Project Scope
The Student Service Design Challenge is a global design award that celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of designers, in which I had the plasure to participate with a group of friends. The goal was to find a way how to design for more access and less ownership. Reflecting on the way we are living we started thinking about how we the world around us is used to consumpt products. And we realized how values and activities are centred on the consumption of goods and services. Focusing our thoughts reflecting on the impact of the fashion industry me and my team leveraged on the possibility to promote circularity and value the work or small indipendent businness.
Responsabilites
In-dept interviews
User journey mapping
Wireframing
UI Design
Where we started – Methodology
The first phase was to explore the current ownership-oriented economy, to identify potential local opportunities.
→ Milan, is one of the European capitals of fashion and headliner of worldwide trends, with huge impact on fashion industry, has the potential to host innovative solutions reinventing ownership in the clothing sector.
→ Milan has also an abundance of small boutiques being trusted by their customers, but the shop owners interested in sustainability are struggling to implement innovative practices.
Results
Sciur is a tech-enabled network of shared clothing racks located in Milanese boutiques.
Making sustainable clothing accessible for young people using a flexible subscription model to rent clothes, subsequently reducing waste, uplifting the local industry and reshaping self-expression through fashion.
How does the system work
→ Local boutiques receive the garments from the creators and make the selection to put on the Sciur rack.
→ Users can explore the Sciur’s garment offerings at the boutiques and rent them.
→ Users return the items they don’t wish to keep for longer to the Sciur system
→ Sciur does the cleaning of the garments and then decides if the garment can go back to the rack in the shops, sent to the creators to rework/ upcycle or finally to the recycling centers.
Service Orientation
Sciur puts focus on Milan’s context and all stakeholders’ needs and habits to have a positive impact on their behaviours. During the research were identified three different target users: People in Milan, Independent Creators Small clothing brands, Local boutiques.
Businness viability
Sciur offers a subscription-based model to access clothes. We collaborate with independent creators and small businesses, enlisting them in our network. Together, we operate on a shared-risk basis, depending on item rentals and the circulation of clothes within the Sciur network.
Technology
We leverage on the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to facilitate communication between garments and people, track the item and give essential information and instructions to people about the manufacturing of the garment.
Digital Platform
The service is facilitated by the Sciur app, providing relevant information to all involved parties. It serves as an active space that offers a platform and voice to conscientious producers and consumers of clothing, while also facilitating transactions involving items and money.
Sciur offers a seamless experience for users from start to end, transforming their consumption behavior from owning to renting clothes. Through this project, we have challenged our thinking to find ways to promote circularity. To further expand this concept, it will be essential to conduct additional rounds of testing and develop a tangible prototype and digital platform. I thoroughly enjoyed participating in this challenge, and as a finalist, we had the opportunity to delve into the project’s details under the guidance of professional designers from IBM, Philips, and IKEA.
Team memebers: Amarinder Arora, Martina Bon, Marco Finardi, Aurora Serra, Riccardo Torta