Document 01 · Product Source of Truth
The why and the what,
in one place.
The frozen strategy and research behind Threadwise: the problem, the user, the insights, the point of view, the principles, the MVP scope, the flow, and the decisions — the spine every hi-fi screen must pass.
01At a glance
A shopper reads the fiber-content label into Threadwise — by typing it or photographing it — and gets a fast, honest, shame-free verdict on whether the garment is worth buying, judged on its material. It works exactly where brand-rating apps go blind: the unbranded and thrifted item.
What
A fabric-label decision tool that returns a calm verdict at the moment of purchase.
Who
The sustainability-curious, non-expert shopper who already reads labels.
Problem
People want to choose better but feel powerless, distrust brand claims, and can’t read the one honest signal — the fiber label.
Decision moment
Garment in hand, label visible — a yes-or-no on this one item.
Differentiator
Item-level material judgment, sustainability-led, uniquely useful on unbranded and thrifted items.
Stance
Honest broker: states what the fabric is and gets out of the way. No guilt, no upsell.
02Context & vision
A portfolio case study, not a production product — built to demonstrate senior product thinking and real fluency with AI as a design material.
AI in the back
The expensive AI work runs once, offline, to build a frozen reference database. The shipped product makes no AI calls at runtime and the user never talks to an AI. The intelligence is absorbed at build time so the front stays instant, private, and calm.
Concept vs production
Settled physical facts about fibers are real and free, so they are used as real. A certified sustainability score is proprietary and expensive, so the composite is a transparent, self-authored model on top of those facts, openly labeled illustrative. The moment a task starts to feel like running a real company is the edge of the frame — and the response is to stop or simplify.
The ambition
Success is a better purchase, and eventually a shopper who has learned enough to read labels themselves and need the tool less. A good teacher works toward being unnecessary. The vision is bounded on purpose: Threadwise does one honest thing well, and does not try to solve sustainability, rate every brand, or manage a wardrobe.
03The problem
The real problem is a human decision problem, not a missing feature. The barrier is not a lack of facts — it is powerlessness and the fear of getting it wrong.
Powerlessness, not ignorance
Guilt and overwhelm — not a lack of knowledge — are what stop the behavior.
The label is hard to read
“80% viscose, 20% elastane” is the trusted signal shoppers can least interpret.
Claims can’t be trusted
Sustainability info is scattered, jargon-heavy, and greenwashed — and never present at the decision.
Loneliest when unbranded
The decision is fastest and hardest on the thrifted item brand tools structurally cannot judge.
04Target user
Built for one person, not everyone. Narrowing to this user is what keeps the product sharp.
User type
Sustainability-curious, non-expert. Reads food and skincare labels; wants the same for clothing.
Context
Fitting room or aisle, or online. Standing, seconds to spare, one hand free, sometimes offline. Increasingly secondhand.
Goals
Choose better quickly, feel confident, avoid the guilt of getting it wrong.
Frustrations
Labels they can’t decode, claims they can’t trust, help that is never there when it counts.
Behaviour
Fast and physical. Wants one glanceable answer, distrusts anything like a sales pitch or a lecture.
Not for
Supply-chain researchers, brand analysts, or people who want a wardrobe manager.
05User decision journey
The arc Threadwise serves: from doubt, through a calm verdict, to a confident decision the shopper can act on and move past.
Before · doubt
Powerless at the shelf
Garment in hand, label unreadable, claims untrusted. Wants to choose well but fears getting it wrong — especially on an unbranded or thrifted piece.
Feeling: overwhelmedDuring · the read
One honest signal
Types or scans the fiber label. Threadwise returns a calm verdict, a score with an “illustrative” cue, and one plain reason — in one breath, no scroll.
Feeling: orientedAfter · capability
A decision, then out
Buys or skips with confidence, having learned a little about the material. Nothing saved, nothing uploaded — the tool steps back.
Feeling: capable06Key insights
Four insights from the research, each written as a design directive. Every design choice should walk back up to one of these, or it is decoration.
