Carbonlink

ROLE

Product Designer

DURATION

6 week sprint  |  Summer 2022

OVERVIEW

Carbonlink is a platform to trade, bridge, and retire carbon offset tokens. As a product designer for this lean startup, I designed their web app platform. This project was built out of LavaLab, USC’s premier startup incubator.

TEAM

I worked with an amazing team - here are a select few I worked with the closest:

Evan Gabrielson: Product Manager
Ian Brash: Front End Developer
Mitchell Morrison: CEO
Arjo Bhattacharya: Product Designer

Skip to final product

CHALLENGE

How might we simplify the experience of purchasing carbon offsets?

Traditional carbon offset markets are at risk of double-counting and a lack of verification. That’s why carbon offset projects are being tokenized on the blockchain. However, the process to purchase/retire an on-chain carbon offset token is long and complicated, creating a high barrier to entry.

Current solutions are either outdated, complicated trading platforms or confusing crypto-native decentralized applications:
That’s why we built Carbonlink, an intuitive on-chain carbon offset marketplace made for everyone to use.

INITIAL PROBLEM STATEMENT

Purchasing an on-chain carbon offset requires a confusing and complicated crypto-native experience.

RESEACH & DEFINE

Understanding the on-chain offsetting experience

Users find Web3 interactions frustrating

We found that our interviewees who have bought and retired on-chain offset tokens were frustrated by how many steps and confusing Web3 interactions were required in the process.

Main Pain Points

The top pain points that users face are:

Long, unconsolidated, confusing process to trade/retire carbon offset tokens

Users have to scour the web to find an offset project that is right for them

There’s no way to track aggregate impact and revenue

Requires complicated Web3 tools

Users with different goals

Our user research analysis presented a challenge that we did not initially consider.

There are two primary target users with very different user objectives: one group wanted to retire their tokens while the other wanted to trade them.

Amara

The Environmentalist

Bio

24 years old
No crypto experience

VALUES

Climate consciousness Environmental and social responsibility

USER OBJECTIVE

Make a positive impact on the planet by offsetting carbon emissions securely and reliably

Josh

The Investor

Bio

28 years old
Web3 enthusiast
Trades crypto to maximize ROI

VALUES

Innovation
New economic opportunity
Moderate, market-friendly climate action

USER OBJECTIVE

Purchase carbon offset tokens as an asset

revised PROBLEM STATEMENT

The process of finding, purchasing, and retiring a carbon offset is complicated, confusing, and unconsolidated.

IDEATION & PROTOTYPING

Ideating solutions based on our findings

Product Goals

Users really struggled with the multiple complicated steps in the experience of retiring on-chain offsets. So we determined that our product should allow users to:
  1. Easily purchase offsets without the Web3 interface complications
  2. Track impact and revenue
  3. Filter and sort offset projects and let users view important project information clearly

Task Flows

The functionality and jargon of this product isn’t clear to people who aren’t familiar with carbon markets and cryptocurrency. So we were challenged with making sure that the experience was intuitive for all. So we made clear task flows for each of the main user objectives:

Low-fidelity wireframes

How might we make information accessible but not overwhelming?

We found that it was essential for users to find the right offset project through filtering, sorting, and having access to project information. We used progressive disclosure to make filtering thorough yet easy and make information accessible and clear.

How might we present data for users with different goals?

The dashboard presented a difficult challenge of what data to present users since different users have different objectives (impact vs revenue). We decided to create a toggle with two variations (Revenue view and Impact view)to allow the user to choose their interface.

THE PRODUCT

Purchasing offsets through a desirable and simple experience

Find your perfect project

The filter side bar makes for ample space for the user to add as many filters as necessary in an intuitive way.

Make an informed purchase

The visual hierarchy of the page emphasizes the project itself.
Purchasing credits is done on a simple card which allows for user input of either tokens or price, depending on the user’s preference.

Creating confidence in the purchase process

Through A/B testing with different positions of the cart, we found that a modal was the most favorable. The confirm purchase experience is a substantive summary to ensures confidence in the purchase.

Designing for different user needs

We accounted for users who just want to retire (not trade) in the checkout experience with a ‘Retire Now’ feature.

Instant gratification

We made sure that users feel appreciated, gratified, and proud of their purchase :)

Track your impact and/or revenue

The dashboard has a strong visual hierarchy which reflects the values and objective of users. If you’re on the platform to invest in offsets as an asset, the revenue card is your default primary card. If you’re on the platform to retire your offsets, then the retirement card is your default primary card. We made this a simple, intuitive toggle.

Branding & Illustration

I designed Carbonlink’s logo, color palette, typography, and brand illustrations to be dynamic and vibrant, built on Carbonlink’s values of trust, optimism, impact, and innovation.
Welcome to Decarbonia, our brand motif I came up with - a futuristic carbon-neutral city that embodies Carbonlink’s vision of the future.

TESTING & VALIDATION

Validating the efficiency and impact of our designs

User testing & Reiteration

After our front-end developer Ian developed an interactive prototype with ReactJS, we conducted a round of beta user testing.

We asked users to do the following tasks:
Find an offset you like and purchase that offset
7/7 Participants completed this task intuitively

Takeaways:
  • Everyone used filters and sorting correctly, it works well
  • Scrolling to view projects is intuitive
  • Entire purchase process was very smooth, without any confusion
    View your revenue from your offset investments
    7/7 Participants completed this task intuitively

    Takeaways:
    A few participants were confused about the difference between retiring and investing.
    ‍We reiterated to add more information on retiring on a modal.
    View your retirement data
    4/7 Participants completed this task intuitively

    Takeaways:
    Users either didn’t see  the ‘impact view’ toggle or did not know that it showed retirement data
    ‍We reiterated to change the wording and position of the toggle to be directly above the primary card on the dashboard.

      RESULTS & LEARNINGS

      Building in a complicated space with different user goals

      Implementation

      Carbonlink’s development team built a beta version of the web app with the necessary Web 3 bridges and back-end integration. The web app has not launched yet due to the business operations team still working out regulatory and compliance feasibility.

      We've since solved the problem of calculating and offsetting your emissions through our newest product carbonisbad.com (case study coming soon...)

      What I Learned

      Prioritize user objectives in your designs

      If you have different users with different goals, create different experiences for each user persona to optimize their experience for their objective.

      The importance of Gestalt Principles

      Related/dependant elements should be close in proximity. I learned this through iterations of positioning related elements on the Dashboard

      Design unfamiliar functions close to familiar experiences

      For two niche spaces (carbon markets and blockchain) with their own unique terminology and functionality, it’s important to offer explanations where the user might be confused and design close to familiar experiences.

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