Our Phase II project will build on the successes achieved in Phase I. The proposed work aims to develop a commercially viable application plug-in, integrating sound information about materials into an interactive development tool to educate and inform current and future product creators about their material selection decisions. Plugins extend the functionality of an existing application and are installed and uninstalled independently of the application they support. The proof of concept platform developed during Phase I, will be refined into a portable stand alone application plug-in. The technological tool (we have named UD3Di) expands fabric parameters within the software to include materials sustainability information. In this way sustainability data becomes an equal asset (common assets include fabric physical parameters such as stretch, bend, shear, weight, friction, thickness as well as color data such as pantone number) product creators access during product creation using a virtual prototyping software.
Detail the methods and approaches that will be used to further the design in terms of development or demonstration. An interdisciplinary team of students from fashion and apparel studies and computer science will work collaboratively. Applying feedback gained from phase 1 and expert survey towards the development of application plug-in that easily integrates sustainability data into the fabric parameter section of virtual prototyping software. UD3Di expands fabric parameters within the software (Optitex/EFI) to include (1) materials sustainability information as simulated in figures below (2) MSI visualization of where fabric sits on sustainable material scale (3) other fabric options with better sustainability measure. Upon development researchers will engage with industry partners to customize company and product specific fabric libraries via UD3Di. An expert panel of product creators will test and evaluate the tool. Aspects of UD3Di will be folded into a robust teaching tool for current and future product developers as discussed in “educational tools” and a business plan will be created.