The barrier is powerlessness, not ignorance
People fail to shop sustainably because they feel their choice doesn’t matter and fear getting it wrong — not because they lack facts.
Implication: the first job is a confident, shame-free verdict that makes the user feel effective, not an education.
They trust the label because brands lie to them
Greenwashing has trained shoppers to distrust brand claims, leaving the legally required content label as the one signal they believe. Trust is scarce.
Implication: read the label, and openly state the score is illustrative, not certified. Honesty is the moat.
The decision is fast, physical, and loneliest where every tool goes blind
It happens standing up, in seconds, most acute on the unbranded or thrifted garment brand tools can’t judge.
Implication: design for the shelf — speed, glanceability, offline — and own the moment no incumbent can follow.
A single score is both what they want and what can hurt them
People crave one glanceable answer, and that same simplicity can mislead, shame, and flatten nuance.
Implication: deliver the verdict, but calibrate severity honestly, show the facts beneath, never shame, gently correct myths.
07Product point of view
A practical, non-judgmental, honest broker for real shopping moments.
Practical, not idealistic
Helps decide about the item in hand. It does not demand a lifestyle or moralize.
Non-judgmental
Every verdict is factual and calm. “Better to skip,” never “bad.”
Tradeoff-based
Surfaces real tradeoffs in plain words — great for the planet, weak on durability.
Decision-support
States a verdict and steps back. It never tells the user what to buy instead.
For the moment of purchase
Fast, glanceable, offline, one-handed. The whole product lives in one moment.
Not trying to be perfect
Openly an illustrative model on real facts. That honesty is the source of trust.
08Design principles
Six principles resting on a low-tech, secure-attachment philosophy: teach through use, orient rather than trap, return the user to the world, measure capability not engagement.
| # | Principle | Meaning | How it shows up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Answer in one breath | A verdict in seconds, or it has failed the shelf. | The peek gives verdict, score, and reason with zero scroll. |
| 2 | Anchor on the honest signal, and be honest yourself | Read the label; admit the score is illustrative. | The “illustrative, meant to guide” cue sits next to the score and on About. |
| 3 | Guide, never shame | An honest verdict in calm words; never leave the user judged. | Calm Skip, “better to skip” not “bad,” a factual reason line. Non-shaming now rests entirely on tone. |
| 4 | Honest about nuance, never preachy | Surface real tradeoffs briefly, only when they help. | Blend notes, natural-vs-synthetic reality, durability and care, in plain words. |
| 5 | Quiet by default, on the user’s device | No accounts, no cloud, no AI in the face, no mechanics. | Runs on device, nothing uploaded, works offline, no engagement loops. |
| 6 | Built for the messy real world | Misreads, blends, unknown fibers, missing labels are first-class. | Confirm-the-read, partial and unknown states, multi-component handling. |
The refusals — hard lines, rejected on sight
09MVP scope
Text-first, single-garment, sustainability-led, with a practical durability-and-care layer. Text exercises the entire data-to-verdict logic at the least technical risk; the photo path is additive realism on a working core.
- Single-garment input — type or scan the label
- Forgiving parser + fiber-name normalization + frozen fiber database
- The verdict: scoring model, blend rules, verdict bands
- Material explanation: what it is, end of life, microplastic flag
- Durability & care notes (qualitative)
- Multi-component handling (lined coats, blazers)
- Unhappy paths: partial, unknown, low-confidence, offline, error
- About: method, honesty cue, privacy · plus a clean closure moment
- Compare 2–5 garments Designed & ready as Phase 2; seams reserved
- Wardrobe-level insights Needs persistence + account
- Brand-level analysis Would cede the wedge
- Purchase history Needs accounts + storage
- Certified lifecycle scoring Proprietary data, out of frame
- Community / reviews Pure engagement machinery
- EU Digital Product Passport ingestion Depends on a maturing data layer
10Main user flow
Single garment. The result is a card that rises over a dimmed Home and expands on tap — the resolved flow direction that serves the rapid re-check wedge.
