Pledge My Tree

Interactive Map · 3D/WebGL Design · Trust & Safety Design · Impact Tech

A platform that turns private tree-planting pledges into public, place-anchored commitments — pledge, plant, verify with a photo, and watch it appear on the map.

100 users: User testing target
4 days: Product prototype
1 person: concept, design, and prototype

Overview

PledgeMyTree is a concept for a free, non-profit web platform that helps individuals, schools, communities and companies commit to planting trees.

Users select a location, choose how many trees they intend to plant and optionally specify the tree type. Their pledge appears on an interactive map as a glowing low-poly tree. After planting, users can upload a photograph and supporting details, changing the record from Pledged to Planted and eventually Verified.

The Problem

Environmental intentions are often difficult to see, track or validate. People may want to contribute to restoration, but they lack a simple way to record where they intend to plant, remember their commitment and share progress.

Environmental impact can also be confusing. A planned tree, a planted tree, a verified tree and a surviving tree should not all be counted in the same way.

PledgeMyTree addresses this problem by creating a transparent status journey:

Pledged is not planted, planted is not verified, and verified is not guaranteed to survive.

Product Goal

The goal was to design a lightweight and emotionally engaging platform that makes tree planting visible while remaining honest about what has and has not happened.

The experience combines:

Simple tree pledges.
Location-based visualisation.
3D low-poly map interactions.
Personal and company dashboards.
Planting evidence uploads.
Verification and follow-up updates.
Public environmental awareness.

User Experience

Make a pledge

A visitor searches for a location using address autocomplete, confirms an approximate map position, chooses the number of trees and optionally adds a species or planting date.

Users can pledge one tree or create a larger commitment for a family, school or organisation.

Explore the pledge

After submission, the user sees the location on a low-poly 3D map. A glowing tree represents the intention to plant, rather than claiming that the tree already exists.

The pledge record includes:

Location.
Number of trees.
Optional tree type.
Pledge date.
Planned planting date.
Current status.
Privacy setting.

Add planting evidence

After planting, the user uploads a photograph, planting date and optional notes.

For larger projects, companies or planting partners can upload multiple planting records. Geotagged photographs, field information and repeat monitoring are commonly used in restoration verification approaches, providing a useful model for PledgeMyTree’s future evidence workflow.

Verify and monitor

A moderator or approved planting partner reviews the submitted evidence. If it meets the published criteria, the record becomes Verified.

Future updates can record whether the tree is:

Surviving at the last update.
In need of attention.
Replaced.
Unable to be confirmed.

Key Design Decisions

Design decision	Rationale
Separate pledge and planting statuses	Prevents the platform from overstating environmental impact.
Approximate public locations	Protects residential privacy and sensitive planting sites.
Low-poly 3D map	Creates an engaging visual experience without making the site unnecessarily heavy.
Individual and organisation profiles	Supports personal commitments as well as school and company campaigns.
Evidence review workflow	Builds trust and creates a clear path from claim to verification.
Status-based leaderboards	Separates participation from verified environmental action.
2D fallback	Keeps the experience usable on lower-powered devices and slower connections.

MVP Scope

The first release would focus on the smallest trustworthy experience:

Landing page and pledge flow.
Address search and map location selection.
One-tree and multiple-tree pledges.
Privacy controls for exact or approximate locations.
Personal dashboard.
Shareable pledge pages.
Photo evidence upload.
Manual verification by administrators.
Public map with clustered markers.
Separate counters for pledged, planted and verified trees.

The 3D map could initially be introduced as an emotional discovery layer after the core pledge and verification workflows are proven. This reduces technical risk and prevents visual polish from hiding weak data quality.

Future Opportunities

Future versions could introduce:

Company and school campaigns.
Planting-partner portals.
Multilingual experiences.
Personal and organisational tree forests.
Survival reminders.
Replacement records.
Public restoration projects.
Regional planting guidance.
Satellite and geospatial monitoring.

More advanced restoration systems combine field records with geospatial data, satellite imagery and independent checks to compare reported planting with observed conditions. PledgeMyTree could gradually adopt suitable elements of these approaches without presenting itself prematurely as a carbon-credit or scientific monitoring platform.[3][4]

Outcome

PledgeMyTree reframes tree planting as a visible journey rather than a single transaction. It gives users a meaningful way to commit, document and revisit their action while showing the public the difference between intention and verified progress.

The concept combines emotional storytelling, geospatial interaction and evidence-based status design to encourage environmental participation without payments, commercial incentives or unsupported impact claims.

Reflection

The most important insight was that the 3D map is not the product by itself. The map creates emotion and discovery, but trust comes from the data model, privacy decisions, evidence workflow and transparent status language.

For PledgeMyTree, the strongest experience is the progression from:

Pledged → Planted → Verified → Monitored

This progression gives the platform a practical foundation for growing from a simple awareness website into a trusted global record of community-led tree planting.