Green Closet provides easier accessibility for people to donate clothes that they don’t need anymore. The donations would be recycled and delivered to the clothing brands that are sponsored by Green Closet. The material would be reused from the sponsors.
During the process of inputting the donation, the clothes would be scanned by Terahertz radiation to identify the materials. The clothes would be scanned in order to collect the data, but also to organize the donations by materials in the vending machine.
As the user donates the clothes, they would be able to receive promotions that are from the sponsored companies with Green Closet. The user would be able to utilize the promotions from the sponsored clothing brands when they have their next purchase of clothes.
Fast Fashion is a term that describes the rapid phase of designing, manufacturing and marketing clothes to meet new trends. They replicate garments based on Fashion Week events and create a mass production at a low cost to make it affordable for the customers.
Number of clothes that's purchased
by the average consumer increased each year
Clothing is disposed of in landfill or incineration
within a year of production
The number of clothes being created
between 2000 to 2020 got doubled up to 100 billion.
In order to visualize and see the increase in the production of clothes, I have used the BOT graph. This would be helpful for me to see an overview of the patterns of how quickly the clothes are being produced in 20 years.
CO2e was resulted from the production
of polyester for textiles in 2015.
The amount of CO2 which would have the equivalent global warming impact.
1 single polyester t-shirt
1 single cotton t-shirt
To understand the needs of my target audiences, I have decided to have 3 different personas to define them. I would be able to see perspectives from a mother, driver and marketing team from the sponsored company. Persona would provide me to see the possible opportunities that I can narrow and focus into.
Information Architecture is used to show the screen that the users would be approaching through the vending machine. This gives me an idea of what screens and information are needed in order to process donations through the machine.
In order to organize the needed information, I decided to use a Taxonomy map to get in deep with some topics of donation of clothes and points. I would be able to plan how I am thinking of categorizing the materials of the clothes and the methods of giving promotions.
The ecosystem map is used in order for me to visualize the system surrounding the donator and the vending machine. This would enable me to give an understanding of the whole system and the relationship between one another.
I have created a Data Model in order to help visualize the databases. It facilitates me to categorize the data for the product, but also, for the stakeholders and engineers to understand the data development.
Within the defined persona, I have made a journey map based on my first persona who would be the user of the vending machine. The map would give me an overall view of the possible journey that the user would walk through in each stage and find some opportunities to build further.
In order to design a flow for my user to complete a task, I have decided to do a simple user flow to see the whole process. They are used for me to plan, organize and also evaluate the flow to create a flow that satisfies the persona’s needs.
Storyboards are good for planning the story and the scenes based on the product. Within this purpose, I have drawn 3 storyboards of 3 different users utilizing the vending machine. This would enable me to plan several scenarios of the product being used, but also, help to communicate with stakeholders about its concept.
The vending machine would be using Terahertz radiation which is also called T-ray, to scan the fabrics and classify the donations within their material types.
PENETRATE
through objects
IDENTIFY
different types of materials
The terahertz waves in the T-ray do not contain enough energy to remove an electron from an atom, which means that the radiation does not have the same harmful effects on human tissue and DNA. This radiation would be safe to use for any case of users possibly contacting the radiation.
This radiation is currently used in airports for full-body scanning.
The stock and Flow diagram helps to depict the structure of how the system is built and works. This diagram would let us see the causal structures of the elements that create an impact on the number of donations.
In order to understand how the system of the product maintains to be functional, the feedback loop shows both balancing and reinforcing loops. The map helps us to plan and visualize the cycle of the outputs that are impacted by the stimuli ongoingly, but also, helps to build a stronger system.
The items that we receive from the donators go to Green Closet and the items get sold to the sponsored companies. Green Closet gets profit from the money that the sponsored companies give in order to take the fabrics that they need.
Green Closet is friendly, safe and green. Since the product promotes being eco-friendly, I aimed to create an approachable and friendly feeling towards the users. The brand should feel as if it is open for anyone to use and that everyone can be a part of the cycle of being eco-friendly.
To give the eco-friendly feeling, I decided to have an icon of a leaf as a symbol of being friendly. Since there would be a symbol in the logo, I wanted the written text to be simple to balance out the image and make it seem trustworthy. The colour green is used to emphasize being friendly and accessible.
As I was sketching and mocking up, I tried to think of the components that would go inside the machine. Although I am not an expert in those mechanical areas, I had to be aware that the space for the T-ray radiation and the storage of clothes are needed inside the vending machine.
Green Closet is a project where I was able to learn both sides of the customer and the business. I was able to learn to think about how the system works in business and understand the cycle of earning profits through system mapping.
Having the ability to map out the ideas from both the customer and business side was an important part of the process. I had to think of several scenarios of the users utilizing the vending machine, which allowed me to see their needs when approaching the product. Knowing why they would use my product was also a part of the process that I had to be clear on. I also had to put myself into the sponsored companies' point of view in order to understand the relationship between the recycling system of clothing. Although I had some difficulties learning the profitable system on the business side at the beginning, I still had a lot of fun pushing myself to learn the new point of view.
If I were given more time, I would love to continue the project by designing the details of the interface in the vending machine. In order to create a complete whole experience, the interaction between the interface with the users also plays a huge role. This would help me to continue the project with testings with the interviewees to create more realistic design outcomes that could be used in our surroundings.
If you like what you see and want to work together, get in touch!
kminjiwork@gmail.com