Turning a "Ghost Town" Into a Bustling City
How I transformed a rarely used app feature into a must-have tool for 9.8 million users
4 min read
Collaboration / Product Psychology / UX & UI Design / Research / Wireframing / Prototyping / Figma /
So, my mission was born 🐣
Transform the Carbon Footprint Tracker from a rarely used tool into something that would not only educate customers, but inspire behavioural change.
To do this, it was important to figure out why customers were using (or avoiding) the tracker.
Working with a UX Researcher, I conducted interviews with 20 NatWest customers over 4 weeks and here's what we learned:
I now knew all of this, so what next?
I started off by crafting 'How Might We' statements to guide my design process.
How Might We...
help app users associate the tracker with NatWest?
How Might We...
help people find the tracker easier in the app?
How Might We...
simplify the tool and nudge people to engage regularly?
Understanding users
People didn't think NatWest cared about the environment. To them it was a bank, not an environmental advocate.
Misaligned Perceptions
1
When people found the tracker, they felt overwhelmed by the data, unsure of what to do next.
Information Overload
3
To most people the tool was hidden, tucked away in an area of the app they never visited.
Visibility issues
2
Checking finances came first for a lot of people so their motivation to use the tracker was low.
Priorities
4
01. The Creative Process
02. Designing the experience
After multiple rounds of user testing
We landed on a final design that was both intuitive and engaging.
Design, Test, Iterate, Repeat
Next, I sketched wireframes, turning ideas into real designs, which we could quickly test, tweak, and refine to ensure each feature was not just visually appealing but also easily understood, meaningful and easy to navigate.
Iteration
01
02
Iteration
03
Iteration
04. Turning Vision into Reality
Goal setting
We added a feature to let users reduce their goals by percentage, making it easier to set realistic, attainable targets.
Feedback
The visual trackers helped users commit to reducing their footprint and provided clear feedback on their progress.
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Healthy challenge
We used streaks to bring a fun competitive edge to the process.
05. But That's Not All
I didn’t just stop at designing the features. By incorporating clear flows, with actionable steps and feedback, I contextualised the entire experience making sure every interaction reinforced the user’s role in making a positive environmental impact.
03. The Transformation
This collaborative effort led us to some breakthrough ideas. I reimagined the Carbon Footprint Tracker with features designed to address every pain point we had uncovered.
Providing a hook
The tracker now welcomed users with an intro screen, explaining its benefits and guiding their journey from the start.
Engagement
We revamped push notifications to highlight positive actions and motivate users to do even more.
Visibility
We added reminders and access points to the app’s busiest screens, like ‘Home’ and ‘Spending Insights.
Simplification
We simplified carbon data by using relatable examples, like comparing 225kg of CO2 to a flight from London to India, making it easy to understand and act on.
This wasn't ideal and the team at NatWest didn't want a tool that just sat idle.
As you could imagine..
The problem?
Out of nearly 10 million active app users, only about 3.7% had ever used it.
That's like inviting a 100 of your kid's friends from school to his birthday party and just about 4 of them show up 😿
In 2022, NatWest added a new feature to their mobile app to help people understand how their spending impacted the environment.
The beginning
With these guiding questions in mind, I rolled up my sleeves and got creative. I explored the competitor landscape - to uncover gaps in the market. I organised and led a series of workshops—bringing together stakeholders, developers, and fellow designers to brainstorm ideas, map out user personas and journey flows. - to keep the team aligned on user needs and behaviours and to ensure any feature decisions made were relevant to improving the end user experience.
UX
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