Final Year Project

Theme: Sustainable shopping behaviors
Vision statement: "To motivate people in becoming responsible consumers by learning sustainable knowledge through board game "

Greeternative (Graphic design + UI/UX design)

The research focused on Hong Kong's textile waste problem and the lack of sustainable fashion knowledge among the public. The city generates 392 tonnes of textile waste daily, with 50% originating from clothing. Surprisingly, over 95% of the waste can be recycled or reused, but only 0.4% is currently being recycled or reused.

The research involved questionnaires and a PD workshop to understand shopping behavior and sustainable fashion knowledge. Common findings revealed that sustainability is not a priority for shoppers, garment labels are often ignored in favor of other factors, and participants lacked knowledge about sustainable materials. Many participants also had difficulty handling unwanted clothes.

In the PD workshop, it was observed that participants informed about sustainable information took longer to make decisions, highlighting the impact of sustainable knowledge on shopping behavior. However, changing people's attitudes and priorities towards sustainability proved challenging.

To motivate the public, using trending concepts and emphasizing environmental friendliness in marketing can be effective. Board game lovers and sustainability insiders shared common values of the importance of relationships, personal interest, and enjoyment of challenges. These insights guided the design of an educational board game that promotes sustainability, targeting both environmentally conscious individuals and those who may need encouragement to adopt sustainable practices.

The problem definition for our project is addressing the lack of awareness and consideration for sustainability in the fashion industry, particularly in relation to clothing shopping habits. Despite a growing focus on recycling materials like plastic, paper, and cans, little attention is given to sustainable fashion practices. Our goal is to understand people's attitudes towards sustainability in fashion and their level of knowledge on this topic through comprehensive 1st-hand and 2nd-hand research.

Background and motivation

Hong Kong people generate a huge amount of textile waste. The textile waste is about 392 tonnes per day and 50% of the waste is from clothing. Also, over 95% of the textile waste could be recycled or reused, but only 0.4% of it was recycled or reused in Hong Kong. Instead, a study by Redress in 2020 shows that 30% of Hongkongers throw unwanted clothes into bins but do not recycle them. The reason for this serious situation is that people didn’t make a sustainable decision before buying the clothes.

Hong Kong is a materialistic city, most people do not need to worry about their life or their biological needs. Therefore, they mostly can get what they want if it is affordable. Unfortunately, the public lacks this kind of knowledge and would be shocked after recognizing the circumstances and their consequences.

Consumer's shopping behaviour questionnaire (1st hand research)

Our questionnaire interviewed 20 people and asked them 20 questions about their shopping behavior and knowledge level of sustainable fashion. The majority of interviewees are 20-24, two of them are 15-19. 82% of the interviewees are students and their educational level is a bachelor's degree.

Over 64% of interviewees "Buy clothes because I want it"

70% of interviewees "Don't know any sustainable materials" and nearly 60 % of them have "No interest in reading the material label of the clothes before purchasing"

47% of interviewees "Leave the unwanted clothes in the wardrobe" and 11 % of them "Throw the unwanted clothes into the rubbish bin"

64% of interviewees were "WIlling to learn how to read the material label if they have a chance" and 82% of them were "Willing to learn how to reuse/recycle the unwanted clothes better, do you want to join "

Conclusion

From the questionnaire, most of the interviewees' shopping attitude is more self-satisfying, and rarely consider sustainability while shopping. After purchasing the clothes, they also didn't handle the unwanted clothes properly. Besides, most of all lack knowledge of sustainable fashion. But, they are interested to learn how to become more sustainable before and after buying clothes. So, we decided to educate people on some important and interesting knowledge that allows them to become more eco-friendly.

Participatory Design workshop

After the first- and second-hand research, we held a participatory design workshop to simulate the actual shopping design process and observe people's actual shopping behavior. We do an A/B test, which separates participants into two groups, Group A and Group B. We gave a quick sustainable knowledge delivery to Group A and didn't for Group B. After they finish the shopping, we discuss the clothes they select and tell the raw materials of the clothes and their consequences. Then show them some samples of the raw material, the semi-product and the final product as shown below. Next, the participant will show us their shopping journey and their thoughts and ideas about promoting sustainability.

This PD workshop showed some particular findings in another four followings:

The first one is decision time. Group A is informed about the sustainable information before the shopping simulation is a bit slower than the second group. This shows their consideration time increases can cause the impulse purchase and desire to decrease.

Then, for the sustainable brands, the impressions of Columbia and Gucci are both not sustainable but outdoor and luxurious. The effects of them are not high enough due to marketing and financial reasons - how those brands pack themselves, how much the marked prices are, and how many people can actually afford and support them. That’s the minority only.

The only brand that the participants treat as sustainable is Levi’s, which uses that as its selling point to attract different sources of customers and increase sales revenue. This builds up their corporate social responsibility.

In the second half of the PD workshop, participants found it so difficult to promote to the general public or even people who care about the environment. Since it's hard to change their attitude of always looking at the labels before buying clothes, the original viewpoint of sustainability is less significant when compared to appearance. In addition, for those people who are not persistent enough, the alternative mindset of giving up easily would be another concern.

However, to motivate the general public, designers can make use of the trending concept, making it environmentally friendly as a selling point like Levi’s. Also, educators can inform students about alternative materials to replace the non-sustainable ones or the aftermath if no one cares about this problem.