11Future comparison flow
Designed and wireframed, but not in the MVP. Useful when a shopper is choosing between several similar garments — most naturally on a thrift rack or a search page.
12Scoring, in brief
The verdict is a calm, illustrative signal — a large number with its verdict word and an “illustrative, meant to guide” cue, never a precise gauge. The full engine lives in its own document.
End of life is weighted highest because it is the product’s clearest differentiator and the least understood by shoppers. Blends graduate the end-of-life penalty rather than hard-capping to the lowest fiber — so a 97% cotton, 3% elastane tee does not read as “skip.” Multi-component (lined) garments carry one headline verdict anchored on the shell, with the lining as an honest modifier. Durability and care are surfaced as qualitative notes, not folded into the score.
13Content & tone
Voice: calm, plain, warm. Short sentences, common words. A knowledgeable friend who shops with you — never a lecturer or a salesperson.
Guiding metaphor
Fabric is ingredients — for your skin and for the planet. Read the label as you would on food.
Working tagline
“Read the fabric, not the marketing.” Supporting: “fabric is ingredients, read the label.”
Terminology
“Breaks down,” not “biodegrades.” “Sheds tiny plastic fibers,” not “microplastic pollution.” “Better to skip,” never “bad.”
Honesty cues (central)
“Scores are illustrative, meant to guide, not certify.” “Everything stays on your device.”
14Information architecture
Deliberately flat. Three places, no hierarchy, no menus to browse.
Progressive disclosure is the mechanism that lets one screen serve both a two-second glance and a curious drill-down: the peek shows verdict, score, and reason; everything else waits for the expand; the five score dimensions wait behind the “why this score” accordion.
15Decision log
The confirmed decisions that govern hi-fi. Use this to refer back rather than re-litigate.
| Area | Decision | Why | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Target user | The sustainability-curious, label-reading non-expert — not everyone | Sharpness beats breadth | Confirmed (persona untested) |
| Concept vs production | Concept case study, real fiber facts + illustrative composite | Certified data out of frame; honesty is itself the artifact | Confirmed |
| AI architecture | Build-time AI to a frozen database, zero runtime AI | Speed, trust, privacy, offline, zero per-use cost | Confirmed |
| MVP scope | Text-first, single garment, sustainability-led + durability/care | Exercises full logic at least risk | Confirmed |
| Single-garment flow | Card over a dimmed Home, tap to expand | Glance + context-keeping + focus; serves rapid re-check | Confirmed · test re-check |
| Future comparison | Session-only tray, 2–5, Phase 2 | Opt-in, additive, honors no-accounts | Confirmed for Phase 2 |
| Scoring model | Weighted composite, end of life highest, calm bands | End of life is the clearest differentiator | Confirmed · numbers need validation |
| Blend / trace-synthetic | Graduate the end-of-life penalty, don’t hard-cap | A 97% cotton tee must not read as Skip | Confirmed |
| Multi-component | One verdict anchored on the shell, lining as modifier | Lined garments common in the wedge | Confirmed |
| Suggestions | Remove all purchase suggestions; state the verdict and stop | Keeps it a pure honest broker | Confirmed |
| Design system | Expressive heritage “festival” system, as shipped, is canonical | Distinctive, real POV, disciplined by calm base / loud heroes | Confirmed · final |
| Product name | Keep Threadwise | Good, and used throughout | Confirmed |
16Gaps & next steps before hi-fi
Direct, as a senior reviewer would put it. The design system is not a blocker — it is final and ready to build against.
- Personas & the four insights are hypotheses No primary user research yet
- Scoring numbers are drafted, unverified A few values need a one-line rationale
- Card-over-Home rests on the re-check assumption Untested; collapse to a full page if not valued
- Central scoring risk: misleading precision Illustrative cue + qualitative layer mitigate
- No real user reactions yet Even five sessions would ground hi-fi
- Verify the scoring numbers (confirm the trace-synthetic fix)
- Fully spec the confirm-the-read screen (permission-denied, low-light)
- Name the result surface consistently as the card over Home
- Lock the product name and retire the working-name note