After reading the brief and other information several times as well as studied the problem statement – I started gathering my own information and thinking about the problem. One of the things I did was search for similar companies and brands that sell clothes or other items to reforest or rewild. I also searched for foundations that don’t necessarily sell stuff but is based on contributions (charity) for more information about the problem itself. Foundations are a good source for more quantitative data about reforestation. They often refer to research and studies done on the cause and effect of deforestation and planting trees around the world. Lastly, I tried to read more about sustainable living, to get a better understanding of what it means in practice.

While gathering more information (informal literature review) about the subject I also looked at the design and layout of the websites. I noticed that many of them use much of the same color-palette and much of the same layout. They also have a very similar tone of voice. My impression is also that a few of them have some usability issues in terms of too much informat ion, placed illogically and with little contrast. Many of the sites not written in English also struggle with the English translation, where some text is in English and other parts in French for instance.

TreeLife adresses a serious problem; We are in a critical climate crisis but I still wanted the visitor to get a positive and hopeful vibe when visiting. Because we can still do something, it’s not too late.

I also wanted the page to be organic, simple, informative and elegant, in order to get the visitor interested, learn about the project – and most of all to get them to plant a tree or to donate.

In order to visualize the build and hierarchy of the pages I made a very simple IA (in – formation architecture/UserFlow) and I also tried my hand at some low-fidelity, rough sketches.