Memento

a sustainability-focused fashion platform that helps people build lasting relationships with their clothes ♻️

Overview

Memento is a digital platform designed to promote emotional durability and reduce fashion waste. It combines a virtual closet and AI stylist that reimagines existing garments, a skills hub for learning mending and upcycling, and a community marketplace to swap, buy, and sell clothing. Users can explore short-form articles, quizzes, and DIY lessons, join local events, and track their positive environmental impact through personalized metrics — fostering care, creativity, and collective action around what they own.

Project Type

End-to-End Experience, User Research, Prototyping, Visual Design, Brand & Strategy, Design System

Duration

(2024-2025) 6 Months

Tools

Figma, Google Analytics, Google Surveys

How might we…

transform sustainability from a responsibility into an engaging ecosystem that helps people care for, reinvent, and keep their clothes longer?

Quick Stats

  • 30+ participants engaged across surveys, interviews, and usability testing

  • 100% felt more optimistic and empowered to act sustainably after using Memento

  • 100% reported the Impact Dashboard helped them meaningfully interpret their sustainable choices

  • 100% of tested users said they’d recommend Memento to a friend

  • Increased intent to repair or upcycle among non-sustainable shoppers during post-test follow-ups

  • >90% success rate in usability testing

Team &

Role

Challenge

The Problem

The fashion industry is one of the largest contributors to global waste, fueled by fast fashion and a culture of disposability. While many people want to shop and live more sustainably, research shows they often knowledge or motivation to follow through. Existing sustainability apps focus heavily on shopping alternatives, but few address the root issue: our emotional detachment from clothing. Without stronger personal connections to garments, users are less likely to care for them, repair them, or keep them long-term — perpetuating wasteful cycles.

Opportunity

Business Opportunity

Sustainability is no longer just an ethical concern, it’s a growing market demand. The fashion industry generates 92 million tons of textile waste each year, and three out of five garments are discarded within a year of purchase. At the same time, 73% of Gen Z consumers say that sustainability is extremely important to them, but most lack the knowledge or tools to translate intention into action.

Research

Process

Understanding Problem Scope

The mixed-methods research process combined secondary and primary methods to ground the project in both evidence and user needs. A literature review and landscape audit established the environmental stakes of fast fashion and revealed gaps in existing sustainability apps. To capture real user perspectives, surveys and interviews explored attitudes toward clothing care, time constraints, and sustainable habits.

Research

Methods

Interviews

Gathering Qualitative Data

I conducted eight semi-structured interviews: five with everyday shoppers (ranging from sustainability-minded thrifters to fast-fashion buyers) and three with stakeholders including educators and sustainability advocates. Questions explored shopping habits, clothing care practices, barriers to acting sustainably, and opportunities for learning.

Surveys

Quantitative Data

I designed a survey that gathered 30 responses from a mix of Gen Z and Millennial participants. The survey focused on shopping behaviors, attitudes toward sustainability, and clothing care practices. Findings revealed strong interest in acting more sustainably, but also highlighted major barriers, including lack of time, knowledge, and easy access to resources.

Affinity Map

Making Sense of User Data

To synthesize insights from interviews and surveys, I created an affinity map grouping participants’ quotes, observations, and behaviors into thematic clusters. This visual synthesis revealed patterns in users’ motivations, pain points, and attitudes toward clothing, sustainability, and skill-building.

Key Insights

Competitive

Analysis

Looking at the Market

To understand how sustainability, fashion, and learning intersect in existing solutions, I conducted a landscape audit and competitive analysis. I examined platforms across three dimensions: sustainability education apps (Good On You, Renoon), digital wardrobe tools (Save Your Wardrobe), and resale marketplaces (Vinted, Lucky Sweater). This range revealed how competitors approach learning, community, emotional engagement, and behavior change, and where opportunities remain to combine these elements into a single cohesive experience.

Business Model

Generating Revenue

Memento follows a hybrid business model that blends education, community, and commerce. It operates on a freemium subscription structure for premium learning content and AI styling, while earning small commissions from its swap and resale marketplace. Partnerships with sustainable brands, affiliate links to DIY supplies, and ticketed workshops create additional revenue streams, ensuring the platform can grow sustainably while aligning profit with positive behavior change.

KPIs

Measuring Change

Memento positions sustainability not only as a responsibility, but as an engaging brand differentiator. By blending AR storytelling with accessible learning tools, the app helps extend garment lifecycles and strengthens emotional attachment to clothing. For fashion brands and resale platforms, this translates into clear KPIs.

Personas

Meaningful artifacts, not caricatures

Using user research from drawn from a literature review, surveys, and in-person moderated interviews, I devised three primary personas that would be used to communicate the primary user-pool to stakeholders and those unfamiliar with the project.

User Flows

The Skeleton of UX

I mapped Memento’s user flows to break down each core feature into clear screen-by-screen interactions and decision points.

Learning

Frameworks

Guiding Frameworks

Memento’s app design was intentionally grounded in three learning frameworks to ensure users didn’t just consume information, but that they built lasting skills and mindset shifts.

Wireframes

Early Iterations

Throughout the course of this project, I iterated upon several different versions of wireframes, exploring different features and layouts that would work best to meet user and business needs.

Final UI

Success

Defining Success

To evaluate whether Memento’s design was effective, I defined clear success criteria tied to user goals and project objectives. These criteria focused on usability, engagement, and learning outcomes

Usability

Testing

Testing

I conducted remote usability testing with 8 participants via Zoom for 30-40 min to assess task success, clarity, and overall engagement.

Impact 🎉

Outcomes and Results

Memento’s testing and evaluation demonstrated both usability and behavior change, validating its potential as a tool for sustainable fashion. Outcomes highlighted increased user confidence, measurable knowledge gains, and strong enthusiasm for long-term use.

Limitations

Primary Barriers

While user testing validated Memento’s overall concept and feature set, certain technical and implementation constraints limited the scope of evaluation:

Short-Term Testing Window
While user testing validated Memento’s overall concept and feature set, the limited timeframe prevented assessment of long-term behavior change. I wasn’t able to measure whether skills learned (e.g., garment care, repair, or upcycling) translated into sustained action over months or years.

Prototype Fidelity
Some interactions, such as AI-powered styling or sustainability impact tracking, were tested through mid-fidelity prototypes or Wizard-of-Oz methods. This meant users couldn’t experience the full accuracy, speed, or nuance of these features, which may have affected perceived value.

Reflections

Takeaways

Technology can drive social change when designed with real-world constraints in mind. For Memento, features were intentionally crafted for quick and playful interactions and easy entry points into learning that can fit seamlessly into daily life. Usability testing revealed that while users were motivated to act more sustainably, limited time and competing priorities often got in the way — making accessible, small-scale interventions, such as the ones designed into Memento, essential.