Ethical Estates
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A rental app built on a simple bet: people will choose ethically if the choice is put in front of them, not asked of them.
The Challenge
The brief was to design a UX intervention that could help an endangered species, using my own specialisation to shape the response. I focused on the Western Swamp Turtle, critically endangered in WA, and found that land clearing for housing and agriculture was the most direct threat to its survival, driven by ordinary demand rather than policy or climate alone. The harder problem underneath that was behavioural: conservation messaging usually asks people to care first and then act, but renters searching for a home aren't in a headspace to take on a cause. The challenge was designing something that didn't require belief before it could work.
The Solution
Ethical Estates builds the ethical decision into the renter's existing search behaviour instead of asking them to step outside it. An Ethical Development Rating sits directly in the property listing, next to price and location, not hidden in a filter menu. An Impact screen ties a specific property to the specific habitat and species it affects, so the consequence is concrete rather than abstract. On the supply side, a Certified Ethical Developer status gives developers a reason to build responsibly, so the pressure isn't placed on renters alone.
The Outcome
A working app concept that reframes an everyday, repeated decision, where to live, as the point of intervention for a conservation problem, rather than treating conservation and consumer behaviour as separate concerns. The project demonstrated that responsible design doesn't need a separate campaign or a moment of persuasion if it's built into something people are already doing.
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