Ushnah is a fashion design researcher, interested in studying transitions in the fashion system against technological advancements and their impacts on fashion design, production, dissemination, consumption, engagement and education. Her research focus is digital-only fashion— fashion designed in and for digital environments and adopts a practice-led approach. Her doctoral inquiry investigates the disruption of conventional fashion by digital fashion designers from a social and cultural sustainability lens. She is probing digital tools, encompassing 3D design, AR, VR, and AI technologies, to assess their potential to uphold plurality and inclusion in designing metahumans, aka avatars, in digital fashion. Her work aims to decode the intricate intersectional dynamics of gender, race, fashion biopolitics, and diversity in the age of datafication.

She is affiliated with the Design Culture Research Group at Aalto University and is a member in the consortium Intimacy in Data-Driven Culture (IDA).