VCG.ai – Circular Economy Intelligence Platform
VCG.ai needed a clearer digital product experience for a technically complex platform focused on renewable and circular material decisions. higroup supported the product through UX/UI design, helping make dense industrial data, value-chain relationships, and decision workflows easier to understand and use.
Making complex circular-economy intelligence usable
VCG.ai brings together large amounts of data across feedstocks, technologies, suppliers, markets, and locations. The challenge was to make that complexity feel manageable for users who need to compare options, validate pathways, and make high-value industrial decisions.
Our role was to shape the interface around clarity, prioritisation, and decision-making rather than simply exposing more data.
Designing around the decisions users need to make
We focused on the key workflows behind the platform: discovering viable pathways, evaluating commercial potential, understanding risk, and comparing opportunities.
The UX/UI work was structured around reducing cognitive load, making relationships easier to scan, and helping users move from exploration to a decision without losing context.
A clearer interface for complex material decisions
We designed the product experience around the way industrial teams actually evaluate renewable and circular material opportunities. VCG.ai itself connects information across feedstock, process, material, and application relationships, with the goal of turning fragmented research into decision-ready intelligence.
- /Decision-focused workflows — We structured the interface around the steps users take when exploring and validating material pathways.
- /Clearer information hierarchy — Dense data and complex relationships were organised so the most important signals could be understood faster.
- /Consistent product patterns — Reusable interaction and visual patterns helped make the experience feel coherent as users moved across different analyses and datasets.
- /Designed for expert users — The interface needed to retain enough depth for technical and industrial users without making everyday tasks unnecessarily complicated.
Together, the work helped turn a highly technical circular-economy platform into a clearer, more usable product experience.
“Working with higroup is always great, on time on budget and specifications and work plan clearly communicated by their project management team. The output is very good, they hold high quality standards and continually show us so. I love working with them.”
— Jon Goriup Dermastia, CEO - Anteja ECG
The hard parts
Common questions
What did higroup do for VCG.ai?+
higroup supported VCG.ai with UX/UI design, focusing on making complex industrial and circular-economy data easier to navigate and act on.
What was the main design challenge?+
The main challenge was presenting large amounts of technical data and interconnected value-chain information without making the platform feel overwhelming.
How did higroup approach the UX?+
We designed around the decisions users needed to make, including exploring material pathways, comparing options, and evaluating risk and viability.
Was higroup responsible for development?+
Based on the project information we have, our role was focused on UX/UI design rather than the engineering implementation.
Who is the platform designed for?+
VCG.ai is used by teams involved in areas such as innovation, R&D, procurement, sustainability, strategy, and investment planning.
What was the outcome of the design work?+
The result was a clearer and more structured product experience that made complex material intelligence easier to understand and use in real decision-making.