Case study · Climate tech · Onboarding & home

From sign up to a climate profile.

Bharat Carbon helps Indian businesses measure emissions and report on ESG. I designed the first ten minutes: signing up, setting up the company, sharing sustainability goals, and a home screen that tells new users exactly what to do next.

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Client: Bharat Carbon
Industry: Climate tech · Carbon accounting & ESG
Product: Sign up, onboarding and dashboard home of the web app
Timeframe: 2025
My role: UX + UI design, onboarding flow, prototyping
Tools: Figma, FigJam

01 · The short version

The project in a minute

The problem

A blank, complex product

Carbon accounting is new to most MSMEs. A new account landed on an empty product with scopes, frameworks and modules, and no clear first step.

What I did

A guided start

A short sign-up tied to the company domain, a few plain-language questions about the business and its goals, and a home built around a Get Started checklist and tour.

The result

Always a next step

Every new user lands on a climate profile with a checklist of what to add next, a seven-stop tour, and all three products one click away.

4short questions on goals and awareness

7Get Started tasks, from business details to users

7stops in the guided product tour

3products on one home: Carbon Accounting, ESG, Strategy

02 · Who it's for

Built for teams new to carbon

Founders, finance leads and sustainability managers at Indian businesses, many of them MSMEs starting carbon accounting for the first time because a customer, lender or regulator asked.

Primary users

MSME owners · Sustainability managers · Company admins

“Get my company set up, then show me what to do first.”The brief in one line, as I framed it

Quick, safe sign upWork email on the company domain, verified with a code.
No duplicate companiesIf my company is already here, send me to my admin.
Plain languageQuestions about my business, not carbon jargon.
A clear first stepA checklist that shows what's done and what's next.
Learn as I goA short tour and a knowledge base on scopes and frameworks.

03 · How it came together

Research, flow, home

The goal was simple: no new user should ever land on an empty screen and wonder what to do.

1
Step 1
Study the leaders
Reviewed onboarding in carbon platforms like Persefoni and modern SaaS dashboards to see what they ask, and when.
- Research
- Benchmarks
2
Step 2
Design the sign up
Business website first, work email locked to the company domain, a 6-digit OTP, and clear error and success states.
- Flows
- States
3
Step 3
Design onboarding and home
Business details, industry, four short sustainability questions with a progress bar, then a home with a Get Started checklist and tour.
- Visual design
- Prototype

04 · Key decisions

The choices that made it work

Decision 01

Start with the company, not the person

Why: Each business should exist once, with its admin in control of who joins.
What I did: Sign up asks for the business website first. Emails are locked to that domain, and if the company already exists the form says so and points to the admin.

Decision 02

Ask about goals, in plain words

Why: Most users are new to ESG. Jargon-heavy forms would make them quit.
What I did: Four short multiple-choice questions on motivation, importance, goals and awareness, with a progress bar, help Bharat Carbon tailor the product to each company.

Sustainability goals question in onboarding

Decision 03

Make home a to-do list

Why: A new account has no data, so a dashboard of empty charts would mean nothing.
What I did: Home leads with the climate profile and a Get Started carousel: business details, facilities, holdings, employees, suppliers, emission factors and users, each ticked off as it's done.

05 · The screens