Guides and UX Design for Carbon Market Watch
BACKGROUND
Carbon Market Watch is an independent, not-for-profit watchdog and research organisation with unique expertise in carbon pricing and a track record of shaping and influencing international and European climate policy.
Given the urgency of tackling the climate emergency and halting climate breakdown, carbon pricing and other climate policies are critical tools for cutting pollution and driving a just transition towards zero-carbon societies. CMW aims to ensure that market-based climate policies fulfil their promise, in wise combination with regulatory and incentivising measures. Read more at carbonmarketwatch.org
Project duration:
3 months
My role:
Designer of three full guides, infographics, social media posts and one web-page referring to the carbon projects under the Article 6 of the Paris Agreement project, created with Rebecca Iwerks.
PROCESS
Content research and development was done by Rebecca Iwerks, and independent capacity building and advocacy consultant with a vast experience with land tenure, carbon markets, national and global policy and extractive industries, and Federica Dossi, expert on global carbon markets from Carbon Market Watch, based in Belgium.
The process counted with an extensive research phase, two sets of interviews and group discussions with international journalists, grassroots communities representatives and advocate final users. The objective of this phase was to understand pain points and challenges that the civil society faces when trying to find and understand carbon projects under Article 6 form the Paris Agreement.
With a complex matrix of websites and resources, finding information about specific projects in your country can be a real struggle for the end user, so CMW's initiative to create these guides, was to make sure that final users understand where and how to gather information about specific projects in their countries, and how to use the official data platforms to track and keep the organizations involved on carbon contracts accountable to their agreed goals.
After understanding the challenges on navigating complex websites and data platforms, we started the design process with conceptualization drafts and decided on a pathway strategy that would link all 3 guides with a cohesive visual identity. We went through content and design revisions with the client, that approved the following results.
RESULTS
Guides themes:
Guide 1: How to find information on carbon projects in my country?
Guide 2: How can I use data from article 6.2 to understand what's happening in my country?
Guide 3: How can I use data from article 6.4 to understand what's happening in my country?
For each guide we created an engaging cover design showcasing a global south country that to increase connection and introduce the project through a narrative lens, stating the problem in a visual way.
Guide 1 cover portraits a Kenyan woman dressed on traditional clothes on a central highlands plains environment, guide 2 cover shows an Indian goat farmer on a central grasslands area with palm trees, and guide 3 shows a Brazilian indigenous woman with face and body painted with traditional painting, on a humid and hot scenery of waterfalls and dense tropical forest like the Amazon.
Following corporate brand guidelines, I created a clean and structured layout plan that reflected an engaging brand identity and enhanced readability by using clear font and colours hierarchy. Due to user format preference, the pages flow are vertical single pages, optimized for digital viewing. Relying heavily on screenshoots of website and platforms, we made sure to communicate these elements as outsourced, but placed them in unison with all the infographics, worksheets and specific instructions to how to access and use each specific resources inside the guides.
The final design also incorporated easily digestible charts, tables and infographics to ensure clarity of content, as well as an interactive cover, contents pages, hyperlinks and a webpage compliant with AODA standars.
Guide 1- Figure 2: Sectors of Carbon Projects
Guide 3- Figure 1: Article 6.4 Carbon project lifecycle
The designed branded web-page is the last step to allow the download of each guide, as well as to share the webinar video explaining each guide of the project. The page is responsive for 3 formats, it has alt-text, color contrast and text size compliant with accessibility AA standards as well as basic SEO best practices for web search optimization.
The final guides can be downloaded from the webpage https://carbonmarketwatch.org/ after July 14, 2026, date of the webinar.
PROJECT INFO
How: Rebecca Iwerks
What: 3 Guides and 1 Web-page
Who: Carbon Market Watch
When: 2026
Industry: Environmental Non-profit