to reach almost 5 billion people.
This means 1.3 billion more people with increased purchasing power than today.
Transitioning to a circular fashion economy could result in a 40% reduction in carbon emissions, a 24% reduction in water use, and a 52% reduction in landfill waste by 2030.
How Might We
Encourage consumers to move from
Awareness
to
Action?
The Provocative Design Approach
Provotype Design
