GreenStride
Case Study/Mobile App
This conceptual project was completed as part of the Google User Experience Design Certificate, centered on designing an app for social good.
Overview
GreenStride promotes eco-friendly habits by rewarding sustainable travel. The platform enables users to track their environmental impact, lower their carbon footprint, and make informed sustainable choices.
Product Designer
Role
3 Months
Timeline
The Challenge
Private vehicles account for nearly 15% of global CO₂ emissions, contributing to air pollution, health risks, and climate change. Reducing reliance on personal transportation is essential to mitigating these environmental and societal effects.
The Objective
Create a solution that motivates users to adopt sustainable transportation, reducing CO₂ emissions, improving air quality, and supporting healthier, more livable urban environments.
The Solution
Integrate Sustainable Travel
Flexible Routes: Travel anywhere with eco-friendly choices that reduce your carbon footprint without limiting flexibility.
Smart Comparisons: Compare routes by time, CO₂ savings, rewards, and impact to balance speed and sustainability.
Instant Feedback: See emissions saved and rewards earned on the go to stay motivated and build lasting green habits.
Earn Rewards for Green Choices
Tailored Incentives: Find rewards that match your interests with smart filters or browse featured offers for extra savings.
Store Pages: Explore eco-conscious brands with exclusive deals, key details, and built-in directions for quick access.
Smart Management: Save, track, and redeem rewards effortlessly, so sustainable choices always pay off.
See Your Environmental Impact
Single Score: Your StrideScore reflects overall progress, with insights to help improve your sustainability efforts.
Progress Snapshots: Get real-time updates on your eco-friendly goals in an easy-to-read format.
Green Insights: View long-term trends in your travel habits to see the true impact of your sustainable choices.
DEFINE
User Research
To understand how people approach sustainable travel, qualitative interviews were conducted with seven participants. The research examined motivations, challenges, and barriers to adopting eco-friendly commuting habits.
Research Goals:
• Identify obstacles to sustainable commuting.
• Explore strategies to encourage greener travel habits.
• Determine ways to sustain long-term engagement with eco-friendly transport.
Research Findings
Affinity mapping helped uncover emotional and practical factors shaping travel decisions, highlighting key challenges and motivators that influence long-term sustainable commuting habits.
Key Insights:
• Rewards make sustainable travel more appealing.
• Tracking progress reinforces motivation.
• Tangible results strengthen habits and drive continued use.
Pain Points
Despite interest in sustainable travel, maintaining long-term commitment proved challenging. Research identified three key obstacles preventing the smooth integration of greener commuting into daily routines:
Personas
Understanding the motivations and challenges behind commuting choices helped identify behavioral patterns. Insights from interviews informed persona development, capturing distinct mindsets, goals, and frustrations that influence travel decisions.
Key Insights:
• Both personas sought greener options that fit naturally into their daily routines.
• Emily was motivated by environmental concerns, while Michael prioritized benefits.
Journey Maps
Journey maps detailed Emily and Michael’s commuting experiences, identifying key touchpoints, emotions, and decisions. This process revealed opportunities to make their journey more engaging and efficient.
Key Insight:
• Simplifying trip planning and celebrating milestones helps reduce frustration and reinforce sustainable habits.
Competitive Analysis
A review of sustainable travel tools examined key strengths, weaknesses, and gaps. This analysis uncovered opportunities to develop a more effective solution for eco-conscious commuters.
Key Insight:
• Many competitors lacked transparent environmental tracking, making it difficult for users to measure their impact.
DESIGN
User Flows
To create an intuitive experience, essential screens, decision points, and processes were mapped out. This approach simplified navigation and encouraged long-term engagement with sustainable travel.
Wireframes
Low-fidelity sketches explored different layouts and concepts, emphasizing key decision points. These wireframes acted as a visual blueprint, illustrating how the interface could support sustainable commuting choices.
Digital Wireframes
Sketches evolved into digital wireframes, refining structure and interactions. Key flows, such as trip planning and reward redemption, were optimized for a seamless experience.
Usability Study
A moderated usability study with six participants assessed how easily users could navigate the prototype and complete essential tasks. The study focused on identifying usability challenges and refining the experience.
Study Goals:
• Determine whether participants could plan and complete an eco-friendly trip.
• Assess the clarity of tracking points earned and CO₂ savings.
• Evaluate the ease of redeeming rewards at partner businesses.
• Measure how effectively the platform communicated environmental impact.
• Analyze engagement with motivational elements.
Themes
Recurring patterns in participant feedback revealed key themes, providing deeper insights into usability challenges and opportunities for improvement. These themes informed refinements to better align the experience with user expectations.
"It’d be nice to see how many more points I need for the reward, instead of clicking around."
"A map or easy directions would be helpful, so I’m not left guessing where the closest store is."
"The StrideScore doesn’t really make sense to me. I’m not sure if I’m doing well or not."
REFINE
Improvements
Insights from usability testing shaped refinements, aligning the platform more closely with user needs and better reinforcing its value in supporting users with sustainable commuting.
Progress Tracking
A clear progress indicator shows how close users are to earning rewards, reinforcing motivation.
Simplified Access
Streamlined access to reward locations and directions makes redemption easier.
Enhanced Context
A redesigned dashboard makes the StrideScore clearer, helping users understand their eco-impact at a glance.
Visual Design
A mix of bold, sustainability-focused tones and calming accents reinforced eco-consciousness and clarity. Clean typography and intuitive icons enhanced accessibility, creating a smooth transition to greener travel habits.
Inter
SemiBold
Medium
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee
Heading
H1 40/44
Heading
H2 32/40
Heading
H3 24/32
Heading
H4 20/24
Heading
H5 16/20
Body
Body 16/24
Body-sm
Body sm 14/20
Body-xs
Body xs 12/16
#0DA53D
#BCECCA
#0D121E
#354151
#697180
#BFC4CD
#ECECEE
High-fidelity Designs
Splash Screen
Sign Up
Home and Notifications
Stay motivated with easy access to recent trips, rewards, and highlights, while real-time notifications keep you informed.
Trips
Travel freely and track your journeys, earning rewards for every sustainable choice you make.
Directions
Choose the greenest route, get real-time updates, and track your progress to reach your destination sustainably.
Trip Summaries
Gain insights from every journey to stay motivated and keep making a positive impact.
Redeem Rewards
Use points to unlock rewards and activate them anytime to enjoy benefits in-store.
Profile
View and update your details, track progress, and manage goals to stay on track with your eco-friendly journey.
Impact
Track your environmental impact, monitor progress, and stay motivated with real-time insights into your sustainable choices.
Reflections and Moving Forward
Reflecting on the design process highlights both successes and opportunities for refinement. Moving forward, additional enhancements can better align GreenStride with evolving user needs and sustainability goals.
Conclusion
GreenStride incentivizes eco-friendly commuting, fostering sustainable habits and reducing environmental impact. By helping individuals track progress and stay motivated, it supports a seamless journey toward a greener future.
