How might we turn an everyday renting decision into a conservation act?

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The problem

The Western Swamp Turtle is critically endangered, with as few as 50-100 left in captivity. The five primary threats to the species are ongoing and systemic.

Of the five, land clearing tied most directly to a decision someone could influence. Housing development clears habitat. Renters and buyers choose where to live. The question was whether design could make that connection visible enough to affect the choice.
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The design response

The first direction was a visual identity system for developers: a certification badge that ethical developers could display. That direction had a problem: it put all the weight on developers opting in, and gave renters no way to act on the information. From there, the project shifted to a consumer-facing app. The badge system became the scoring mechanism underneath property listings rather than the product itself.

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Low-fidelity prototype testing

The first prototype mapped the core screens in wireframe: home, property listings, a property score breakdown, saved rentals, and an impact tracker.

Testing flagged one consistent issue: the species focus was too opt-in. Users had to navigate to a separate section to find information about the Western Swamp Turtle. Three improvements came out of testing: make endangered species information appear by default, develop filtering by sustainability score alongside price and location, and reconsider how user behaviour is incentivised.

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Mid-fidelity iteration

The mid-fidelity prototype applied the green and brown visual identity and introduced more detailed versions of the score summary, using iconography and progress bars in place of placeholder text. A dedicated section highlighting the species a renter was safeguarding was added at this stage, placed more prominently based on the feedback from low-fidelity testing.

Final Outcome

The final UI made the Western Swamp Turtle a visible presence throughout the app rather than something buried in a tab. The Impact Digest, species spotlight, and per-property impact reports all surface conservation context without requiring the user to seek it out. Renting near protected habitat generates an impact report showing exactly which species that property's ethical development helped safeguard.

The Property Score sits on every listing alongside price and location. Tapping it opens a full breakdown of the developer's credentials. The Certified Ethical Developer badge, developed as part of the visual identity system, appears on qualifying listings and in the map view.

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