Eco-Mates —
sustainability,
made personal.

01 — The Problem

People want to live sustainably. They just don't know where to start.

Climate anxiety is real, but the tools available to everyday people are fragmented, guilt-heavy, and hard to act on. Carbon footprint calculators give you a number and stop there. Sustainability apps preach at you. Shopping guides overwhelm you. None of them make sustainability feel achievable, social, or rewarding.

The result: people feel either paralysed by the scale of the problem, or disengaged because individual action feels pointless. Eco-Mates was designed to close that gap — turning abstract environmental impact into concrete daily actions, tracked, rewarded, and shared with a community.

02 — Research

Talking to the people who actually care.

I conducted qualitative interviews with students and working professionals — people who were already interested in sustainability but struggling to make it part of their daily lives. The goal was to understand motivations, barriers, and what would actually change behaviour.

03 — Auth & Onboarding

Frictionless entry, clear identity.

The sign-up and login flow was kept clean and minimal — the focus is on getting users to the meaningful parts of the app as fast as possible. Social login via Google and Facebook reduces drop-off. The account verification and password reset flows are clear and reassuring, with positive confirmation states that set the right tone from the start.

Sign Up

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Verified

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Log In

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Forgot PW

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Enter OTP

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Reset Done

The forgot password flow — email entry → 6-digit OTP → confirmation — mirrors patterns users already know from banking and social apps. No friction, no confusion, and a satisfying green checkmark at the end to confirm success.

04 — Home Dashboard

Your daily sustainability at a glance.

XP rewards meet carbon awareness

The home dashboard leads with what matters most to the user: their XP rewards balance and how much CO2 they've saved. This immediately frames sustainability as positive and rewarding, not guilt-inducing.

Below that, a tips carousel surfaces quick, actionable suggestions — things like swapping plastic cutlery for wood. These rotate daily to prevent habituation. The challenge section keeps the core engagement loop visible from the home screen, prompting action without requiring the user to dig into sub-screens.

↑ XP + CO2 saved as primary KPIs — rewarding framing over guilt

05 — Carbon Footprint Tracker

See your impact. Change your habits.

The carbon footprint screen was the most technically complex to design. Research showed users wanted to see their footprint but didn't understand the inputs that drove it. The solution was a circular CO2 display — showing the total in tons — paired with activity sliders for the four biggest contributors: housing, transport, diet, and waste.

3.19 tons CO2 — today's footprint broken down by housing (90%), transport (40%), diet (10%), waste (10%)

The slider-based input makes the abstract concrete. Users can see in real time how adjusting their transport or diet choices changes their total. This transforms the footprint tracker from a judgement tool into a planning tool. The "Update Emission" and "Next" CTAs guide the user forward without dead ends.

06 — Goals & Challenges

Small actions. Real rewards. Community accountability.

Goals are the gamification engine of Eco-Mates. Each goal has a difficulty rating (Easy/Hard), a coin reward, and shows how many other users are doing the same challenge — turning individual action into shared movement. The flow from discovery to completion was designed to feel like a game loop.

From browse to committed

The goal detail screen explains why the action matters — for example, deleting unnecessary phone files reduces data server energy consumption by 355,000 tonnes of CO2 annually. This context is essential: it connects small personal actions to real planetary impact.

Users can "Add to To-Do" or "Do Now" — two modes that cater to planners and spontaneous actors alike. The to-do tab collects committed tasks with status tags and easy completion tracking.

↑ 2,345 people doing this — social proof drives participation

Completion that feels rewarding

The completed state — with coin rewards and a clear visual confirmation — was designed to deliver a moment of satisfaction. This is the core behaviour change mechanism: positive reinforcement at exactly the right moment.

Usability testing on Maze.co showed that users found the Goals flow intuitive and motivating. Positive feedback centred on the coin system and the social count — both of which made the experience feel less solitary than other sustainability apps they'd tried.

