SusMate: A community driven app to fight the greenwashing epidemic in fashion

Project Overview:

SusMate is a concept app I designed to tackle a growing problem in the fashion world: greenwashing. With more consumers trying to shop ethically, many brands have learned how to look sustainable—without actually being so. This creates confusion, skepticism, and decision fatigue.

The idea was simple: what if there were a platform that verified green claims, crowd-sourced reviews, and made sustainable fashion choices easier and more social?

View prototype.

What I worked on:

Product Design

Prototyping

UX Research

UI Design

Wireframing

Design System

The Challenge

Greenwashing is everywhere. Brands slap vague labels like “eco” or “conscious” on products with little evidence or accountability. As a shopper, it’s hard to know who to trust—especially when price, convenience, and aesthetics still drive most decisions.

So the challenge was: how do you build a product that simplifies the complex world of sustainable fashion—and makes it social, empowering, and credible?

MEET MICHELLE - who wants to feel more supported and confident shopping online, through access to reliable information and a community of like minded individuals.

INTERVIEW QUOTES

The amount of individual effort it takes is the toughest. The majority of products aren't good for sustainability and aren't required to be, so you have to carefully select what to buy. There is no widely used standard for what's good and not, hard to come up with your own. I don't think my personal actions will have any significant impact.

The Approach

1. Research & Discovery

In-depth interviews with 5 consumers aged 20–35 who shop online
Key takeaways:
- Effort vs Convenience: the challenge of verifying claims led users to abandon their sustainability goals in favour of more convenient options
- Desire for simplified process: make information more readily accessible and save time
- Building a sense of community: social validation & support system

2. Defining the MVP

The goal: How can we create a more transparent, accessible and collaborative way to promote sustainable shopping?
Core features:
- Claim Verification using simple language and third-party data
- Crowdsourced Reviews from other conscious shoppers
- Brand Scores based on transparency, ethics, and materials
- Blog/Learning Hub to demystify sustainability lingo
- Community feed and Chats to encourage shared tips and progress

3. UX & UI Design

Designed clean, friendly UI with warm tones and soft visuals
Created flows for browsing brands, verifying claims, leaving a review, and saving favorites
Added onboarding to guide new users and set tone of trust + learning
Prioritized accessibility and mobile-first layouts

Easily find a brand within our database, get access to updated information within seconds, fuss free.