2024 · Product Design Case Study
Climate Action · Mobile App
plantd turns carbon offsetting into a daily habit — grow a virtual forest with every action, offset real emissions across energy, flights and mobility, and earn real-world rewards for showing up.
01 — Overview
Climate guilt doesn't change behaviour — momentum does. plantd wraps real carbon offsetting inside a playful daily loop: check in, complete tasks, grow your forest, and watch individual actions add up to something you can actually see.
As Lead Product Designer I designed the end-to-end experience across 97 screens — onboarding, the gamified home, the virtual forest, the offset purchase flow, rewards and payments — plus the visual system holding it together.
The brief was sharp: make sustainability feel rewarding rather than righteous. Every decision was tested against one question — would someone open this app on a random Tuesday?
02 — The Challenge
You pay money, a PDF certificate appears, nothing changes. There's no feedback loop — so there's no habit.
Most climate apps lead with doom. People disengage from products that make them feel bad about themselves.
Even motivated users offset once and vanish. Without a reason to return, impact stays a single transaction.
03 — Design Goals
Every seed, tree and tonne shows up somewhere you can point at — the forest is the progress bar.
Daily check-ins and turbo tasks earn more over time than one big purchase ever could.
Offsetting energy, flights or mobility takes four decisions — never a spreadsheet.
Contests, giveaways and VIP experiences give people a selfish reason to do a selfless thing.
04 — The Core Loop
Check in, complete turbo tasks, refer friends.
Collect seeds and leaves — the app's currency.
Seeds become trees in your virtual forest.
Purchase verified offsets for real emissions.
Streaks unlock contests and VIP experiences.
…and the loop starts again tomorrow.
05 — Research & Insights
"I offset one flight once. I have no idea what happened after I paid."
So every offset and seed materialises as a tree you can visit — personal and team forests make outcomes visceral.
"Apps that lecture me get deleted first."
So the voice is celebratory: streaks, confetti, contests — the app cheers you on instead of grading you.
"I'll do the right thing if it's the easy thing."
So the core actions — check in, offset, refer — each take under thirty seconds from a cold open.
06 — Design System
A near-black canvas makes photography, gold accents and the signature green glow. Poppins' geometric roundness keeps the dark UI friendly instead of severe.
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Poppins
One family, three weights. Geometric, rounded, optimistic — it reads as friendly at 12px and confident at 40.
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Palette
07 — The Product
VIP experiences, live contests, turbo tasks and the daily check-in — ordered by excitement, not hierarchy charts.
Winners, events and milestones flow through a feed that makes collective impact feel social, not solitary.
Seeds, trees, offsets and streaks live on a profile that doubles as a scoreboard you're proud of.
08 — Deep Dive · Virtual Forest
Seeds earned through check-ins and offsets become trees on an isometric plot that fills in over time.
Switch between your own forest and your team's — gentle competition via a leaderboard of planters.
A location toggle anchors virtual trees to real planting projects, closing the believability gap.
09 — Flow Spotlight · Offset
Energy, flights, mobility or a custom amount — each category asks only what it must, shows the tonnes in plain numbers, and ends at a real, named project.
Your yearly tonnes, up front — no lecture attached.
Energy, flights, mobility or custom — sliders, not spreadsheets.
Verified planting and offset projects, each with a face and a place.
Saved cards or PayPal — then trees appear in your forest.
10 — Growth & Business
Referrals pay both sides in seeds — the growth loop is literally planted into the product.
Winner lists and live contests give every campaign a scoreboard — and a reason to come back Friday.
A simple subscription unlocks multipliers and VIP draws — revenue that scales with engagement, not ads.
11 — Outcomes
Illustrative metrics — swap in real figures once you have them.
Users still checking in a month after install.
The loop reads as routine, not chore.
Purchases per offsetting user in the first quarter.
Growth carried by the seed-sharing loop.
12 — Reflection
Designing 97 screens taught me where gamification earns its keep and where it becomes noise. The forest worked because it's honest — a visualisation of real actions — while badges we prototyped and cut felt like decoration. If a game mechanic doesn't map to something true, it dilutes the ones that do.
The dark UI was a risk for an outdoors brand, and the answer was photography and glow: let real forests carry the colour, and reserve the green for action. Restraint made the product feel premium — which, for a subscription business, is the difference between a cause and a product people pay for.