↑ Positive Maze.co results — task completion rated easy

07 — Community Forum

Sustainability is more powerful together.

Research consistently showed that social accountability is a key driver of sustained behaviour change. The forum was designed to be the social layer of Eco-Mates — not just a comment section, but a genuine community space where users share progress, post about eco actions, and connect with like-minded people.

Three modes: Home, Explore, Chat

The forum has three distinct tabs. The Home feed shows updates and posts from people you follow, with a simple "write your post here" composer for sharing eco moments. Explore opens up to the wider community. Chat supports both personal DMs and group conversations.

The decision to include personal messaging was deliberate — it allows small friend groups to hold each other accountable privately, recreating the social dynamic that interview participants said would motivate them most.

↑ Personal + group chat — both individual and collective accountability

Personal chat — clean, focused, no distractions from the sustainability mission

08 — Learn / Resources

Knowledge that changes behaviour.

News, articles, and DIYs

The Learn section acts as the educational backbone of the app. Rather than overwhelming users with information, it's organised into three digestible formats: News (timely articles from sustainability researchers and universities), Articles (themed reads on sustainable diet, circular economy, ocean conservation), and DIYs (practical at-home actions).

The featured news story uses a bold image card format that draws the eye — making sustainability content feel as engaging as regular media, not like a lecture.

↑ Editorial-style layout — sustainability as content, not compliance

09 — Eco Shopping

Making conscious shopping effortless.

Shopping was identified in research as the hardest habit to change — not because people don't want to, but because discovering credible sustainable alternatives is too much work. Eco-Mates solves this with a curated marketplace embedded directly in the app.

Curated by category, not algorithm

The shopping home surface follows a familiar e-commerce pattern — search, categories, featured banners, best sellers — but every product is curated for sustainability. Categories (Apparel, Bags, Stationery, Decorations) keep browsing focused and manageable.

The product detail screen includes size selection and direct purchase, making the path from discovery to checkout frictionless. There's no switching to a separate browser or app — the whole journey stays inside Eco-Mates.

↑ End-to-end shopping inside the app — no context switching

Product page — eco credentials, clear pricing, size selection, and in-app checkout

10 — End-to-End User Flow

One app. Complete sustainability journey.

Eco-Mates covers every stage of sustainable living in one coherent experience — from understanding your impact, to taking action, learning more, connecting with others, and shopping consciously.

Create Account

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Track Footprint

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Pick a Goal

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Complete It

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Share Progress

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Learn More

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Shop Eco

11 — Reflection

What worked, what I'd do differently.

Eco-Mates is the most feature-complete project I've designed — spanning auth, tracking, gamification, community, education, and commerce in a single app. Here's an honest assessment of what I learnt.

• The gamification layer landed well. Maze.co testing showed that the XP and coin system genuinely motivated users — they wanted to keep completing tasks to earn more. The social count ("2,345 people doing this") was consistently highlighted as a feature that made the experience feel meaningful rather than solitary.
• The carbon footprint tracker was the hardest screen to get right. Early iterations showed a number with no context. Adding the sliders and breakdown by category transformed it from a judgement screen into a tool. I'd spend more time testing different visualisation formats here — a bar chart or historical trend view could add even more clarity.
• The forum needed a stronger incentive loop. The chat and posting features are well-designed, but in testing some users weren't sure why they'd post here rather than Instagram. A tighter integration with the Goals system — e.g. auto-sharing completions to the feed — would strengthen the community flywheel.
• I'd add an onboarding questionnaire next time. Currently users jump straight to the home screen. A 3-step onboarding that asks about lifestyle (diet, transport, home) would pre-populate the footprint tracker and make the first experience feel immediately personal and relevant.
• Qualitative research shaped every major decision. The four pillars of the app — tracking, challenges, community, shopping — came directly from interview findings. This is the most research-grounded project I've built, and it shows in how cohesively the features reinforce each other.