Offsetting Carbon, One Subscription at a Time
Invert is a climate-focused startup helping individuals and businesses take action on their carbon footprint. I joined the product team as a UI/UX designer to help turn their vision into a functional, user-friendly mobile app.
This case study shares how I approached designing an experience that balances education, transparency, and ease of use — all while navigating the fast-paced, iterative nature of a growing startup.
🎯Context & Goals
Invert's mission is to empower individuals to take meaningful climate action through simple, verified carbon offsetting. While their team had already established strong partnerships and carbon credit infrastructure, they needed a user-facing product that could bring this mission to life.
The goal was to design an app that made offsetting feel personal, impactful, and easy to understand — even for users unfamiliar with how carbon credits work.
When I joined, the team had early concepts and a product vision, but no clear structure for the user experience. My role was to help shape the app’s design from the ground up — from user flows and wireframes to visual design and UI components.
🔍Understanding the Problem
When I joined the team, there wasn’t a formal research process in place. The product owner provided some early market insights, and I collaborated closely with them to understand the audience we were designing for: users who care about sustainability but might not fully understand carbon offsetting. I'll admit, I had absolutely no idea what a carbon offset was.
Bridging the Gap
I focused on simplifying complex concepts like “carbon credits” and “verified offset projects,” building trust and transparency around how user contributions are used, and designing a subscription flow that made it easy for people to start taking action quickly.
I also reviewed competitor apps and climate platforms to gather inspiration and spot UX patterns we could either learn from or improve upon.
✏️Design Process
With no existing design system or structure in place, I started by mapping out the app’s core flows in FigJam — focusing on the key moments: onboarding, selecting a subscription, and viewing the impact of contributions.
With no existing design system or structure in place, I started by mapping out the app’s core flows in FigJam — focusing on the key moments: onboarding, selecting a subscription, and viewing the impact of contributions.
Once we were aligned on the structure, I began creating high-fidelity mockups in Figma. I designed a clean, minimal interface that let the projects take the spotlight. I used clear typography, subtle gradients, and intuitive layouts to make the experience feel calm, trustworthy, and modern.
🎨Final Designs
The final UI focused on clarity and trust with a visual style that reflects Invert’s mission and values. The app guides users through an intentionally simple experience: learn about carbon offsetting, choose a monthly plan, and track your climate impact over time.
Some key features included:
- Streamlined onboarding to help users understand how offsetting works and what Invert does differently
- A subscription selector that makes it easy to choose a plan based on lifestyle and footprint
- A personalized impact dashboard where users can track their contributions, view verified offset projects, and feel the value of their ongoing support
📈Impact & Outcomes
The final product launched as Invert’s first-ever mobile app, giving users a simple, trustworthy way to start offsetting their carbon footprint. My designs helped shape a smooth user experience from onboarding to monthly engagement.
Although I wasn’t directly involved in analytics, some key outcomes include:
- A clean, scalable UI foundation that the dev team could easily build from
- A complete mobile app experience designed from the ground up — from user flows to high-fidelity UI
- Strong collaboration between design and development, resulting in minimal friction during implementation
This project gave me the opportunity to design in a fast-paced, startup-style environment, where clarity and momentum were more important than perfection. It taught me how to move quickly while still advocating for good design, and how to adapt when the product direction shifts.