As AI began reshaping the search space, how people access information, it became clear Ecosia needed to define how a purpose-driven company could compete in the space while staying true to its mission. The challenge was to translate our values into a clear, cohesive AI vision and reshape our brand, product strategy, and how we make design decisions. Working closely with Product and Marketing, I led the effort to bring this together, defining the vision, aligning the brand, and planning the first iterations toward the new goal.
Creating the workstreams
To align everyone around the same direction, I created one-pagers outlining three core workstreams: AI Vision & Design Foundations, AI Brand, and Understanding Our New Target Audience. Each one defined goals, scope, success metrics, and ownership, helping Product, Marketing, and Design stay coordinated. The Vision and Design Foundations work shaped the principles and interaction model for Ecosia’s AI experience, the Brand work explored how our visual and verbal identity should evolve, and the Target Audience stream focused on understanding the motivations and needs climate concious AI users. Together, these streams built the framework for a cohesive, meaningful, and user-centered AI roadmap.
Understanding our new target audience
To define Ecosia AI’s target audience, I worked with our User Researcher to study the Green Mainstream, users who care about sustainability and also use AI chat in their daily lives. We explored their AI habits, motivations, and how they use traditional search versus AI tools. We found that while they feel overwhelmed by climate anxiety, sustainability isn’t their main driver when using AI. A main opportunity that emerged was that if Ecosia can meet their need for a thoughtful, reliable AI companion that eases climate anxiety, we can become competitive in the AI race.
Evolving our visual brand
Once the foundation for what we wanted to achieve was set, I handed the work over to our Brand and Creative team to co-create a new visual direction that captured the intersection of climate and AI. We began with a co-creation workshop to explore what a more modern and fluid interpretation of Ecosia could look like, moving away from the playful illustration style of the past. Through collaboration and iteration, the creative team, with product design as consultants, refined new elements such as the primary color palette, illustration style, backgrounds, AI icon, and photography use.
Applying the new brand to existing touchpoints
After the new brand direction was defined, I assigned a Senior Product Designer to lead its application across our product ecosystem. Partnering with the Creative team, he refined the brand based on product needs and user interaction patterns. Together, they mapped all affected areas, introduced a new color and button hierarchy, and defined clear guidelines for how the updated identity should live in the product. As a result, embedded designers began running their own explorations within these standards, ensuring consistent implementation while leaving room for creativity and evolution. The update was pushed through to the design system once designs were finalized and ready for development.
Analysis and presentation
Improvement focus - happy moment and onboarding
Defining the design vision and foundations
As the new brand direction was being finalized, another Senior Designer on my team began shaping the AI Design Vision with input from key stakeholders across Product, Engineering, and Marketing. The goal was to create a North Star that would guide both the MVP and future release versions. Together, we built a vision that integrated the updated brand direction and reflected Ecosia’s USP in the AI space. Once defined, we user-tested the concept with our target audience to ensure it resonated and felt sufficient for their AI needs while presenting a clear "green" differentiation with the competition. The result was a solid design vision that provided teams with clarity, inspiration, and a shared reference for building a cohesive AI experience.
Releasing and reflecting on learnings
Once the brand and vision were defined and alined, the real challenge was coordinating execution across multiple teams. Through extensive collaboration between Product, Design, and Marketing, I helped align timelines and deliverables around a shared release date and testing plan. Acting as both Design Lead and project manager, I made sure stakeholders stayed connected, ensuring dependencies were clear, progress was visible, and handoffs were smooth. This structure allowed teams to collaborate on a shared branch, align timelines across platforms and execute a rebrand in line wiht the first version of our AI feature.
Explore More Work
Ina Arnaoudova
Design Leader | Team Builder | UX Researcher
LinkedIn
ina.arnaoudova@gmail.com