Enhancing ESG Participation Through Usability and Gamification
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This project is a digital platform that helps employees across the UK engage with ESG goals by tracking simple environmental actions like reducing energy use, limiting printing, and choosing sustainable commuting options. Users can monitor their impact and stay motivated through challenges, badges, and leaderboards. The platform is designed to be easy to use for all employees (office-based, hybrid and remote), while providing users and organisations with insights for ESG reporting and sustainability planning.
In hybrid and remote environments, employees lack an easy-to-use, interactive, and inspiring way to track and maintain sustainable behaviours beyond the office. As a result, participation drops because users don't get enough feedback, recognition, or rewards and organisations miss the chance to measure progress and document sustainability efforts properly.
When sustainability actions aren't visible or reinforced:
Design a user-centered digital solution that enables employees to track, improve, and celebrate sustainable behaviours at home and at work while supporting individual engagement, collective impact, and alignment with an organisation's broader ESG mission (starting with Environmental, and expanding to Social and Governance over time).
I led the UX process end-to-end:
This was a solo project where i used the design thinking process to ensure the goal of the project was achieved.
To establish a strong foundation for the product, I conducted mixed-method research (quantitative and qualitative research) to understand user behavior, awareness levels, motivations, and challenges around ESG participation.
I used surveys to collect broad insights on ESG awareness, current participation levels, barriers, and what motivates users to take sustainable actions. This helped me identify patterns across a wider population and measure common behaviours statistically.
I conducted user interviews with different users to go deeper into the "why" behind user choices — exploring what ESG means to people personally, what frustrates them, and how they would like to engage with sustainability within their workplace and daily routines.
Users are motivated to contribute to sustainability but struggle with consistency due to the lack of structure, feedback, and seamless tracking. Users want an app that makes logging easy, feels voluntary, provides encouragement, and connects their personal actions to a broader shared impact especially within the workplace. They also respond strongly to autonomy, positive reinforcement, and clear value messaging, which are all key factors that will influence retention and long-term engagement.
I reviewed existing sustainability and ESG-related tracking tools to identify what works and what fails.
Sarah
Remote Worker
Sarah works from home, likes tracking her routines with apps, and cares about the environment, but struggles to see how her actions connect to company goals. She wants a simple way to log actions, get instant feedback, and receive light reminders that don't interrupt her work.
Daniel
Hybrid
Daniel works hybrid (office + home). He wants consistency across both environments, prefers mobile-first tools, and wants a gamified experience that fits into his schedule. He's motivated by progress feedback and healthy competition, and wants the tool to work smoothly with his calendar/task list.
Mobile-First is better than Web, because users need to log actions anywhere (home, office, commuting).
Motivation must come from:
The experience must be accessible and inclusive (e.g. dark mode, screen reader compatibility).
Log an Action
A quick recording of eco-friendly actions (with optional proof and details).
Impact Dashboard
Shows environmental impact over time with simple statistics and graphs.
Challenges & Goals
Structured challenges like 'zero-waste week' to keep users engaged.
Points & Badges
Rewards users when they log actions or reach milestones.
Eco Tips
Guides users with sustainability tips and content.
Calendar Integration
Fits into a user's day with contextual suggestions and reminders.
Real-time Feedback
For instant encouragement (e.g., 'You saved 1kg of CO2 today').
Smart Reminders
Prompts users to log, complete challenges and share progress.
This is the heart of the product:
Design screens coming soon
Design screens coming soon
Design screens coming soon
To validate the core experience, I tested a low-fidelity prototype remotely via Zoom. Users were asked to complete the core task: log an ESG action while I observed friction, confusion points, and time-to-completion. I tested with 30 users.
The "log" option was not front-and-center, so users had to search through the bottom menu and found the experience stressful. Users also clicked "view statistics" because it looked like the primary CTA.
Replaced "view my statistics" CTA with a clear "Log an action" button in the overview area, making the primary task instantly reachable. Qualitative feedback included: "This is cool" and "felt better and easier."
Primary tasks must be front-and-center.
When 'log an action' was buried, adoption failed; when surfaced, usability succeeded.
Motivation is a product feature.
Feedback, rewards, and challenges aren't extras — they drive repeat behaviour.
Iteration beats assumptions.
Testing revealed friction quickly and gave clear direction for improvement.