Guiding SMEs through their sustainability journey with Zellar
Overview
Introduction
Zellar is holistic sustainability platform for SMEs. Core platform functionality includes carbon emissions calculation and tracking, personalised recommendations for emissions reduction, and reporting tools for compliance.
I joined as the first in-house designer in over two years, working with the Head of Product, the CEO, and five engineers to deliver a complete redesign of the platform.
I took ownership of the entire design process, from creating personas and identifying key improvement areas, to redesigning the architecture, building new features, iteration and testing.
The Outcome
After an intensive six months - we launched Zellar V2 for web and mobile responsive! It was a success, reflected by a 82% increase in number of users logging in, 139% increase in number of actions taken, and 63% increase in average time spent on platform within the first 2 months. In collaboration with the marketing team, we launched a successful V2 campaign, increasing sign-up conversion by 79%.
"I don't have time to use Zellar"
"Zellar isn't relevant to my business needs"
Underlying problem: Zellar isn't adding value to users or is too difficult and time consuming to use.
Research
Why V2?
Zellar V1 was in place for nearly three years when I joined. Only minor UX/UI improvements had been made as the team lacked an in-house designer. Two key metrics drove the need for a major redesign:
1. Low platform engagement
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Most new users joined the platform through a free year-long licence sponsorship, leading to only 60% completing any actions within the first 30 days. Less than 10% of existing users were active on the platform.
2. Low customer retention
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Second year renewal rates were hovering at around 15% (opt-in), presenting major challenges to revenue generation.
To understand what's causing this, we reviewed data from hundreds of existing customer touch points and conducted 13 user interviews. Two common themed emerged among unhappy customers and those cancelling their subscriptions:
Underlying problem: More research is needed to understand users and tailor platform to their needs.
Observing user interactions with the platform uncovered the top usability issues contributing to these feelings:
1. Platform architecture
New features had been added to the platform without a clear structure.
Data showed that users were struggling with navigation and missing key features.
3. Complexity
Users found the emissions calculation journey complex or couldn't complete it without assistance.
This caused low platform usage and high volume of customer support calls.
2. Unclear user journeys
The platform lacked clear journeys, presenting features without a defined order.
Users were confused about where to start and what to do next, resulting in low engagement.
4. Lack of personalisation
Zellar caters to a diverse user base and V1 struggled with narrowing relevant content to specific users.
User felt overwhelmed with information or annoyed by irrelevant features.
Redesign goal: Increase new and existing user engagement by 20%, bring customer satisfaction up to 80%, and achieve at least 30% annual renewal rate.
Personas & Journeys
One of the first tasks I tackled was creating personas from existing and target customer data to guide the creation of user journeys.
We outlined the end-to-end platform experience for each persona, looking for opportunities to increase user value and decrease friction.
High-level journeys formed the basis of the new platform architecture, guiding users through actions in a logical order. This broke longer journeys into manageable steps and recommended next actions, addressing V1's issue of users feeling lost.
End-to-end experience for our primary persona, based on 13 in depth interviews and data from over 200 customer calls
Design
To respect your attention span, let's dive straight into the final feature designs. We'll bypass the thrilling stages of value-effort mapping, competitor analysis, feature prioritisation and wireframing—because, let's face it, you have better things to do with your time! For a deeper dive into the earlier stage of my design process, check out the MyAnte case study or get in touch.
All final designs underwent extensive user testing and iteration - I conducted 15 testing sessions spread out over two months, testing several iterations of the core journeys.
Reference point: V1 experience
The gallery below shows a bit of the V1 experience, organised in the rough order that users would move through the platform. The first image shows the V1 homepage, followed by the emissions calculation journey, list of recommended projects and the Zellar score (measure of users' sustainability progress ).
The before:
Rebranding
The team had previously worked with a creative agency on a brand refresh, so we were working with a new colour palette, shown below. We wanted the platform to have a light and consumer feel.
To ensure consistency and speed up design, I created a style guide and basic design system as we built V2.
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Information Architecture
To make V2 more user-friendly, we redesigned the information architecture, creating a clear end-to-end journey. We grouped related features together and arranged them in a logical, step-by-step flow that users can easily follow.
The updated information architecture grouped core functionality into four action-oriented categories - dashboard, action, insights and sharing - replacing over 16 separate journeys across five top and sub-level navigation elements in V1.
A high-level overview of the new end-to-end journey, was shown to users during the onboarding process.
Core feature: Dashboard
To address the issue of low new user activation and existing users not knowing which actions to take, we replaced the V1 homepage with a simple dashboard. The dashboard outlines their possible actions, while directing users to the most high impact ones. We also added a data section for a snapshot of users' progress.
Core feature: Action
Zellar's core feature is the carbon emissions calculator. The V1 version, structured around regulation standards, divided the journey into four separate flows by scope (technical term for emissions origin).
This design was confusing, time-consuming, and poorly integrated with other features. Users often didn't realise reduction projects were based on their calculated emissions data. After completing their calculations, they felt there was little else to do on the platform.
In V2, we created a continuous journey, splitting emissions calculations into to two missions and encouraging ongoing actions through projects and rituals.
The gallery below shows a few key screenshots of this new journey.
The after:
Core feature: Insights
We redesigned the data portions of the platform to make them more engaging and friendlier - Zellar is most users' first time owning sustainability initiatives!
Core feature: Sharing
To encourage ongoing use, we added a new feature to V2 - an externally shareable profile page that highlights users' progress to date. This increased Zellar's value to users as it allows them to use their sustainability progress as a marketing tool.
Outcome & Learnings
V2 launched in May 2024 and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Customers reported that V2 was much easier to use, looked clean and modern, and better matched their needs.
We hit our targets with a 139% increase in existing user engagement and a 79% increase in new user sign-up conversion. We're still waiting on renewal and quantitative satisfaction data, so stay tuned!
Being part of this project was an incredible experience and a great learning opportunity in data-driven design. It also enabled me to refine my skills in B2B design and data visualisation.