Augmented reality as a sustainable alternative to overconsumption, product returns, and waste driven by social media trends

Abstract

This thesis examines augmented reality as a sustainable design tool in response to the growing problems of overconsumption, excessive product returns, and fashion waste driven by social media trends. The study identifies how platforms such as Tik-Tok and Instagram accelerate microtrend cycles, creating a pattern of impulsive, content-driven purchasing behaviour in which physical products are acquired primarily for use in recorded content and discarded once the trend passes. Through a review of academic literature and a comparative analysis of existing AR implementations across the fashion, furniture, and eyewear sectors, the study establishes that AR technology — when integrated into consumer-facing product design workflows — has demonstrated potential to reduce return rates and limit impulsive purchasing by enabling digital product visualisation prior to purchase. Three existing AR fashion platforms (Zero10, Style3D, and DressX) are evaluated against a set of sustainability-oriented design guidelines derived from the literature. Based on these findings, the study proposes a set of design guidelines for sustainable AR experience development, and their application is demonstrated through an original design concept: Trendy, a mobile digital fashion AR platform that enables users to purchase time-limited or permanent access to brand-licensed 3D fashion assets for use in social media content creation. The concept is designed to substitute physical duplicate purchasing with a digital alternative, structurally decoupling participation in trend culture from the generation of physical waste.