Building Community Before the Community Exists | Web

Ehope is an early-stage ecological platform that connects people across France with local environmental initiatives, events, and actions.

The team brought me in with a specific question: how do you make people come back and participate when the platform is brand new and there's barely any content on it? That was the core challenge. Not just "make it look good." but to build engagement from zero.

I joined as the product designer working with a product owner and two other designers. My job was to propose the direction, the product logic, the visual system, and the engagement mechanics that would make this project feel alive before it actually was.

I joined the project in October 2025 as a product designer working with a small team: a product owner and two other designers. My role was to build the visual and UX direction from scratch. No existing design system, no patterns, no wireframes.

Over the course of about two months, I developed the full concept direction: the visual identity, the interaction logic, the product decisions you’ll see below. As the project evolved, I continued developing my concept independently and brought it to high-fidelity over a few additional weeks.

Ecological platforms have a problem. They either look like a green NGO brochure that nobody wants to open on a Saturday morning, or they look like a clean startup page you forget five minutes later.

I wanted to try something different. What if environmental action felt like a community experience instead of an obligation? Less "you should care about the planet" and more "look what's happening near you, come join."

That question shaped every decision I made.

One of the first things I pushed back on was search. It sounds obvious to include it. But here's the thing: when a platform is new, the content base is small. If someone types "beach cleanup in Marseille" and gets zero results, they leave. They probably never come back. One empty results can potentially page kills the intent and trust.

So instead of search, I built the experience around guided discovery. A calendar where you browse events by date. Filters for categories, distance, type of impact. Curated collections like "popular this month" and "editor's picks."

The logic is simple: no matter what you click, you always find something. Every interaction leads to content, never to a dead end. For an early-stage platform, this was the safer and smarter path.

I designed two versions of the home page because engagement looks different depending on where someone is in their journey.

Not logged in: this page works as a funnel. Real photographs of real people doing things. Numbers: 32,560 citizens already engaged, 1,248 active initiatives. Then the reward system. Then the calendar. Then popular actions and partners. Every block pulls you one step deeper. By the time you scroll to the bottom, you either sign up or you leave knowing exactly what this platform is about.

Logged in: this page is personal. "Explore what's happening near you, Léa." The calendar comes first. Filters are right there. And then the leaderboard: Top Contributors in Your Region. I wanted people to see other humans making an impact and think "I want to be on that list too." Below that: curated picks, eco news, weekend suggestions. It feels like a community that's already moving.

The initial idea was to have a hedgehog mascot. I took that concept and redesigned it as an 8-bit pixel character, with a matching pixel-art logo. These are the only two 8-bit elements in the entire design. Everything else is clean and modern. That contrast is intentional: the pixel hedgehog is the personality layer inside a polished system.

Why 8-bit? Because the ecological topic is heavy. It's serious. I didn't want the platform to feel like another place that makes you feel bad about not recycling enough.

The hedgehog does real work. You searched for something and nothing came up? He shows up, scratching his head, saying "It's pretty quiet here..." He's not a condescending error message. He's a friend who suggests you try different filters or check out popular missions. Instead of frustration, you get a small moment of warmth.

This connects directly to the engagement system. He's not decoration. He's part of what makes you remember this platform and want to come back.

I didn't want empty badges. "Congratulations, you earned 10 points" with no context does nothing for retention.

The reward system I designed connects participation to real value. You join events, you contribute, and your activity converts into something tangible: discounts from eco-friendly partner brands, access to exclusive workshops, visibility on the leaderboard.

The idea is to shift the motivation from "I should help the planet" to "I want to grow my impact and see where I stand." Duty gets exhausting. Habit is what keeps people coming back. The whole system is built to turn one-time visitors into people who return because they're building something.

Every visual choice serves the engagement goal.

Navy blue as the foundation. Blue gives stability and trust. For a platform that asks people to give their time to environmental causes, trust is everything.

Orange for action. Blue on its own can feel distant. I introduced high-saturation orange for every call-to-action. Orange carries energy, warmth, movement. Every button that says "join" or "participate" is orange. Blue is where you learn, orange is where you act.

Real human imagery. No stock illustrations. Real faces, real events. When you see actual people doing actual things, the distance between "I could do this" and "I want to do this" gets smaller.

Large bold typography to create urgency. Soft rounded geometry to keep it approachable. The platform is about a movement, but it needs to feel safe and welcoming to everyone, not just people who already care about ecology.

This is my proposed direction for engagement on an early-stage platform. A full product concept from research to high-fidelity: the discovery logic, the two-tier home page, the gamification system, the emotional layer with the hedgehog, and the visual identity that ties it all together.

Role: Product Designer Timeline: October — November 2025 (team) I March 2026 (independent high-fidelity) Platform: Web (responsive) Tools: Figma Skills: Product Design, UX Design, UI Design, Discovery UX, Gamification, Emotional Design, Mascot Design, Information Architecture, Visual Design System Type: Concept case study, early-stage platform