The Office of Environment and Climate change engaged Service NSW to implement a solution allowing users to make a contribution to offsetting their vehicle's carbon emissions while they renew their registration.
Transport for NSW, as the owner of this process, was involved in the consultation and had direct oversight and input into how this would be achieved.
Overview
The challenge
Create a way to allow people to make a carbon offset contribution when they are renewing their vehicle registration. The industry benchmark to meet for this project was to get 0.01% of users to make a contribution.
We had to balance two stakeholder groups’ requirements in this project. The Office of Environment and Climate Change wanted to see a return on their investment, and Transport for NSW wanted to ensure the flow of the online registration renewal process was not disrupted.
We had to balance two stakeholder groups’ requirements in this project. The Office of Environment and Climate Change wanted to see a return on their investment, and Transport for NSW wanted to ensure the flow of the online registration renewal process was not disrupted.
The process
the designers conducted interviews and surveys with vehicle owners to understand their awareness, attitudes, and willingness to contribute to carbon offsets.
Analysing industry approaches to this type of function, we asked ourselves what we could do to improve on the designs we saw.
After running ideation, we mocked up some prototypes and ran 2 rounds of testing to allow us to iterate into the final deliverable, as well as a final accessible usability test.
Analysing industry approaches to this type of function, we asked ourselves what we could do to improve on the designs we saw.
After running ideation, we mocked up some prototypes and ran 2 rounds of testing to allow us to iterate into the final deliverable, as well as a final accessible usability test.
Handover
This project was start-stop. I inherited it after a 6 month pause on work due to budgeting issues.
On handover, I brought the team on board to review the brief, the previous teams' progress, develop a timeline, and re-engage our stakeholders for further cosultation.
On handover, I brought the team on board to review the brief, the previous teams' progress, develop a timeline, and re-engage our stakeholders for further cosultation.
Design
Leveraging previous work and the new team's fresh eyes, we designed some refined concepts that were circulated to stakeholders for feedback.
Key input differentiators were established to discover what would be easiest for customers to use, and variants of copy to determine what kind of language and how much content was useful or encouraging to users.
Other aspects of the flow were also explored, attempting to balance the perceived intrusiveness of the offer, and the goal of meeting out 0.01% contribution target.
These were then prototyped and taken to testing.
Key input differentiators were established to discover what would be easiest for customers to use, and variants of copy to determine what kind of language and how much content was useful or encouraging to users.
Other aspects of the flow were also explored, attempting to balance the perceived intrusiveness of the offer, and the goal of meeting out 0.01% contribution target.
These were then prototyped and taken to testing.
Click into enlarge.
Testing results and iteration
Testing surfaced a clear favourite for the input UI and helped us establish some parameters around the most effective type of content to use. However, general customer engagement left us with something to work on.
It was at this point that I proposed a graphical and gamified approach to engagement, using the visual cue of trees to attract attention, and then an animation to encourage input and higher value contributions.
It was at this point that I proposed a graphical and gamified approach to engagement, using the visual cue of trees to attract attention, and then an animation to encourage input and higher value contributions.
Click to enlarge.
Results and refinement
The subsequent round of testing delivered decisive results, with the graphical treatment unanimously beating other treatments. This including praise from participants from the 'neutral' and 'unconcerned with climate change' cohorts.
Additionally, it was observed that the animated trees drew users further in to the contribution panel, with verbal responses indicating interest, positive sentiments toward government, and behaviour showing they would contribute more than on previous tests (50% giving more than the minimum as opposed to only 20%).
Minor usability issues were noted, primarily with content and affordance positioning, and these were addressed and refined for designs to be handed over.
Additionally, it was observed that the animated trees drew users further in to the contribution panel, with verbal responses indicating interest, positive sentiments toward government, and behaviour showing they would contribute more than on previous tests (50% giving more than the minimum as opposed to only 20%).
Minor usability issues were noted, primarily with content and affordance positioning, and these were addressed and refined for designs to be handed over.
Delivery
Working alongside the developers, I established the most feasible means for delivering the solution, and created the required assets using Adobe After Effects.
The outcome
Our final design utilised an expandable panel with eye-catching graphic to engage users. Interested users who interacted with this were displayed four options for contribution amounts as well as a free input for those who wanted to enter an exact amount.
Each of the selectable options animated the graphic that would show trees popping in for those that selected higher amounts, and disappearing for those that selected lower.
Six months after implementation our reports showed that we were hitting about 0.12%of users contributing, 12x the target for the project.
