Climate CoLab - NIKE
Climate CoLab is an open problem-solving platform where people with a broad range of expertise are welcome to submit, evaluate, and select proposals for what to do about various aspects of the climate change problem.
Scope
Problem framing
Concept development
Validation
User testing
Client
Duration
NIKE
2016
Spring - Summer
My Role
Project Manager
User Research
Design Strategy
Climate Colab + Nike
Materials Matter
How can we spark a materials revolution by rethinking how we value and use them?
WHAT'S THE CONTEXT
The MIT Climate CoLab, in collaboration with Nike, Inc., launched a new competition called Materials Matter. This competition seeks physical, social, and cultural innovations that could help transform the way we view, make, and use materials. This could include ways to affect consumer behavior and design choices, as well as ways to impact the supply chain.
CHALLENGE
By analyzing The fashion Sector and Nike’s business model in particular and their strategic partnerships, identify areas of opportunity to create new business interventions or models that can be developed.
Project can be in the form of the following:
● Technical solutions
● New business models
● Interactive solutions or platforms
● Educational tools or resources
● Awareness campaigns
● Corporate solutions
OUTCOME
Nike Infinity - A sustainable behavior tracker
We proposed to create an add-on app service which can be plug in the existing exercise App such as NIKE+ running to be easier to rise individual's awareness towards sustainability.
Nike & MIT CoLab contest
Our proposal has been selected as one of the finalists for Nike & MIT CoLab contest.
DESIGN APPROACH
During the Hear stage, we collected stories and inspiration from target communities using tools and strategies like individual or group interviews, context immersion, desktop research, self-documentation, and expert interviews.
The Create stage is where we “translate” the information collected during the Hear Stage into “frameworks, opportunities, and solutions.” In this stage we move from the “concrete” details and scenarios to abstract insights.
The Deliver stage involves repeated prototyping, mini-pilots and pilot projects with the goal of delivering a sustainable product. The stage includes learning, iteration, measurement and evaluation to create a lasting, sustainable and useful product.
WHY IS THIS
A PROBLEM?
Environmental Impact of Fashion Industry
The materials we use to clothe ourselves and cover our things have a profound impact on the climate. Before we can advance and scale innovation in materials, we need to build an understanding of the challenges and opportunities that exist.
IDENTIFY THE OPPORTUNITY
From our analysis we concluded that the industry was developing sustainable solutions in terms of materials along the value chain and there were different actors performing these activities. However, there was a disconnection between these efforts and what the consumer was perceiving.
Brand Communication
Although the apparel industry invest millions in marketing campaigns, few of those millions are spent in campaigns that showcase the efforts in terms of material sustainability.
Employee Training
The brand performs outstanding activities in terms of sustainability performance and innovation. However, the people in charge of the communication strategy at a retail level, don’t participate in these conversations.
Customer Awareness
Customers unaware about the great initiatives taken by NIKE in terms of environment and sustainability. Customers are not connected with the internal part of the brand.
360 HOLISTIC RESEARCH OF FASHION INDUSTRY
Here we highlight part of our research related to consumer behavior and brand communication to see if we can find the tipping point to make change around material consumption.
PERSONA
Brand communication
KEY FINDING
Brand communication
02/
Customization
01/
"Better" than "Greener"
03/
Recycle program
Brands want to express a better, more differentiated value proposition beyond being “green.” Brands don´t want to say they are sustainable because of liabilities
More sustainable materials already exist and are being under utilized due to cost and a lack of incentives.
Added customization with new materials and processes to products will avoid products being easily discarded.
People recycle based on efficiency, convenience and/or for incentives—currently only 15% of textiles get recycled.
AFFINITY MAPPING
Consumer behavior
PERSONA
Consumer behavior - Athlete
User Needs
Athletes want to perform and take care of health, top priority are shoes, then equipment and then apparel.
-
Shoes= Lower impact, healthier joints, comfortable Journey
-
Equipment=Safety and Performance
-
Apparel= Comfortability and Identity
User Goals
When the goal goes beyond ‘looking good, to get a significant other, get attention or recognition’ people tend to create a sustained active life behaviour. Feeling good is often more rewarding.
