In our previous article, The Vegan Problem: Veganwashing, aka When “Vegan” Doesn’t Mean Vegan At All, we uncovered some uncomfortable observations: a significant number of vegan brands shut down every month, while others quietly introduce items made from leather, wool, and silk in an attempt to increase cash flow and keep their operations afloat. While we do understand the harsh realities of trying to sustain a business, we also exist to uncover and critically examine such practices.
However, it takes more than products to keep a business afloat. For genuinely vegan brands, while ethics, pricing, and supply chains all play a role, we have noticed a recurring and often underestimated pattern among many of the brands that have disappeared — and, frankly, among quite a few that are still operating: poor UX/UI design.
This isn’t just our observation — usability expert Jakob Nielsen famously stated that “on the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. If a website is difficult to use, people leave.” This principle applies to vegan fashion websites just as much as any other online business.
A website is not just a digital storefront; for most fashion brands, it is the brand. Below are five UX/UI issues we repeatedly encounter in vegan fashion e-commerce — and why fixing them is essential for business survival, not merely aesthetics.
1. Difficult Navigation and Overloaded Layouts
One of the most common problems is navigation that actively works against the user. When navigating websites and online stores, we frequently encounter contact pages that are either hidden or missing entirely — almost as if deliberately. Essential information about brand ethics, values, and materials is scattered across multiple sections. In many cases, instead of having clear and intuitive structure, homepages are overloaded with dense content: banners, long manifestos, and product grids stacked into a single endless scroll. This makes it virtually impossible to meaningfully learn about the brand, let alone make a purchase decision.
While storytelling and transparency matter deeply in vegan fashion, too much information at once creates cognitive overload. Users don’t read more — they leave faster.
So, what is considered UX best practice? Structure the website into clear sections and keep core links (Shop, About, Materials, Contact, FAQ) visible and accessible at all times. The homepage is, after all, a gateway — not a data dump. You would not place your entire inventory at the entrance of a physical shop and have sales assistants greet customers by reciting everything they know about the products simultaneously. The same logic applies online.
Try to embody a customer who knows nothing about your brand, or someone arriving at your website after a recommendation. The website should be intuitive enough for them to understand where to go next without spending ten minutes scrolling through everything first. They will not.
If someone has to work to find your contact details, trust is already lost.
2. Broken, Missing, or Insufficient Product Filters
Filtering is not a “nice-to-have” feature — it is a conversion tool. Yet many vegan fashion e-commerce sites either lack filters entirely or offer only basic ones (such as price and size). These filters are often broken, do not function properly, or reset unexpectedly during browsing. The same applies to drop-down menus, which frequently fail to open or display content correctly.
For consumers who already know what they are looking for — which is often the case with vegan shoppers — filtering is particularly important. Customers may wish to browse by material (apple leather, cactus leather, recycled polyester, etc.), category, fit, use case, price range, or availability. UX best practice involves implementing clear, relevant, and fully functional filters, testing them regularly, and ensuring that all drop-downs and labels work smoothly on both desktop and mobile. Broken UI elements immediately signal neglect.
When users cannot easily narrow down products, they do not “browse longer” — they bounce.
3. Lack of Real-Life Product Imagery and Poor Image Quality
Another recurring issue is insufficient or unrealistic product photography. Common problems include relying solely on flat-lay images or failing to show products worn on real bodies. When model images are included, they are often low-resolution, poorly lit, or clearly taken on a smartphone. Inconsistent visual styles across product pages further undermine the shopping experience.
In online fashion retail, images replace physical touch. If users cannot imagine how a garment fits, moves, or looks on a body, hesitation increases — particularly at higher price points.
UX best practice includes showing products on models, ideally in motion or real-life contexts. Customers need to see products on real bodies to establish relevance and confidence. Consistent image quality and sizing are essential. At the same time, over-editing should be avoided, as it distorts colour, texture, and material feel — something consumers increasingly distrust.
Transparency applies to visuals too, especially in ethical fashion.
4. Poor Colour Contrast and Readability
We frequently encounter bold but unfortunate visual choices that unintentionally sabotage usability. These include highly saturated colours placed on pure black backgrounds, low-contrast text that strains the eye, and the use of capital letters or decorative fonts for long-form or informational text.
While strong aesthetics are integral to fashion branding, readability must always come first. If users struggle to read product descriptions, sustainability claims, or care instructions, the experience quickly becomes frustrating rather than inspiring.
UX best practice involves ensuring sufficient contrast between text and background, using decorative fonts sparingly (and never for essential information), and testing readability across different devices, screen sizes, and lighting conditions.
If users have to zoom in or squint, the design has already failed.
5. Text That Is Either Too Dense — or Not Informative Enough
Finally, we often observe two opposite but equally damaging extremes: dense walls of text with no spacing, hierarchy, or structure, and overly minimalist pages that lack essential product information. Both create friction.
Dense text discourages reading, while missing information raises doubts — particularly regarding materials, care, origin, and ethical claims. UX best practice is to break content into scannable sections using headings, bullet points, and highlights. On product pages, materials and composition should be clearly stated — we cannot stress enough how important this is for a conscious consumer, even when the information is not ideal. Care instructions, fit and sizing details, origin, and certifications (where applicable and available) should also be included.
Good UX does not mean less information; it means better-structured information.
Final Thought
Vegan fashion consumers are often highly informed, detail-oriented, and values-driven. A poorly designed website does not merely appear unprofessional — it actively undermines trust, credibility, and sales. UX/UI design is therefore not an optional upgrade; it is a business strategy. For vegan fashion brands operating in an increasingly competitive and sceptical market, getting the digital experience right can mean the difference between growth and closure.
We hope you found this article helpful and look forward to seeing these insights put into practice by brands that want to do better — for animals, for people, and for their own long-term survival.
