February 2021 – Present
UX/UI Design, User Research, Prototyping & Video Pitch
Figma, Illustrator, Miro, Rotato & Final Cut Pro X
Best Pitch Award
Winner of BASF’s Circular Economy Challenge
Circular ONE is my winning hackathon project that is currently in pre-seed funding phase in its journey to becoming a official startup.
It aims to minimise textile waste and accelerate ‘Circular Economy’ by sparking motivation in consumers and other stakeholders in the value chain.
Its a technologically advanced blockchain-based waste management platform that incentives waste collection amongst users and closes the loop in the textile industry by connects all stakeholders in the value chain.
BASF Germany is one of the few companies looking for sustainable growth and in turn be a part of the circular economy. We were asked to ideate and conceptualize a platform that’ll facilitate this circular economy for textile waste that involves all the stakeholders, from consumers to the recyclers and back to the consumers. Give waste a new life!
We needed to identify people’s needs and how to satisfy those without killing our planet.
Why do people discard clothes carelessly?
Why do people in developed countries use & discard more than their underdeveloped counterparts?
Why do most of the discarded clothes end up in landfills?
How do we accelerate circular economy in textiles?
Why is fast fashion the way to go nowadays?
How do we make people use sustainable fashion?
After deep searching the internet and interviewing experts later, we ended up concluding that this problem is threefold:
They (especially the Gen-Z’s) are ones buying fast fashion of what’s trending. But not incentivising their return of clothes & lack of awareness leaves them feeling demotivated and ignorant to the facts.
They’re constantly looking for innovative yet cheap ways to make fashion. After all, they’re in the business of selling. They end up choosing non-eco-friendly materials because of the wide availability and inexpensiveness.
The remaining stakeholders in the value chain want to make the best use of the available resources but can’t do so because of the huge effort that’s required to collect, sort and recycle the clothing.
We now needed to understand what influences a consumer’s mindset in buying fashion.
Consumers appreciate more transparency in the textile value chain as to whether or not their clothes are recycled or dumped in a landfill
1/3 people were choosing to buy from brands they believe are doing environmental good
73% of consumers would change their consumption habits to reduce their impact on the environment, and almost half (46%) would switch to environmentally friendly products
Design & material quality is the top motivator for people to buy sustainable fashion
After the COVID-19 crisis, consumers are open to purchasing more durable fashion as well as repairing and keeping them longer
Eco-friendly logos and labels can be used to nudge consumers toward sustainable fashion, food consumption and eco-friendly offerings
"The biggest challenge isn't technology—it's creating economic incentives that align all stakeholders toward circularity." - Sustainability Expert, Textile Industry
"Consumers want to do the right thing, but they need to see tangible impact and receive recognition for their efforts." - Behavioral Psychology Researcher
Finally, we needed to remind them how much of a positive impact they’ll be making if they return their clothing like litres of water saved, CO2 emissions prevented, etc.
This extra boost was a pivotal reminder to push them towards sustainable alternatives.
Another way is to introduce a green label and using sustainable blockchain tech (like IOTA) we can keep track of a certain piece of clothing from its manufacture to where it ends up using the concept of a ‘Digital Twin’.
One way to do that was to partner with OEMs like Zara, H&M, Inditex, etc and incentivise every piece of clothing returned to them with vouchers, etc
Using our research data, I summarized the functionalities that the app will solve to get a clearer picture.
Once the functions were in place, I needed to map out the user flows for different functions of the app.
Now, I needed to design an experience that can accommodate these functionalities and flows without compromising on the user experience.
How do consumers know about and track their purchased clothing while also being aware of its present status?
Each individual item manufactured has its own unique Token ID attached to it which enables you to track it using the decentralized tech of Blockchain.
How do users keep tabs on their rewards?
Every item of clothing returned gains rewards in the form of vouchers, Circular Coin (our cryptocurrency), donating to a worthy cause, etc. Every reward received gets transferred to their CircularONE wallet from where they can keep track.
How do users know about our partner brands and locate them to shop and return clothes?
For better efficiency, we decided to ask consumers to return their clothes to one of our partner brands. In order to do that, they need to be able to know who are our partners and which is the nearest store.
