Getting Started
Carbon Market
Socio-Environmental Management | Carbon Market is a feature of the website of the company Projeto Ambiental that presents the advantages of a systemic view of the social, economic and environmental spheres directly on the cell phone or computer. It allows the client to understand the quantification of stocks and rate of removal of atmospheric carbon and the ecosystem benefits quickly and easily, expanding their business prospects. I was hired to position the client's website among the major players in the carbon market in a very short time frame (in three days), so the kickoff meeting was held immediately.
High-level goals
1. Understanding
Consider how to reflect the carbon market in a deep symbiosis between actions and rewards.
2. The reward
Offer an ideal scenario for you, generator or buyer of carbon credits.
My Role
My role
Implemented User Experience (UX) and Visual Design on this project in three days. Received constructive feedback from stakeholders and the team to improve and gain perspectives on what I was designing, with virtually no deadline.
My tasks:
Understanding customer and stakeholder ideas and perceptions
Plan and define according to scope
Define the information architecture
User Interface and Experience
Heatmap analysis to understand website behavior
Metrics
Design toolbox
Desk research
Treejack
Elementor
Photoshop
Hotjar
Analytics
Design process
Methods and processes
The first step of the design process involved stakeholder interviews and competitor analysis to understand how competitors do their work. It was crucial to get this information early in the process to give me a clearer idea of the product.
After analyzing this information, I began to conceptualize the business’s main navigation flows to give me a way to iterate more quickly through ideas. From there, I moved into production mode, developing the interface considering design principles such as reading patterns, font and color hierarchy, brand assets, and the imagery presented in the case brief.
Once the interface was ready, I gathered feedback from the client to understand the gaps in the experience. Validation, while part of my design process, would be a later step and will not be discussed in depth here.
Analysis of
Competitors
Concept
User Flow
Visual Design
Feedback
of the team
Refinement
Launch
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Competitor analysis
How they do it and why
The sample for the analysis considered websites from Brazil and one from Italy, inserted in the context of environmental conservation and negotiation in the carbon market. The analysis of the websites took approximately 4 hours (remembering that I had only three days to deliver everything ready) and included the perception in relation to the main messages of the service to understand what users are looking for and what their problems are. So I studied:
Why does this need exist?
What are the goals of this business?
What services stand out?
What are the rewards?
Let It Trees
Mombak
re.green
Carbon Next
Insights
After analyzing the homepages, despite the amount of data, this was the most relevant information for decision-making in creating the solution:
Preservation of biomes and forests
Preservation of the Amazon rainforest
Preservation of biodiversity
Combating deforestation
Removal of CO2 from the atmosphere
Action in the sustainable development of local communities
Number of hectares protected
Number of preserved species
Forest recovery
Market information
What is the objective?
The main insight found is that socio-environmental management programs have proven to be one of the most effective tactics for increasing revenue and inspiring loyalty in the company . Social contribution and concern for the environment are efforts that were once again recognized in 2021, by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index , a rigorous assessment carried out by the New York Stock Exchange that scores the various aspects of the social, environmental and economic management of companies.
Therefore, the most innovative management program teaches clients that working to preserve forests and keep trees standing is at the core of creating new and sustainable dividends for them.
Integrating users’ interests with the ecosystem services offered, showing how it all works, makes it possible to create a feature that is not just based on material gain, but that adds value to the user’s daily life. Thus, the value proposition is based on helping companies create a mental model of profitable preservation and rewarding them through carbon credits when they pursue this goal through the website and the business is completed.
The solution
Customers and interested parties
A touchpoint for the user journey (clients and stakeholders, companies and visionary individuals) from the development of the consultancy to its approval and certification.
Socio-environmental management
Market
Carbon
Generate income for those who defend a better future for all
About the feature
Socio-Environmental Management | Carbon Market is the new feature of Projeto Ambiental. Its value proposition is to offer action in all stages of the carbon market. I took into consideration that the messages should be easier to understand at the beginning and then with longer explanatory texts, within each session.
User flow
By tapping the Socio-Environmental Management button, users are taken to a simple flow, new main menu and pages with subtle motions. Since the layout of the feature follows the same visual identity as the website, the main point of the flow is to ensure that the functionality is incorporated into the navigation in a way that is almost imperceptible to the user and not as something separate, meeting the stakeholder's request. I decided to add small variations in the color palette in the main headlines and larger images. It's just a different touch, not intrusive at all.
User interface
Home screen
Two home buttons are part of the interface to make interactions distinct, one directing the user to the new feature and the other directing the user to the Environmental Licensing base website. Below is an example of the home screen.
User interests
The choice of the topics Why (explanation) , What (description), How (process), For Whom (clients), Team and Contact was based on documentary research. Therefore , they are similar to what is used by other companies in the sector.
The brand
Colors
The brand guidelines led me to choose two neutral and balanced tones, so I chose beige and opaque green to break up the white and make the brand look elegant and in the context of the environment. Gray was used for texts with a white background. In the new feature, some other shades of green were used for the main headlines and intermediate texts .
Primary
60%
#647262
30%
#F4EEEB
10%
#858585
Secondary
# 6EA53F
# 38513B
# 091300
Typography
Our users are environmental managers, forestry engineers, project managers, directors of medium and large companies, rural landowners, senior citizens over 50 years old, and I understood that this could be an opportunity for a serif font. Therefore, I used the combination of Merriweather typeface for titles and Roboto sans-serif for texts.
Images
To illustrate and layout the website, I used images available on the Unsplash website and from the client's own collection.
Validation
The feature is still expected to receive new functionalities, including a Carbon Calculator. It should be iterated considering A/B testing, 5-second testing, first click and other in-depth user research to improve the initial version. Launching this feature is just the first step towards its success.
Therefore, analyzing metrics such as reading time and interests collected in the first-click test would be important to understand success and develop the product roadmap.
Acknowledgements
A lot of thanx
Many thanks to everyone involved in the process from the beginning, from defining the scope to delivery. I want to thank Cássio (stakeholder), Fernando (my brother and company biologist) and his team, AJ and Diego Cabral from Design Circuit.
