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Climate Resolve
Centralizing Climate Resolve's internal operations into a one platform
ROLE
UI/UX Designer
TIMELINE
Winter 2026
TOOLS
Figma
TEAM
1 PM
2 designers
10 developers
OVERVIEW
What is Climate Resolve? π±
Climate Resolve is an LA-based environmental policy nonprofit. Climate Resolve connects communities and policymakers to build equitable climate solutions. This year, I worked with Climate Resolve through USC's Code the Change.
THE PROBLEM
Climate Resolveβs internal operations are scattered across many different tools, making it difficult to track people & projects.
Every year, Climate Resolve oversees large projects like advocacy events & grant applications. The organization relies on a wide range of tools, like Google Sheets, Harvest, Xero, and Asana to track employees/budgets/resources. However, this existing system is extremely fragmented, requiring significant effort to use and maintain.
So, we asked ourselves:
How might we consolidate Climate Resolve's existing management system into a singular platform?
PROCESS
Breaking down a complex problem space through stakeholder interviews
During the first semester, my co-designer and I met with Climate Resolve employees on a weekly basis, speaking directly with different roles to understand the organization's internal structure. This allowed us to develop a detailed sitemap. We broke down necessary features by role:
Administrator π
Not regular employees, only do admin-specific tasks. Should be able to manage/create/lock all people, hours, and projects.
Employee β°
Includes PMs, Supervisors, and regular employees alike. Should be able to input/track hours & complete project tasks.
PM or Supervisor π
Have access to pages that regular employee's don't. PMs manage a set of projects, while supervisors oversee a set of people. Both approve hours.
Before moving on to high-fis, we created a moodboard. Our clients wanted a bright and friendly vibe.
Moodboarding
Design System
My co-designer and I also established a design system to maintain consistency across our designs.
We started off my creating rough wireframes, checking in frequently with the Climate Resolve admin for feedback.
Lo-Fidelity Prototype
SOLUTION
A full-stack web application centralizing Climate Resolve's internal operations & data.
Using our design system and inspirations, we converted our approved, low fidelity screens into a dev-ready, high fidelity prototype.
Admin View
Admins are the only people who have access to the specialized Admin View pages. They can lock finalized hours and create/manage/delete all employees and projects.
LOCK HOURS FOR BILLING EACH MONTH π
MANAGE EMPLOYEES ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION π₯
MANAGE PROJECTS AND ASSIGN PM/TEAM π
Employee View
Everyone who is not an administrator can log hours manually or import & review from Google Calendar.
Project Manager View
PMs have an overview of the projects they are managing. When clicking into each individual project, PMs can:
See budget breakdowns by Employee vs Direct costs
Add relevant links/documents
Approve project hours
Supervisor View
Supervisors oversee a group of employees. They can view a color-coded hour forecast to see which employees have capacity to take on more work (and therefore should have more work allocated to them). Supervisors also approve overall hours (hours across all projects), which occurs after PM hour approval.
HUGE SHOUTOUT TO MY TALENTED CO-DESIGNER JAMIE,
AND THE REST OF OUR TEAM!!
TAKEAWAYS
Ask questions to understand stakeholder needs
Through this project, I learned the importance of asking clarifying questions. I often found myself asking "dumb questions", only to find out others were confused as well!
Keep the design file organized
A well-organized file is essential for smooth dev handoff. We kept frames, components, and variants clearly labeled, making implementation much easier for the developers.
