Greenmaker
Reforestation and carbon offsetting app for Ukraine
Greenmaker is a startup that is dedicated to promoting sustainable living and reforestation efforts in Eastern Europe, with a particular emphasis on rehabilitating damaged areas in post-war Ukraine.
This app was created as part of the Green4Europe Hackathon in February 2023, and was one of three winning projects. This project is ongoing and currently in incubation with NextCoder Berlin.
Challenge
Despite having an existing tree inventory map, the team realised that the prototype lacked clarity on its target audience, and how it could effectively address the specific needs related to the reforestation efforts.
Solution
During the hackathon we mapped user flows and personas for the main userbase, and identified key user actions including:
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Finding a local project and view project details
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Viewing Green Maker’s impact
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Selecting a project to participate
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Completing the sign up process
Outcome
The project was successful in achieving its goals of improving the Greenmaker tree planting app and developing a more user-friendly prototype. The startup is now moving into incubation stage for further development.
My Role
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UX Design
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UI Design
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Visual Design
Tools
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Miro
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Sketch & Figma
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Pen & paper
My Design Process
Discover
The Problem
Greenmaker is a startup that is dedicated to promoting sustainable living and reforestation efforts in Eastern Europe, with a particular emphasis on rehabilitating damaged areas in post-war Ukraine. Despite having an existing tree inventory map, the team realised that the prototype lacked clarity on its target audience, and how it could effectively address the specific needs related to the reforestation efforts.
Define
Users and their Needs
To gain clarity on the essential elements of Greenmaker's tree planting app and better understand the needs of the target users, we utilised a business model canvas. This uncovered that the majority of current users are people who are passionate about environmental causes, such as individuals, volunteers, and green enthusiasts, who wish to contribute to reforestation efforts in post-war Ukraine but lack knowledge on how to do so effectively.
Additionally our analysis highlighted the importance of measuring the impact of tree planting initiatives to ensure sustainable reforestation and provide value to various stakeholders, including organisations and landowners.
Persona
The Volunteer
Our user persona is a 24-year-old urban resident who is enthusiastic about sustainability. She has a strong interest in the environment, which stems from her love for gardening and hiking, and she is eager to make a positive impact in this area. She is actively seeking opportunities to support reforestation initiatives and desires a straightforward, user-friendly platform to facilitate her engagement.
Identifying Key Actions
After analyzing user flow, we identified several key actions that include:
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Locating a nearby project and reviewing its details
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Reviewing Greenmaker's impact
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Choosing a project to participate in
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Completing the sign-up process
In addition, users may have the option to create an account, save preferred projects, and monitor their impact progress over time.
Prototype
Getting more User Friendly
By prioritising user needs and fine-tuning critical features like intuitive navigation, assessing impact through tree inventory, and streamlined project selection and sign-up processes, the user experience of the Greenmaker prototype underwent a significant enhancement.
Final Designs
Future Plans
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Series of user surveys and interviews to identify and prioritise the next stages of development for the app.
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Creating a more detailed and high fidelity prototype for running usability tests.
3
Launching the new improved app and making Ukraine greener.
Learnings
This was my first hackathon and while it was a very intense day, I was amazed at how much can be achieved in such a short time. The team were all very passionate about what they were doing and we all discovered we could work very well together, so I volunteered my services for helping the Greenmaker mission move forward.
Thank you for reading my case study!
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