Earth Hero Community Feature discovery research and concept testing
Earth Hero is a non-profit organization that aims to respond to climate change by discovering actions users can take to protect our planet. Their team partnered with Tech Fleet to create a community feature for their iOS mobile app, a place for users to connect with each other and share their collective progress on reducing carbon emissions.
Inspire heroes to assemble
Problem statement
Based on the Google Analytics report, Earth Hero noticed that new and existing users may engage with the mobile app on the 1st and 7th day, but before day 30 they start churning out. Our team worked on building a community feature to increase user retention and engagement.
Objectives
Ability to create a private group and invite others to make progress on actions and emissions as a group.
Allow a simple process for the Group Admins to invite people to a group.
Ability to participate in group-centric actions.
Notes
During our evaluation, Earth Hero's app was fully operational. This assessment occurred subsequent to prior Usability Testing conducted on an active application.
Collective heroism to save the planet
Our goal for this project was basically to allow a group of users to take action in a more collective way and share their journey. This would result in more app engagement that encourages more real-world action.
However, how can we motivate existing and new users to keep engaged on trying new and more actions, thus reducing their carbon emission?
Competitive Analysis
We focused on apps that allow you to create private groups.
We analyzed the user experience of:
creating a group
inviting others to join the group
group dashboard (main group page)
group settings
group chat/communication
Considering this we compared app like FitBit, DataCamp ,Insight Timer,Lichess
Findings
Leaderboard
Creating healthy competition in the group
Visualizing Gaps and Strengths
Categorized actions and goals in the group
Group Admins vs. Members
Permissions and functions each admin and member can have relating to the group
Clarity of Functionality
Context is needed for functionalities in the group
Levels of Privacy
Members should customize how much of their progress can be visible to their group
Generative Interviews
In order to gain insights into how current Earth Hero users and non-Earth Hero users would engage in a community group feature promoting actions against climate change, eight user interviews were conducted. The goal was to understand their perspectives, needs, and preferences in relation to such a feature.
Method
Participants: The participants included four current Earth Hero users and four non-Earth Hero users.
Format: The interviews were conducted remotely, allowing for a mix of perspectives and locations.
Questions: The interviews covered topics such as their current engagement in climate action, their attitudes toward community involvement, and their expectations from a platform promoting climate change initiatives to guide user interviews with our high-level goals in mind.
How might we motivate heroes to increase their sustainable living?
How might we encourage collaboration and real-world action?
How might we enable heroes to interact with and motivate each other?
Interviews findings
Collaborative Learning
Users want to learn from each other by sharing stories, tips, and tricks.
Positive Reinforcement in Tracking Progress
When contributing to group progress, users would like positive reinforcement in their actions in the form of friendly messages or badges to promote engagement.
Communication
A close knit-community is what drives engagement and interaction in members!Chat functions, polling systems, photo sharing options, and more.
User Personas
Based on our Generative Research interviews, we have identified and developed two proto-personas that align with our participant pool: group admins and group members.
Concept Testing
We conducted five moderated remote usability testing with current Earth Hero users using the prototype to:
understand users’ experience navigating the Community Feature,
uncover areas of confusion and identify opportunities for improvement.
Method and research objective
Current Earth Hero app users who have completed 10 environmentally friendly activities in the Earth Hero app
The procedure we will employ will be:
Moderated remote usability testing
Ask participants to complete the tasks using the prototype for creating a group, onboarding, inviting friends into a group, creating a goal, leaving a reaction, and viewing group progress.
Concept testing findings
Users found the process of creating a group, inviting members, and leaving a reaction to feed to be easy. These three tasks have an average ease-of-task score of 4.6, indicating that users perceive these tasks as very easy to complete.
Users found the Goal Setting section to be confusing. Definition of Earth Points and explanations on why they are important to the group goal are needed to support users in creating a reasonable group goal. Recommendation: Consider adding the explanation of Earth Points in the onboarding or adding a tooltip next to the Earth Point to explain better what do Earth Points mean.
Users requested more information and modifications to the Actions tab. More context is needed around Actions and how they contribute to the group goal. The Actions Completed menu did not align with user expectations. Recommendation: Consider adding information about specific tasks listed in the visualization in this menu.
The “Invite” button at the inviting members page is not visible enough. Recommendation: Suggest modifying the design of the button to make it more visible.
Final Prototype
Our primary objectives have been successfully met .
Engage and empower communities to take action.
Improve our tool to effectively motivate and inspire users to participate in real-world activities.
The total number of completed actions from 426,709 to 600,000, representing a substantial 41% increase.
The amount of emissions saved from 86,059,803 kg CO₂ to 120,000,000 kg CO₂, reflecting a noteworthy 39% rise.
