Writing sample: CO2e tracker
Soldo
Soldo is an expense management platform designed to help businesses simplify their spending. Companies create Soldo cards with prepaid balances and spending limits, then assign them to their employees, projects and teams. This lets them manage budgets, spending and reconciliation with ease.
Background
The CO2e emissions tracker allows users to track, report on and offset emissions made as a result of business spending. I worked with the UX designer and UI designer to plan, map and build this feature from scratch (see the case study here), and also delivered the entire writing portion of the design.
The copy
Lune
Although this feature makes emissions tracking part of the Soldo platform, the functionality is powered by a third-party provider, Lune. This external platform is also where users can pay to offset their emissions, and where they’ll see reports and view any carbon credits they’ve bought.
From a business perspective, the suggestion was not to mention this third-party provider, so as not to confuse users, or take the spotlight away from Soldo. There were a few reasons I didn’t feel confident with this approach:
Not mentioning Lune would create a lack of cohesion and consistency between the Soldo portion of the feature, and the portion hosted by Lune
It also had the potential to create a huge lack of trust with our users. Redirecting them to another brand’s platform without warning would result in a confusing, disjointed and unprofessional user experience
I felt users would be far less likely to enter payment details and buy carbon credits if we redirected them to what was, in their mind, a random, third-party website with no warning
To manage expectations, build trust and create a more seamless and user-friendly experience, I suggested using the phrase ‘Powered by Lune’ in a few strategic places. This sets expectations that we’re working with a third-party provider, but keeps Soldo at the forefront as the main driver and provider of this new functionality and experience.
CO2 vs. CO2e
Another consideration I had to make was how to talk about emissions. Should it be carbon emissions? CO2 emissions? CO2e?
I started by doing some research, and found that while ‘CO2e’ was the most technically correct term for what users would track within Soldo (all greenhouses gases), the term ‘CO2’ was the most widely used and recognised.
After many considerations, I settled on ‘CO2e’. Here’s why:
Lune use ‘CO2e’ on their platform and in their calculations and reports. Using this same terminology creates more clarity, cohesion and consistency
From our research, we found out that most users felt they didn’t know enough about tracking emissions, and wanted to know more. If Soldo is going to be a trusted source of information for them, we should use the technically correct terminology, even if it isn’t the most widely used
In order to gain trust and establish Soldo as an expert in this field, we should set the tone and lead the way by using the correct terminology, not simply the most familiar
‘Download report’ section
Apart from a short modal highlighting the benefits of this feature and how to use it, the Soldo portion of the CO2e tracker is presented on just one page. The majority of the buttons here will redirect users to the third-party provider, Lune.
This meant I had a lot of information to include and organise in quite a tight space. I started by thinking about the content hierarchy. As downloading a report is the only action users can complete within the Soldo platform itself, and the action research tells us users are likely to do most frequently, I placed this section at the top. A few specific copy considerations were:
Including ‘in CSV or XLSX format’, because reports downloaded in other formats (e.g. PDF) would not show this information. We were unable to make changes to the Reports section of the web app, so this was the only place I could provide this information
Highlighting the path (Reports > Transactions) and including ‘of the Soldo web app’, as I wanted to make it clear that this action in particular will be performed within the Soldo platform
Including a ‘Go to Reports’ button, to give users a quick and easy way to access the information they need
Using the phrase ‘Open request form’ to manage expectations. As users needs to provide additional information, send a request and then receive and accept a quote before paying a fee, I wanted to stay away from any CTA that might suggest a more immediate action. Something like ‘Get a quote’ or ‘Calculate fee’ sounds as though the request will be automatically sent as soon as the user clicks the button. Something like ‘Get older emissions data’ is even worse, as it could lead users to think that by clicking it, they’re requesting the data and committing to pay an unknown fee there and then
Upselling
With the redesign of the integrations section (see the case study here), we wanted to try something new with this feature. At Soldo, we often release new features onto higher-paid plans only. Those users on lower-paid plans might see some marketing material, but never come across any of these new features within the product. We wanted to see how users responded when shown integrations and features not available on their current plan, and if this might encourage them to consider moving to a higher-paid plan.
Given the space constraints, the messaging here had to be as clear and concise as possible. The two pieces of information I needed to convey were:
This particular integration is not available on your current Soldo plan
You can click this button to find out more about the different price plans on offer. Clicking this button won’t automatically upgrade your plan or charge you in any way
To cover the first point, I started with ‘Not available on your current plan’. Reading it from the user’s point of view though, this threw up some questions for me, particularly around which ‘plan’ we were referring to. To solve this potential point of uncertainty, I introduced the word ‘Soldo’. I also removed the word ‘current’ to shorten the copy, as it felt redundant.
For the button copy, I played around with more active and impactful CTAs, like ‘Upgrade my plan’ or ‘Give me access’. Although these felt like they might encourage more clicks on the surface, it felt like the wrong way to go for a good user experience. These CTAs didn’t set expectations. They didn't make it clear the user would be taken to a page where they could view all the Soldo pricing plans, and instead implied that in clicking the button the user would be authorising the upgrade and spending money.
To provide reassurance and better manage expectations, I went with ‘View upgrade options’. ‘View’ is very noncommittal, and makes it clear you’re not officially enquiring, upgrading or paying for anything. On its own, ‘View upgrade options’ is quite vague, but in context with ‘Soldo plan’ mentioned directly above it, it feels like a good way to convey multiple messages in a clear, concise and empathetic way.