terra
This is the design process behind a sustainable investment app, created to help users align their financial goals with their environmental values.
Featuring personalized portfolio tools and real-time impact tracking—like planting trees in a digital forest—the app makes eco-conscious investing simple, engaging, and rewarding. Designed for both beginners and experienced investors, it prioritizes transparency, education, and measurable results for a greener planet.
Client:
Bulgarian NGO
My Role:
Lead product designer
Year:
2024
Service Provided:
UX/UI Design
METHODOLOGY
The Double Diamond
We used the Double Diamond framework to guide the development of the app, enabling our team to explore problems and solutions through a process of divergence (broad exploration and creative collaboration) and convergence (focusing on key priorities). This framework allowed us to thoroughly understand and define user challenges before diving into solution design, ensuring a user-centered and impactful outcome.
Challenge
In a few words: framing the problem by gathering insights, exploring the context, and understanding user needs by questioning assumptions
Definition
We went to narrowing down the insights and the data collected.
It's all about clarity and alignment, ensuring we see the user-centered perspective
Solution
From there, brainstorming, prototyping, and testing ideas and iterations to explore a range of possible solutions with the mission to solve the problem
DISCOVER
Market Challenges
The Fintech Market
The market’s packed with investment apps, so it’s tough to stand out—especially when sustainability isn’t a top priority for most users
Greenwashing
Some companies act like they care about the environment just to get investors, even though they’re not actually doing much to make a difference
Complexity of the matter
Sustainable investing landscape can feel overwhelming, with numerous options, metrics, and terminologies (e.g., ESG scores) that confuse users.
Competitor Analysis
As part of the development process for our sustainable investment app, we conducted a competitive analysis to identify gaps, opportunities, and differentiators, to ensure our product stands out in solving our users' problem and delivering a superior experience.
60
people surveyed
85%
haven’t invested sustainably
27%
fear of losing money
DEFINE
DEFINE
Personas
Building personas was a critical step in ensuring our app was truly user-centered. We identified patterns and key user needs, and synthesized data into "real" persona archetypes that guided our design decisions.
Empathy mapping
Gathering insights from user interviews and surveys, with user personas as our basis, we then built an empathy map focusing on what users say, think, do, and feel.
Highlighted user motivations, frustrations, and behaviors, allowed us to better understand their needs and align the app’s design with their expectations and emotions.
97%
72%
64%
User stories and user flows
"As a savvy eco-investor, I want to deposit money into my digital wallet efficiently and securely, so that I can align my financial actions with my sustainability goals while maintaining full control over my investments."
"As an eco-conscious beginner, I want to invest in a way that grows a digital forest in the app, as each tree represents real trees planted in the world, so that I can see the real impact of my investments ."
DEVELOP
Wireframes
Our team started with wireframes and low-fidelity prototypes by sketching key screens based on user needs and personas. We then created simple, clickable prototypes to test layouts, navigation, and functionality, gathering early feedback to refine the structure before moving into high-fidelity designs. This iterative process ensured a user-friendly experience from the start.
Design system and style guide
When the flows work and users are satisfied with "how the stuff work", it's time for beautification. Or in other words the establishing of core UI components, typography, and color schemes aligned with the app’s theme and tone of voice. It means ensuring consistency across screens while maintaining flexibility for future updates.
