Project: Collaborative capstone project for the MDI program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Our client was the retail clothing brand Everlane. We worked with them on a human-centered design project focused on driving growth through sustainability and a circular economy. Over the course of the project, we presented our research, insights, opportunity areas, and designs and received feedback from the client which guided the direction of our project.

Challenge: Everlane presented us with a mission to drive growth with a customer offering around sustainability and circular economy:

• How might Everlane create an offer around resale, reuse, and reinvention?

• How might Everlane customers be incentivized and rewarded within this new economic model?

Update (2025): We presented this concept to the Everlane team in 2021, and a few years later, they launched ReEverlane — a resale program that reflects several ideas we explored, including account-based resale and lifecycle-focused messaging. While independently developed, the initiative echoes the values-driven strategies we proposed to help customers extend the life of their garments through thoughtful, integrated design. ReEverlane enables users to initiate resale listings directly from their Everlane account via a Poshmark integration, closely mirroring the My Closet feature we envisioned.

My Role: UI/UX Designer, Design Researcher

Timeline: January - May 2021

Project Partner: Kathryn Ulrich

Tools: Figma

My Contribution: For this project, I conducted design research through interviews, ethnographic observation, online research and a competitive analysis. I worked with my project partner, Kathryn, to synthesize our data, identify key insights and opportunity areas, and ideate design solutions. I was the primary visual designer for our prototypes and used Everlane’s design system, which the client shared with us.

See the Final Prototype

For this project, our team conducted 17 interviews, ethnographic observation at nine stores, two card sort activities, a competitive analysis and comprehensive online research. We also created two journey maps in order to understand how users purchase and dispose of clothes.

Interviews

We interviewed a textile industry expert, the Director of Sustainability at Everlane, three store owners, five store employees, six shoppers, and one sustainability expert in another industry.

Ethnographic research at a local thrift store

We visited the St. Vincent de Paul Dig & Save Outlet and found many pieces from fast fashion brands in the clothing bins. We also came across several unworn items with the tags still on them.

Comparing circular economy programs at Madewell and The North Face.

We recycled a pair of jeans at Madewell through their Blue Jeans Go Green program. Madewell store associates were knowledgable about the program and noted that the bin of jeans has to be emptied several time a week. We visited The North Face store and found that the associates were less knowledgable about North Face’s Clothes the Loop program, and they noted that the bin was only emptied every few weeks.

Card Sorts

We carried out two card sorts. In the Company Ranking card sort, we found that Apple was noted as one of the top ranked companies in the Best Quality category, Patagonia was recognized as one of the most sustainable brands, and participants seemed to identify most strongly with sporting brand companies

In the Idea card sort, we found that participants were most receptive to participating in clothing donation and thrift shopping activities. In general, participants were less likely to do a clothing trade-in membership, but some were open to participating in a local artist clothing collaboration.

Competitive Analysis

In a competitive analysis of the most sustainable clothing brands in the industry, Everlane did well on 5 of the 7 criteria. Their sustainability initiatives were prominent on the website, they had a statement on sustainability, they didn't appear to be greenwashing the brand, they outlined specific sustainable practices, and they promoted in some way a circular economy. Missing from the website was a detailed history of sustainability and a sustainable partnership with customers.

The best performing competitors were Patagonia and Reformation, who met every criteria. Companies that performed worse than Everlane were Allbirds, Rothy's, and Pact.

Journey Maps

From the online research we conducted, we identified the key decision points that occur during ownership for both clothing and cars. The clothing ownership reveals multiple decision points in which clothing ends up in the landfill after short periods of time even when sustainable actions, like donating, occur. The car ownership shows a more robust ability to resell and salvage most components of the vehicles to reduce the amount that goes into the landfill. These journey maps also provide alternative views of two different commodities at very different price points. This attests to how consumers view their purchase decisions; investment or disposable. 

Key Insights

Insight #1: The term "sustainability" has been used so broadly, frequently, and inauthentically that customers are becoming desensitized to the word.

Insight #2: Because of how clothing has been devalued, consumers are less mindful of how they purchase, care for, and dispose of their clothing.

Fast fashion consumerism and the throwaway culture have shaped people's relationship with their clothes in modern society.

Insight #3: Customers take advantage of well-executed sustainable products and circular economy programs.

The customer's financial constraints and personal style & preferences also need to be taken into account to be successful.

Insight #4: Sustainability is a journey, but companies often frame it as a destination in their initiatives and messaging.

Insight #5: Most customers do not ask for more sustainable options or actions; it is the company's responsibility to create the change and push the narrative.

Insight #6: Mindful consumption is the first step to living sustainably.

Opportunity Area #2: Expand radical transparency to include educating customers about the production of their clothing, from field to closet.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER

The fashion industry is the second-biggest consumer of water and responsible for 8% of carbon emissions.

WHAT WE CAN DO

Providing a radical education to consumers will allow them to understand the impact of each piece that they consume, and through this, we can promote mindful purchasing and inspire change to offset their impact and value their clothing in a new light.

Opportunity Area #3: Maximize the status that Everlane has in the minimalism space and connect the idea of living simply to sustainability.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER

Buying less is better than buying green or more sustainable items.

WHAT WE CAN DO

Encourage customers to only buy what is essential. This will help them make more thoughtful purchases, minimize their environmental impact, and communicate that Everlane is a responsible company.

Prototyping

From the insights gathered and opportunity areas identified, we began to ideate further on how to bring forth a product that captures all of the critical touch points within the product ownership journey and turns them into educational and actionable moments. The prototype evolves from low fidelity to high fidelity in order to ensure the most impactful and user experience. 

