Overview

Habitat | ETHGlobal

Event

ETHGlobal Waterloo

Type

User Experience User Interface Design

Year

2023

Team 1 Product Manager 1 UX Designer 1 Backend Developer 2 Frontend Developers

Awards Best Onchain Media Use Case Best Social Impact

Introduction

Habitat is an app that combines blockchain technology with the idea of environmental conservation and social responsibility. Its main goal is to turn energy from both onchain and offchain regenerative activities into actions that help the planet. Users are encouraged to take part in sustainable behaviours using blockchain, like donating to charity, to earn green energy points. These points can be used to plant an NFT tree that leads to a real tree being planted.

Role

In my role as the sole UX designer within our cross-functional team, I took on a role in steering our research efforts and charting the course for Habitat's user journeys and primary visual design. I led the charge in exploring trends and competitors within the realms of web3 products and sustainability applications. This involved comprehensive market research and competitor analysis to ensure that our design decisions were grounded in real-world insights and aligned with the latest industry developments.

My [awesome] team!!

Problem Statement

• Rampant deforestation

• The impact of blockchain

These intertwined challenges highlight the need for innovative solutions at the intersection of environmental conservation and emerging technologies. Habitat is determined to tackle these issues head-on by creating a platform that harnesses blockchain's potential to combat environmental issues and allowing users to take on more social responsibility.

Design Process

The design of Habitat focused on creating a user-friendly platform that seamlessly integrates blockchain transactions with environmental conservation and social responsibility. The key design principles included:

1. User-Centered: The user experience was designed to be intuitive, ensuring that users of all technical backgrounds could easily navigate the platform.
2. Gamification: To encourage sustainable blockchain transactions, a gamification system was implemented. Users earn green energy points for each eco-friendly action they take on the platform.
3. Transparency: Transparency and clarity are super important. Users are provided with clear information about the environmental impact of their actions and the real-life tree planting process so they can realize the true impact they are making.

Understanding the User

We developed a very general user persona to accompany our initial user journey vision.

Our target user is:

Relatively young and technically savvy.

Based on our research, we found that millennials (born 1981-1996) made up 57% of total crypto ownership in the world.

New to crypto but has previous exposure

Interested in tech and learning to use crypto

Blockchain has seen lots of adoption in recent years, meaning that lots of people have likely come across it. The size of the market is expected to grow from $3 billion in 2020 to $39.7 billion in 2025.