Small choices, adding up
Terra is an eco habit tracker that makes sustainable living a simple daily practice. Instead of overwhelming people with climate data or guilt, it offers a short list of clear, achievable actions, like taking public transport, eating a plant-based meal or browsing with Ecosia. Then it shows how those small choices add up.
I designed Terra end to end in Figma over four months, from the first sketches of the habit loop to polished screens for the splash, daily habits and impact tracking.
Good intentions rarely become routines
Most people want to live more sustainably. But climate content tends to be too abstract ("reduce your carbon footprint") or too heavy, leaving people feeling their individual effort doesn't matter.
The question I set out to answer: how might we make greener choices feel achievable, and give people a reason to come back tomorrow?
Better habits begin with a believable next step.
Designing the habit loop
Terra's core loop is deliberately short: find one useful action, complete it, then see evidence that the effort is adding up. Every screen maps to one of three stages.
- ChooseA calm splash screen with a friendly illustrated Earth sets a low-friction, optimistic tone from the first second.
- PracticeThe home screen shows a focused list of daily eco habits. Each card states the action and why it helps, and logs with a single tap.
- GrowChecking in opens a celebration screen with CO₂ saved, the current streak and total habits, plus a chart that makes consistency visible.
Designed for momentum
Four ideas shaped the feature set, each aimed at making the next green choice feel easy rather than heavy.
- 01
A plan for today
Practical habits, from public transport to plant-based meals, in a focused daily list with a week strip for moving between days.
- 02
Visible progress
Streaks and estimated CO₂ savings connect every small choice to a bigger outcome.
- 03
Gentle celebration
Messages like "You've kept your green streak alive" reward consistency without making sustainability a competition.
- 04
Personal by default
A lightweight profile makes the experience feel owned while keeping attention on the habits.
Actions, not lectures. Each habit card is a concrete action with a one-line explanation, not a statistic. Friendly icons (a bus, a lettuce leaf, a globe, a bicycle) make the list easy to scan. The checkbox sits in the same place on every card, so logging a habit quickly becomes muscle memory.
A calm visual language
A soft sky-to-meadow gradient flows from blue at the top to green at the bottom, echoing the Earth illustration on the splash screen. Deep forest green is reserved for what matters: the selected day, completed checkmarks and the active tab. A small flame and streak counter add a spark of motivation. Rounded white cards and generous spacing keep every screen calm and readable.
- Sky → meadow
Background - Forest
Active / done - White
Cards - Flame
Streak - Earth blue
Illustration
The result
Terra turns sustainability from an abstract goal into a daily ritual: one tap to log progress, a streak worth protecting, and a running tally of impact that makes the effort feel real. No guilt, no information overload, just one useful action at a time.
- Small steps beat big promises.A believable next action motivates far more than an ambitious goal.
- Make impact tangible.Turning habits into kilograms of CO₂ and streak days gives people evidence that their effort counts.
- Tone is a feature.Encouragement instead of guilt keeps people coming back.