First Sketches and Early Concepts

Our first concept for Everloved was centered around a customer experience in which users could scan an Everlane piece using computer vision technology to get to the product detail page of the piece.

From the product detail page, users could learn information about the environmental impact, lifespan and sustainability of the piece, find repair and care instructions, and resell or recycle the piece.

After some reflection, we realized that the most natural and effortless way to curate this experience for customers would be to integrate all of their orders into Everloved and give them the option to add a piece to their closet in cases where they didn’t use their account to make the purchase.

Impact Point Structure

Everloved Prototype 1.0

Using a retail product detail page provided by Everlane, we built out our first prototype that included the following screens:

• Everloved Menu

• My Closet’s Impact

• Closet Catalog

• Product Detail Page (and an Issues Modal Window for the screen)

User Testing

We tested our entire prototype with four users and then got additional feedback from the students and instructors in our course during a feedback session. 

Only one of the four users we tested had ever purchased something from Everlane before. When testing the product, we wanted to gather first impressions and get a sense of whether or not Everloved's features would even be interesting to customers. We got insightful feedback about the information about user interest as well as feedback about the user interface design.

POSITIVE FEEDBACK

• "I've never shopped at Everlane, but just looking at this page makes me feel connected to this brand. Because I feel like we’re on a mission together."
  

• "I purchased this couch from Room & Board. I’ve gone back to their website several times to look at their fabric care...I’ve gone back several times years later, so I think this would be something I would come back to."

CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK

• "The 1200 gallons would be a deterrent to buy... (say something like) 'uses 30% less than industry standard' so that people don’t have to know the number because that made me feel guilty and weird."

• "Different tutorials are neat, just need to make sure they tie to specific problems. I don't want to be spending all my time searching for a specific solution" 

Mitigating Risk

Based on the findings from user testing, we identified two primary areas of risk in our prototype: My Closet's Impact and Product Care. Some users expressed that they felt deterred from purchasing clothing after seeing how impact information related to CO2 and water was displayed in the prototype. 

Some users also noted that they weren't sure if repair tutorials would be something they would look at often. Because original Product Care content isn't offered by a major clothing retailer, we wanted to further test and iterate on this part of the prototype. 

RISK INNOVATION AREA 1: MY IMPACT

Testing: Usability Testing (Impression)

• Enable education without the negative feelings

• Ease of comprehension of the information

• Duality of positive and negative impact balancing and the emotions associated (credit score)

• How to incentivize sustainable actions

RISK INNOVATION AREA 2: REPAIR

Testing: Testing: Usability Testing & Survey

• How people see their clothing issues

• Customer willingness to take advantage of the education

• Ideal education format, time length, and skillset

• Most desirable skills and knowledge to acquire 

User Journeys

To help illustrate how Everloved would be used, we created user journey videos for the final prototype. Leo's user journey shows the experience of a new Everlane customer, and Lily's user journey shows the experience of a loyal Everlane customer. 

Discovering Everloved

Customers are introduced to the principles of Everloved through transparent product information and education on the retail product detail pages, where users can click on materials and care information that will lead them to Product Care videos, learn about the lifespan, impact and sustainability of the item, and compare the impact of the items with similar products.

Everloved on Everlane

Many Everlane customers will find Everloved through promotional emails or social media, but Everloved can be accessed on everlane.com from the Homepage and the website’s hamburger menu. After tapping on Everloved, users will be taken to the Everloved menu, where they can navigate to the My Closet, Resell + Recycle, Product Care and My Everlane Impact pages.

Everloved Product Detail Page

When a user taps on an item, they will go to the Everloved product detail page. From this page, users can quickly resell, recycle or repair an item. When a user taps on resell or recycle, they will go to a Everlane x thredUP page on thredUP’s website where they can learn about the the the partnership and activate or order a Clean Out Kit to resell or recycle their pieces.

When a user taps on Repair, an Issue Menu will launch where users can select an issue with the piece. This takes the user to a relevant tutorial video where they can learn how to repair the piece.

The Everloved product detail page is educational at its foundation. Care information on the page is clickable and takes users to Product Care tips and tutorials where they can learn more about how to care for the fabric or material, learn about the lifespan of the piece, and learn about the environmental impact and sustainability of the piece.

Resell + Recycle

A partnership between Everlane and thredUP will help customers reduce their impact by extending the life of their pieces. Through the partnership, customers can order a free Clean Out bag or print a free shipping label to ship their pieces to thredUP and earn Everlane store credit for any items that meet thredUP’s quality standards, and any leftover items are sold to third parties or responsibly recycled.

Product Care

Product Care tips, tutorials and fabric care information are accessible directly from the product detail page, but users can also search the wealth of Everloved original content from the Product Care page. Here users can view the most popular Everloved content, jump directly to Tips, Tutorials, or Fabric Care content, or content can be searched for or filtered using the search bar and filter functionality.

My Everlane Impact

On My Everlane Impact, users can keep view their Impact points that they’ve earned from reselling, recycling or repairing their items. They can also review their total environmental impact for related to CO2 and water, the number of pieces they’ve bought, repaired, resold, and recycled and see other options they have to reduce their impact. When a user taps on one of the tiles on the My Everlane Impact page, they can view more contextual information about their impact.

Reduce Your Impact

On the Reduce Your Impact page, users are directed toward more ways that they can reduce their impact through buying used clothing, repairing, reselling, and recycling clothing, and through purchasing carbon offsets.

Offset Your Carbon Impact

Offset Your Carbon Impact allows users to offset their CO2 emissions by purchasing carbon offsets through Everlane’s partnership with Native Energy.