Carbon Sustain Dashboard and Website Redesign

PROJECT TYPE

Consulting Group Project

DELIVERABLES

Responsive Website, Interactive Dashboard

TIMELINE

7 Weeks

O V E R V I E W

About the Client

Current Experience Pain Points

R E S E A R C H & D E F I N E

User Research

Competitive Analysis

Affinity Mapping

S O L U T I O N

Scope

Design System

Learnings

Designs & Iterations

CONTRIBUTION

Dashboard and homepage design

Carbon Sustain is a startup that helps efficiently manage their carbon emissions and offers tools for tracking, reducing, and reporting carbon footprints. CarbonSustain delivers a service akin to a TurboTax for carbon emissions reporting for small & medium businesses.

The website is the main channel that companies use to access their decarbonization journey. However, the current website has some issues that prevented users from being able to have a clear understanding of carbon accounting and what the organization does. Some of the most prevalent issues were:

visuals take up space with no purpose
no clear call-to-actions
outdated visual design and inconsistent branding

How might we get users to understand the goals of Carbon Sustain, trust the company, and navigate the website effectively to use the services it offers?

What I would do differently next time

Refine data visualization through accessibility and scalability testing

We conducted interviews with 18 sustainability managers, analysts, and business owners who use or were considering Carbon Sustain. Conversations explored how they measure and report emissions, what they look for in dashboards, and how they evaluate tools for improving carbon performance.

We examined other carbon accounting platforms and found that most were utilizing testimonials to build trust and had very easy to understand navigation systems.

We synthesized the interviews and the client’s vision to identify key user characteristics and pain points. 2 main pain points emerged:

1. Unclear mission statement: Client’s mission and purpose were not immediately apparent to users. This lack of clarity could lead to confusion and make it challenging for potential customers to understand the value and goals of the business at first glance.

2. Disorganized content: The content on the website was not well-structured, making navigation unintuitive. Users struggled to locate critical information quickly, which led to a higher drop off rate.

After clarifying the client’s mission and synthesizing insights from user interviews and affinity mapping, I designed a visual system to create a thoughtful, branded experience across Carbon Sustain’s platform.

My goal was to craft a seamless and trustworthy journey that empowers users to explore carbon data with clarity and ease.

For both the landing page and the dashboard, I focused on:

Maintaining strong visual hierarchy so important actions and metrics stand out.
Applying a calm and eco- inspired color palette and consistent typography to reinforce credibility.
Simplifying navigation and content density to prevent cognitive overload.

To adhere to the client’s wishes and maintain a brand according to the logo and vision of sustainability, I added a lot of muted earth tones to both the redesign and the dashboard keeping them minimal.

Enhancing trust and ease within the landing page

My goal for both the landing page and the dashboard was to build trust immediately upon entrance without overwhelming users. Users can now access the carbon emissions of any company and access the calculator immediately upon entering the homepage.

Improvement 1: Mission is clear on first glance

improvement 2: Streamlined navigation through multiple call to actions up front

improvement 2: Created a branded and thoughtful experience

Enhancing intuitiveness and hierarchy within the carbon calculator, menu bar and footer

My main goal for the carbon calculator was to make it as intuitive as possible for the user while providing them with the essential information they need to utilize the numbers. I also refined the menu bar and footer to support easy navigation and reinforce trust across the platform

Simplified calculator flow: Organized fields into logical groups (country, sector, facilities) and added a progress indicator so users can see where they are in the process

Clear hierarchy of results: Displayed footprint data in a clean card layout with labels and a visual chart, making numbers easier to interpret

Menu bar clarity: Grouped resources, tools, and account actions so users can find key links without scanning the whole page

R E F L E C T I O N

Conduct deeper user research and usability testing

Streamlining access and trust within the login and sign-up flow

My goal for the onboarding experience was to make signing in or registering with Carbon Sustain feel intuitive, credible, and cohesive with the rest of the platform. Since the old platform did not have any onboarding experience, I introduced clear, branded Login and Sign-Up pages that balance simplicity and professionalism while maintaining accessibility standards.

Implementation 1: Simplified onboarding for first-time users through minimal, clearly labeled fields and progressive disclosure.

Implementation 2: Created strong visual consistency by aligning the layout, colors, and typography with the refreshed design system to keep consistency with branding.

Implementation 3: Built further user trust by including recognizable partner logos (CDP, UC Berkeley) and secure login options (Google, Apple), reinforcing credibility and ease of use.

Optimizing clarity and motivation within the dashboard

My goal for the dashboard redesign was to make carbon data immediately interpretable while motivating user progress. The previous version over-relied on dense data tables and disjointed visuals, which made it difficult for users to connect insights to tangible action. The redesigned interface uses hierarchy, iconography, and soft visual cues to create a sense of progress and clarity in sustainability tracking.

Improvement 1: Simplified information hierarchy for faster data comprehension

Improvement 2: Added gamified visual feedback to encourage ongoing engagement

Improvement 3: Applied a cohesive visual identity aligned with the brand’s sustainability mission

My first UX Project

Supporting and optimizing user workflows

Testimonal from client

As my first full UX project, Carbon Sustain taught me to think beyond visuals: to design with purpose, data, and impact in mind. I learned how to translate business goals into intuitive user flows, cohesive visual systems, and meaningful interactions. The project pushed me to balance aesthetics with usability and gave me hands-on experience presenting and iterating based on real stakeholder feedback.

Through redesigning the dashboard and onboarding flow, I realized the importance of designing for momentum. Whether users were signing in, or analyzing emissions every touchpoint needed to feel connected and effortless. I began to focus on reducing cognitive load and creating pathways that guide users naturally from insight to action. This mindset now shapes how I approach systems design ensuring every component supports the user.

Given more time, I would have expanded user testing beyond internal feedback to include sustainability consultants and small-to-medium business owners: Carbon Sustain’s target users. Observing how they interact with the dashboard and onboarding flow could uncover pain points in navigation and data comprehension that weren’t visible through heuristic evaluation alone.

While the new dashboard improved clarity and structure, I’d want to validate how users interpret charts and emission breakdowns over time. With more iterations, I could test accessibility and scalability to ensure the design remains effective for diverse contexts and company sizes.

“The UX at Berkeley team exceeded all of my expectations this Fall semester. I hired the team not knowing what to expect and was pleased to find an enthusiastic and creative team very capable of complex and modern web designs made through Figma. It was truly a delight to work with the creative minds of the Cal undergrads Prisha, Chrstina, Diya, Ishanth, and Nethra! They were diligent and collaborated cohesively as a great design team all semester with a dedication to excellence in UX with beautiful and elegant UI. They did a wonderful job of incorporating modern elements into the landing page and demonstrated their endurance with the breadth of designs delivered from the main Landing Page, Newsletter, Team, Login/Registration, Main Menu Navigation, and updated Dashboard. I love the thought they put into creating a beautiful and sustainable company palette that elevated our brand. They were great listeners and significantly improved CarbonSustain's brand design and identity. Kudos for sticking to our weekly calls throughout the project while juggling a busy academic schedule at Cal. The designs always come out better through committee and UX@Berkeley you nailed it - A+! Looking forward to working together again in the Spring!”

Paul Bryzek | Founder | CEO | CTO CarbonSustain, Inc.