How do users redeem their rewards inside the app?
How do we give them more knowledge about this platform and initiative?
Where should the sponsored content be shown (for ad revenue)?
The best solution for the 3 primary challenges was to have a dedicated section for each of those. This meant the user can focus on one task at a time, reducing cognitive load.
A ‘Home’ section where one can track their clothing, a ‘Discover’ page dedicated to our partner brands and a ‘Wallet’ section to keep track of their rewards.
We also decided to have an extra page named ‘Spend’ where we allow users to spend the rewards that they earned for their good deeds 🙂.
The concept of Home was very simple – I need to give a quick glance at their most important stuff such as wallet, clothes bought & sold, tracking of each article of clothing (using non-fungible Tokens) and any promotional posters from our partner brands.
To solve this, I included a few of the wallet data like current balance, exchange rate and its growth. These are the most common data points people generally use typically with their wallets.
To solve this, I included a few of the wallet data like current balance, exchange rate and its growth. These are the most common data points people generally use typically with their wallets.
I also clearly segmented clothing bought and clothing sold for an easier scanning experience. So under ‘Bought’ they’ll be able to focus on the article’s characteristics and manufacture details and under ‘Sold’ they’ll be able to focus on where their clothing end up being (it could be used in someone’s tesla, you never know :D).
Each card corresponds to an article of clothing that they had purchased or returned and also shows the current status & Token ID for future references. Once a card is opened, all the information about that respective item is shown along with its predicted destination. There’s a QR code of the digital twin too which can be shared around for people to try on that item virtually (digital fashion).
This section of the app experience is dedicated to our partner brands and our knowledge section that enlightens users with anything interesting happening in the world of sustainable tech.
I also clearly segmented clothing bought and clothing sold for an easier scanning experience. So under ‘Bought’ they’ll be able to focus on the article’s characteristics and manufacture details and under ‘Sold’ they’ll be able to focus on where their clothing end up being (it could be used in someone’s tesla, you never know :D).
The ‘Know’ subsection keeps the users up to date with intriguing stuff in sustainable tech. The mode of content delivery can be anything but primarily videos and bite-sized content to begin with, as the TikTok era has made people’s attention span limited.
This section solves one of the more important challenges – to show their rewards and give them insights about their returned clothes.
The first thing you see is your current Circular Coin balance and a graph showing its past performance and future predictions.
Up next, users see insights about their returned clothes, how much water they’ve helped save, how much CO2 they’ve prevented, etc. This serves as an extra push for them to act on change and accelerate circular economy. I’m gonna be honest here, it sure does feel good to do good haha :D. Right?
As the name suggests, this section is designed for you to reap the benefits of your good deed.
Here, there are various options where you can redeem your rewards with. You can choose to get gift cards from partner brands, support honourable & charitable causes, etc. Let’s spend!
The final hurdle I was yet to cross was how to showcase sponsored content, which was very important to our revenue model. There were 2 ways to allow this without cluttering the design.
This chosen colour palette resonated the best with the idea and its pastel nature gives it a friendly tone too.
For eg, the card to show the clothes (bought & sold) shows key data at a glance like the Token ID, Current status, Name, Color, etc.
And the fact that it hides away when you scroll down, makes it even more immersive to use.
I’m a big fan of fonts & font pairings because a well-chosen pairing can give the right tone and emotions to a design.
These, paired together, gave a sense of openness and sophistication.
The app solved the challenges that was put our way and effectively. This ended up winning us the ‘BASF Challenge Award’ and ‘Best Pitch Award’! Winning these 2 awards is the best feedback we could have!
Circular ONE represents more than just a hackathon project—it's a proof of concept for how technology can solve real-world environmental challenges while creating economic value for all participants. The success of this project demonstrates the power of user-centered design combined with innovative technology to address complex, systemic problems.
The transition from hackathon winner to potential startup has reinforced the importance of thorough user research, stakeholder alignment, and creating genuine value propositions for all participants in a circular economy. As we move toward funding and launch, the focus remains on maintaining the user experience quality that made this project successful while scaling to create meaningful environmental impact.