Clothing brands can directly set up some sustainable shopping areas, so no one has to consider a lot. Indirectly, the vintage shop is another method to raise the demand for second-hand clothes, hence dropping the need for fast fashion.

Participant's suggestion

Bring people to the store and inform the alternative materials besides polyester or nylon
Indirect method
- educating the general public is important
- don’t tell people what material is sustainable, but set a specific area that puts all the sustainable clothes, more direct
Vintage shop: more 2nd hand clothes, take reference from Japan
- fashionable, environmentally friendly
- decrease the need for fast fashion
For people who have 0 interest/anti-environmental friendly
- focus on the fun elements to attract eyeballs, not just simply one-way listening
- marketing promotion of sustainability as a selling point

We conducted four playtests to assess our board game's development. The first playtest involved a paper prototype with two target group participants, focusing on usability and replayability. The second playtest, using a digital prototype, evaluated knowledge and usability with two target group participants and two non-target group participants at an expert level. The third playtest utilized a physical prototype and two target group participants, evaluating usability and knowledge at an expert level. Lastly, we conducted a fourth playtest with two non-target group participants, assessing beginner-level gameplay.

Paper prototype & playtest 1

Players are confused about which road they can get into or leave the station

(Observation)

Solution: Add the color and direction of the road to enter or exit the station & building

Hard for beginners to remember the material by name/ icon

(Feedback)

Solution: Design a hand-held instruction card for each player, place all the material with graphic and name on it, so player can read it anytime

Forget which station player have already passed

(Feedback)

Solution: Adding station sequence on the instruction card, help first-time player to remember and focus on other game elements

Lv2 material card have some extra space

(Observation)

Solution: Adding some information about the material e.g. consequences & fun fact of each material

Actual product & play test 3

The Third version of prototyping is the actual physical prototyping (card, map). We conducted the third play test with 2 target group participants Face-to-Face. The playtesting duration is about 3 hours. This version of play testing mainly tests the usability and knowledge of the game. The level chosen is the expert level. The feedback we gained from this prototype is quite positive.

Using colour is helpful in distinguishing the sustainable level of material

→ matching test all correct

Can learn new materials through the material exchange process
The “punishment” can reflect the option is non-sustainable (scenario card)
Exchanging process → use more time to consider when purchasing

Players do not know the Station/ building can be passed

(Feedback)

Solution: Explanation/ elaboration can be added in the character cards/ instruction book

Result of choices

Reject the exchange request should be changed
The result of scenario card can provide some new methods

(Feedback)

Solution:

Reject requests will be applied to all aspects of requests, not only exchange function
The reward result of scenario card can be provided as “draw an action card”

Scenario card need to be translated from English to Chinese

(Observation)

Solution: Draw the scenario card on the apps, which provide Chinese & English two languages

Player's choosing attitude changed during the game. They follow their heart in the beginning and receive negative result, then they start to choose the one that is more sustainable in the middle of game

(Observation)

It is not our expectation, but this also shows that people are able to distinguish which option is more sustainable

For more detail, check out the project individual report

https://www.canva.com/design/DAE--BY1bwo/XyoJ5-ChisKzhq0DiFJaIg/edit?utm_content=DAE--BY1bwo&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Demo video

Based on the research and workshop, we finialise our vision statement, design concept and design solution

Vision Statement:

"To motivate people in becoming responsible consumers by learning sustainable knowledge through board game "

Educatioanl

Educate people with sustainable knowledge through the game

Self-motivation

Through the board game, want people to be self-motivated to learn more about sustainable fashion

Thought-provoking

Want people to reflect on the current situations and make changes to their shopping behaviour

Design Concept

We decided to include a more sustainable fashion economy, which is a circular fashion. But focusing on the buy, upcycle & recycle stages that people can contribute as a consumer. Our design solution is designing a board game to deliver knowledge related to sustainable fashion. Also, educate people to make sustainable decisions and reflect on their shopping behaviour through the game.

Target Audience

The intended audience for our board game consists of secondary school and university students with an interest in playing board games.

Board game design

This is our first time designing an educational board game, so we did research about educational board game and tried to find out their game mechanics and educational features that might help us to get some inspiration to design our game. We found some existing educational board games about waste and managing the factory to minimize the waste produced by the factory. If the factory produces too much waste, they need to pay a hefty cleanup cost. We also went to a board game cafe to play different types of board games to get inspiration. After all these references and examples, we came up with some ideas of how can we design an interesting and educational board game.

Primary goal: educate people (sustainable knowledge)

Secondary goal: meet people with the same interest

Stakeholders' need

We interviewed board game lover & sustainability lover and try to find some common needs or value

To consider their needs, we considered the complexity of the game and decided to design two levels (beginner and expert) to match the differences based on their experience of playing board games. We also added the elements that both stakeholders wanted, such as the interaction between characters, NPC(parent & government) for supervising player's behavior and scenario cards that require players to make decisions.

Gameplay

Choose the level of setting
Players will start from their home
Roll the number of dice and choose the direction of the path to go
Step on material box → roll dice to collect materials （lv 1/ 2) *
Step on the building box → draw a special/chance/item card
Step on the stations → draw a scenario card
After gaining relevant lv2 material, can exchange a lv3 garment
If the player gains over (40/33) points, the game will end

* Lv1 = Raw material (Cotton, linen, polyester)

* Lv2 = Semi-product of the raw material

Lv1

Lv2

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