Final Year Major Project
Around 60 billion items of clothing end up in landfill each year.
Glasa is a sustainable marketplace designed to reduce clothing waste by promoting reuse and circular fashion
Final Year Major Project
Around 60 billion items of clothing end up in landfill each year.
Glasa is a sustainable marketplace designed to reduce clothing waste by promoting reuse and circular fashion
Overview
The tension is clear: buy less meets buy now
This project began with fast fashion waste, but deeper issues emerged. Gen Z's habits reveal a gap between values and actions.
Sustainability is a priority, but convenience wins. Climate-aware consumers still impulse-buy at the click of a button.
Challenges
Overconsumption is emotional
Gen Z shops for comfort and ease. Fast fashion thrives on habits shaped by manipulative design.
Disposal is broken
Recycling is unclear and inconsistent. Most donations still end up in landfill or abroad.
Unethical is normal
Trends and marketing fuel overbuying, while sustainable choices struggle to keep up.
Problem statement
Over consumption of clothing, driven by fast retail and online shopping, leads to waste, and environmental harm. Emotional gratification, convenience, and cheap goods worsen the issue, generating significant waste.
Research & prototyping findings
We revealed the true cost of consumption and rewarded sustainable choices to shift habits.
Rental, pre-order eliminated buyers remorse, and centralised recycling made it easier to avoid waste.
We built a platform that boosts ethical brands, giving them visibility and a chance against fast fashion giants.
Designing a dashboard to
track buying behaviours
Behavioural nudges are essential to the service, but they are designed to feel playful and supportive, not intrusive.
The Glasa dashboard tracks user impact with eco-friendly choices earning points to unlock discounts and rewards.
Rather than incentivising purchases, we flipped the script. Users earned points for pausing, not purchasing, and choosing low-impact behaviours.
Designing a dashboard to
track buying behaviours
Behavioural nudges are essential to the service, but they are designed to feel playful and supportive, not intrusive.
What I've learned
1. How zooming out helped
understand the whole problem:
Mapping journeys and backend systems gave me a clearer view of the entire problem. It showed how touch points like returns and logistics need to align to deliver a seamless, sustainable experience.
2. Culture drives habits
not just choices:
I found that over consumption isn't just about individual decisions, it's shaped by social norms and ingrained behaviours. People default to what's convenient. To design meaningful change, we need to work with those patterns, not fight them.
3. How big the scale of
the problem is:
Honestly, the problem is too vast. This project showed me that without wider societal change, design has limits. We can't solve it all, but we can start shifting behaviours.