Natureflect
UX Design + UX Research
Introduction
In the directed research group, UX of Climate Change: Western Red Cedar Dieback, I assisted Forest Health Watch in tracking Western Red Cedars, a critical organism in PNW forests. Environmentally, Western Red Cedars perform critical roles such as storing carbon, filtering water, and cleaning the air. They also have cultural importance with many indigenous communities. Currently, Western red cedars are dying across the region, most likely caused by climate change. Scientists believe that Western red cedars offer a unique opportunity to track the effects of climate change in our region.
Timeline and Scope
This project was completed over a two month period during winter quarter 2021. Because this project was created for a research group that formally met once per week, my team was limited in time. Also, due to this project being completed during the height of the COVID pandemic, my team conducted all research and design virtually.
My Contributions
I worked collaboratively with four other designers to build this card game in the University of Washington UX of Climate Change Directed Research Group. I played an active role in conducting unconventional research methods, ideating, storyboarding, and creating the prototype.
What is Natureflect?
Natureflect is a card game that reframes the players’ focus from the welfare of humanity to the welfare of the non-human. The game aids humans in evaluating their place in the natural world by connecting human empathy and human characteristics to trees. Hopefully, after playing, people will be inspired to help Forest Health Watch track Western Red Cedars.
Research
Tree-Centered Space
Our research began by contemplating how humans form connections with and care for non-human stakeholders, especially trees.
Scholarly Articles & Readings
What We Read
The Promise of Empathy: Design, Disability, and Knowing the ‘Other’ by Bennett and Rosner
Designs for thee Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds by Escobar
A Monitoring Program for the Anacortes Community Forest Lands by the City of Anacortes
What We Learned
The proper way to empathize and design for marginalized groups can be utilized in our efforts to better design with trees.
We must reframe the focus from the welfare of humanity to the welfare of the non-human through critical reflection, time-developmental content, and storytelling in order to better the community of life systems.
Western Red Cedar dieback is a way to track forest health.
Interviews
The scholarly reading findings directed the focus of the interviews to be on the themes of care and history. We conducted a total of nine interviews. We spoke with a variety of individuals from tree novices to experts on conservation, the Western Red Cedar, and tribal relations.
“Exploitation before conservation”
Findings from Novices and Experts
Trees exist in endless ecosystems of differing scales and dependencies.
Family and upbringing influences outdoor experiences.
Exploitation comes before conservation.
“Nature is a gift not a commodity.”
Findings from Tribal Community
Indigenous tribes value forming and building relationships with nature.
Time is non-linear. It is experienced and measured uniquely by different organisms and cultures.
Differences in Western and Tribal languages contributes to perception of nature.
The tribal community is often left out of the conversation in regards to the Western Red Cedar even though it has a strong significance in their community.
Our directed research group does not have enough time or resources to build the trusting relationships necessary to properly design with tribal communities.
Care Packages
The interviews led us to focus on how humans perceive and connect with nature. We conducted care packages, a research method from IDEO Method Cards that asks participants to create care packages in response to prompts. Due to the COVID pandemic, we asked participants to build these care packages virtually. We focused on recruiting “Tree Novices”, people who may appreciate nature and enjoy the outdoors but do not have any expert knowledge. We chose this group as they were the target audience for our final design response.
Participant Responses
“Thank you for helping us humans during every moment of our lives. Despite everything, you stand tall and remind us that the world is so much bigger than us. I wish you could speak so you can tell us about all of your experiences.”
- Response to prompt asking participant to write a eulogy for a tree they care about
Artifacts included in care package responses
We asked participant to create three different care packages. Here are the collective responses with each participant’s care packages color coded.
Findings
Personifying trees helps humans better connect to nature.
Family and childhood reflection can be used to better understand time and history.
Care packages acted as a vessel to shift participants’ relationship with nature.
Design
Design Principles
Community-oriented
Self-reflective
Trust-building with nature
Environmental stewardship
Storytelling
Design Requirements
Promotes conversation
Encourages contemplation on nature-to-nature and human-to-nature interactions
Explores various scales of ecosystems and time
Mapping Value Scenarios
We mapped value scenarios to find project value tensions.
Technology and ideas to consider in the design
Possible value scenario situations
Identifying indirect and direct stakeholders
Possible Consequences
Values created from consequences
Value Tensions
Tribal communities have been stewards of the land since time immemorial but are not directly involved in this project due to research capacity and tribal reluctance to share stories with others.
Recycled seed paper can potentially bring in invasive species from other areas when planted.
Incorporating tribal values without direct consent and extensive tribal involvement is exploitative.
If cards are meant for onetime use, they will not contribute to long-term reflection.
Potential Designs
A Storytelling card game where card prompts relate to the players’ interactions with nature
A card game meant to be played on a hike that relates nature to large philosophic and abstract human concepts like mortality
A card game that informs players on different causes of tree death
A card game that connects different levels of tree networks to different levels of human networks
A deck of cards with each individual card displaying personified characteristics of a different tree that connect to live footage of that tree
Reflection Card Deck
Justifications
Refocusing on cultivation of care
Finding value in Care Package Method
Context specific experiences (home, nature, alone, with others, etc.)
Inspiration for reflective card deck
Defining the Deck
Deck contains three sub-decks consisting of life, death and after death categories.
Deck contains both prompted action cards and question cards in all three categories.
Deck can be played with two to six people.
Card Wireframes
Included Cards
The three sub-deck titles changed from life, death and after death to sprout, decay and soar.
Each designer came to critique with cards that fit in all three sub-deck categories.
We selected appropriate cards to include in the prototype by voting individually with a pink dot on cards that had the correct tone and context.
Prototype
User Takeaways
Humans are not the center of the ecosystem
Trees exist in endless ecosystems of differing scales and dependencies
Non-human beings should be respected and seen as more than resources for human consumption
Reflection
I am proud of my research based design. I made thoughtful decisions about how to incorporate marginalized stakeholders in my design without exploitation. I am also proud of the visual design skills I was able to showcase in the design of Natureflect. I feel that I was able to deliver a product that is both visually striking and engaging to play with as the end user.
If I had I additional time to iterate on this project, I would have liked to further refine the existing cards and create additional cards to complete the decks, rather than having a select few to showcase the purpose of the game.