O’Neill
Bachelors Thesis | 2021
This bachelors project presents a brief overview of presenting a design vision, user research and an end-concept.
Being a clothing brand that focuses on sustainability is only one part of the equation to create positive impact in our environment. The second part is to make that impact lasting among our consumers. This project tackled the following challenge:
How can we as an active clothing brand encourage sustainable behaviour among our users?
Project aim: Encouraging sustainability and shifting consumer behaviour through multi-purposeful design.
Result: A design concept called O’Vision that focuses on consumer behaviour and sustainability.
Keywords: Consumer research, market research, context research, Design Vision, VIP Method, Strategy, Concept Design, qualitative research, quantitative research, CLO3D, Design software tools
Design Vision
The Urban Active consumer
The design brief given by O’Neill was to focus on the urban active consumer with a time span of 2 years in the future (2023). The Urban Active consumer (18-35 years old) is a person who is conscious about the environment and loves to do outdoor activities such as hiking, surfing and snowboarding. At the same time the urban active consumer maintains a fast-paced city life who is always on the move looking for opportunities for work, entertainment and socializing.
Design Research
Rapid mindmapping
A quick exercise of mindmapping to better understand the context of the business of O’Neill. The rapid mindmaps tackle the following topics: O’Neill as a brand, the mindset of an urban active consumer and how to encourage sustainable consumer behaviour.
Quantitative Research
Through quantitative research, I tested design cues and triggers on sustainable behaviour among existing products in the market. I asked participants why a garment with specific characteristics (materials, branding, processes, transparency) could or could not encourage more sustainable behaviour.
Challenge framing
Based on different sources of literature, mind maps, quantitative and qualitative research, I have framed the following challenge: How can we make sustainability and sustainable behaviour more tangible?
Sustainability in the clothing industry is a long-term process which is future-focused. During the process of buying garments or wearing garments sustainability is often perceived as intangible among consumers, without transparency and knowledge. However, the garments that consumer buy are tangible and could create benefit in the short-term.
So how can we get the best of both worlds?
Design Concept – O’Vision
Final Concept
The concept O’Vision aims to bring transparency to a different level, showcasing the positive impact made in production processes of the garment, recycled materials, and coatings. Furthermore, it tries to spark sustainable behaviour by showing different care maintaining tips in order show the environmental impact it has in comparison to regular usage.
Shervin Tjon 