Laufið - Sustainability software
In my position as lead designer for sustainability software start-up, Laufið, I rebranded and redesigned the software to be more user-centred. I conducted user research and implemented changes according to the needs expressed from users.
A strong idea for the software existed and a design framework for it when I entered the company. The idea was to redesign environmental actions, that a government institution had created, to fit within the private sector. The aim was to reach SMEs in the Icelandic market and encourage them to take environmental actions.
Quickly it became apparent that a more holistic approach was needed. We wanted to include sustainability as a whole not just environmental actions. We redesigned the whole software to suit the needs of users who were concerned with complying to various upcoming sustainability regulations. The aim was to create a software that acted as a guide, leading companies through complying to the CSRD for example.
This is the software that existed when I joined the company. Environmental actions were grouped into “Leaves” and “Green steps” - five leaves existed and within each leaf were 5-8 actions. Under green steps there were 110 micro actions. Users reported finding this confusing as little consistency seemed to exist between the two.
This is after a redesign. Green steps were removed and the categories under the “leaves” were reorganised. The leaves became three: Environmental, Social and Governance. Subcategories were added to each leaf and a point system was implemented. Each action had points according to difficulty of implementation and impact.
This is the project management space/action plan of the software before I joined the company. Users complained that it lacked filters and felt overcomplicated. Few goals were actually being set by users.
This is what it looked like after a redesign. Users expressed a need to prioritise actions and have a clear overview in a timeline format. The organisation here allows for a goal view or a timeline view. Goals are grouped by category and subcategory. A clear rise in goal setting and engagement with this feature happened after the implementation of a redesign.
The website of the company before I joined. Names of companies have been removed. The rating system included the leaves and green steps.
The website after a redesign. The page on the left is the current homepage - the focus was to showcase the software itself and its capacities rather than the companies who use the software. The middle page showcases the software and has a FAQ section. The last page shows an inventory of companies using the software and their public scores. Companies choose whether or not their page is public.
User profiles were made to be more detailed and could be downloaded as a PDF. The idea was that SMEs could use these profiles to gather all their sustainability information into one place and download the information to easily show shareholders and other stakeholders invested or interested in their sustainability journeys.
Before the software had a function to add in data regarding carbon footprints. Users could add their data from previous years.
We designed a carbon calculator that all users could use for free to make carbon calculations as accessible as possible.