App
Engagement through gamification
Designing a sustainability app MVP that engages users and attracts investors
Product Designer | Mobile UX/UI | January 2025
The challenge
Launch an MVP to motivate users to build sustainable habits
Attract early investors and validate product-market fit
Prioritize core features and create an engaging, scalable user experience
My role
Lead Product Designer, solo designer on the project
Collaborated closely with one developer and a key stakeholder
Ensured smooth design-to-development handoffs and iterative releases
Aligned design decisions with evolving business priorities alongside stakeholder
Discovery & research
Designing motivation
From Insight to Design: Bringing the motivation to life
To spark motivation from the first screen, I explored wireframes with big numbers, graphs, and badges showing CO₂ savings. While informative, they felt impersonal.
User tests showed more attention toward a small animated element — this led me to shift toward a more personal approach: a digital entity users could “feed” with their CO₂ savings. This emotional connection proved more engaging than stats, and shaped the core experience around care and progress.
Design system & consistency
Created a reusable Figma component library (buttons, inputs, cards, modals)
Established spacing system and typography scale
Ensured consistency and reduced development rework during MVP sprints
UI Components
To ensure consistency, scalability, and efficiency across the entire product, I created a comprehensive design system directly in Figma. I built out a flexible library of components with clearly defined variants and auto layout rules. I used component properties and design tokens to make everything easily adjustable and maintainable—ensuring the system could grow with the product.
Library
Everything was organized into a shared Figma library, enabling seamless collaboration and fast prototyping for the whole team.
This system now acts as the visual language backbone of the Carbon Tracker app, helping new features remain on-brand, accessible, and user-friendly.
Colour palette
The color palette predominantly features soft greens and neutrals, evoking a sense of nature, freshness, and environmental consciousness.
Typography
Hedvig Letters Serif, a sophisticated serif font, gave my design a timeless and elegant feel.
Helvetica Neue is a versatile sans-serif font that exudes a sense of cleanliness, neutrality, and modernity.
Validation
Ran 5 rounds of usability testing on low-fidelity wireframes to test the core user journey: Logging an action → Tracking progress → Earning rewards
Key trade-offs
Core layer = Tracking + Gamification
Optional layer = Social, AI nudges
Future = Personalization, analytics dashboards
Solution highlights
Gamification with visual growth
The animated tree on the homepage grows as users earn carbon credits, creating a sense of accomplishment and reinforcing progress.
Minimalist data input
Instead of tedious forms, users can snap a photo of a tree, a receipt, or a solar panel. AI then automatically estimates the CO₂ impact, reducing friction.
Seamless sign-up & onboarding
Quick login via Google/Facebook, plus a guided tutorial with interactive elements, ensures a frictionless start.
Impact & metrics
+15% WAU actively engaged with gamified features in the first month
~30% user activation rate from install to first sustainable action
5 rounds of usability testing reduced onboarding drop-off by ~25%
Early investor interest helped validate both the product concept and UX direction
Gamified rewards (tree growth) retained 40% of new users into week 2
Design-led MVP became a key asset in investor conversations and strategic planning
Learnings & next steps
What I learned:
Early usability testing is crucial for reducing onboarding friction
Visual feedback is a key motivator when building habit loops
What’s next:Add social and community features to drive retention
Expand AI use to personalize suggestions
Integrate analytics to optimize habit triggers and timing