KEY FINDING
Consumer behavior
01/
Treasure Hunt
People see thrifting experience as “treasure hunt” Takes more time and digging to find a good item that has positive benefit: uniqueness, attractive price point and multi-use.
02/
Sustainable Choices
Sustainable awareness starts from influence from their close network, or a close interaction with the extreme situation. Behaviour change is empowered by a direct motivation to do good. Price is a real trade off when making the decision, if benefits are clear, comparable and measurable.
03/
Behavior Change
Being an active person creates awareness around one's body; health, food and performance. Tools like FitBit leverage gamification to engage users by tracking their health information and motivating them to achieve greater goals.
TREND MAPPING
It is important to try to find a pattern in the evolution of trends and grasp what is going to be the main drive factor for emerging economy. Trend Mapping will help us to identify and curate a framework to guide us develop a direction for the ideas generated from this project which would be effective, productive and sustainable in the present and near future.
Brainstorming
"How Might We..."
OPPORTUNITY
How might we motivate people to reduce material consumption by understanding their own behavior?
THE SOLUTION
Nike Infinity
An add-on app service for Nike Infinity members only which can be plug in the existing exercise App such as NIKE+ running which has features as below:
Infinity Collection
A whole new collection which are made from sustainable materials and combined with the latest wearable technology as incentives for consumers to keep choosing sustainable material products.
Gear Wardrobe
A virtual closet for your sports outfits that helps you track your performance and unlock the new collection once achieve certain goal.
City Journey
An outdoor exercise interactive service. This provides running route advice for users about road/ environmental conditions such as traffic, accidents, and weather.
PROTOTYPE SESSION
Validate initial concepts
Validate initial concepts
Aims
When the goal goes beyond ‘looking good, to get a significant other, get attention or recognition’ people tend to create a sustained active life behaviour. Feeling good is often more rewarding.
Paper Prototype
1st Iteration
Aims
With the low fidelity paper prototype, we aim to test how will the concept features resonate with NIKE plus active users.
Outcome
-
Indicate GHG reduction during the outdoor exercise session.
-
Add “Dress me” feature
-
A collection of intelligent sportswear which can track and improve the performance of exercise and health.
Online Questionarrie
2nd Iteration
Aims
This survey aims to understand how users apply wearable tech device into their daily life and the possible incentives for them to adopt the latest wearable technology.
Outcome
-
Users tend to purchase smart clothes provide accurate exercise insights and health data, however, price is the major concern.
-
Changing the current buyout model, we pivot to subscription business model which can reduce the cost and align the product with latest technology.
Street Interview
3rd Iteration
Aims
To determine the feasibility of the subscription program for an innovative sportswear garment and also investigate consumers’ average spending on sportswear.
Outcome
-
On average, people spend USD 30 a month or USD 350 ~ 400 annually on new sportswear.
-
Therefore, our proposed USD 20 per month subscription fee would be receptive to the general public.
SERVICE CONCEPT
Our Packaged Solution
WIREFRAME
Mobile APP - Gear Wardrobe & City Journey
DIGITAL PROTOTYPE
A low fidelity UI design created by Adobe XD
FINAL THOUGHTS
& TAKEAWAYS
Presentation to NIKE
Putting six months effort into research process and having learned how textile consumption may damage the environment, we pitched our concept to the key stakeholder - NIKE. It was an unforgettable experience for me because it allowed me as a designer to communicate my ideas clearly and convince the client to take steps.
Research Activities
In order to collect as much insights from stakeholders as possible, there were tons interviews during the research process. Although I didn't have good connections in New York back then, I tried to reach out to people through multiple channels such as LinkedIn. It's a unique experience that I step out of my comfort zone kicking off conversations with interviewees.
TEAM
Mika Chang / Project Management, Design Research
Shuharn Yeh / Design Research, Feasibility Study
Kaveh Moeinzadeh / UI Wireframe Design
READ FULL REPORTS HERE
Design Research
Innovation Proposal
