Blog 9 – Visual documentation of the brainstorming session

On week 6, we worked individually to compose the specific problem. My issues question is ” how to let people understand the importance of biodiversity and how biodiversity effect our daily life. As I mentioned in blog 8, the relationship between human daily life and biodiversity is a linked system. Biodiversity keep our farming land ecosystem balance, and farming products are necessities for our lives.

The following is a visual documentation of our brainstorm process based our findings through past weeks.

The first map is talking about a question ” why biodiversity is important?”. I mapped 3 main reasons for this question which is “biodiversity keeps ecosystem balance” providing human daily necessities” and ” inspiration of human thinking”. I mapped some facts to support my opinion, Biodiversity is really important.

The second map shows the some facts about how biodiversity linked to human daily life from food supply, industry and human health 3 aspects. there are many detailed information to expound the my issue.

The last map is based on 5 questions of “what” “where””how””why””when”, I make it more like a simple research summary of my past weeks work. Biodiversity is closed linked to human’s lives and this ecosystem changed start from when it existing, but human activity is making it speeding and unacceptable. IT is why human need to pay more attention on this issue and think about solution.

 

The strength of mapping out this question is about logical relationship between biodiversity and human lives. Because there are broad example able to researched with very clear standpoints and factual basis, I m able to select the most useful information from  huge database. These information primly support me to mapping around my issue. And also, after sharing my opinion to my group members, all of them are agree with “biodiversity is very important to human lives”, which means most people have same viewpoint about this issues. This is easy for me to get positive feedback for my design project.

The weakness of mapping is although I got huge number of research and information, but most of them have the same viewpoint and theoretical foundation, that means it is hard to investigate deeply about this problem. Also, after past weeks work, I realized if people would to  work with this issue deeply, they need some certain professional  knowledge on this area to support research. So, I feel actually all my research still floating on the surface. For example, working on this issues is like easy to understand 1-10, but it is going to be difficult to understand 10-100.

 

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Blog 8 : Brainstorming possibilities for a design response

In week 6, our group continued to brainstorm about  our issue, based on the past 6 weeks mapping and research exercises,  we start to think about our issue  deeply, working with group  really improved my thinking because I can acquire more ideas from different people.  Different group members has specific  aspect, so we started to think individually about  our issues and got feedback after.My issue is focused on the losing biodiversity and investigate few solutions to fix this problem.

In week 6 tutorial, we were asking to individually respond  to the 5 question of “who, what, when, where and why in relation to our issues. These 5 questions helped us to have a better understanding of our issues, it is also a guild for next tasks.

What are the boundaries of the problem?

The boundary of losing issue is relationship between ecosystem balance and human activities. based on the report of species extinction, human activates is the main reason of accelerating extinction.  although lost species is a part of ecosystem,  human activities is making it unacceptable, therefore , we need find balance between developing of human society  and nature environment.

 

when dose the problem occur?

As I mention above, lost species is a part of ecosystem, but activities is making it unacceptable. Based on my research, since industrial society started, human activity also started to involve in ecosystem, so the problem occurred, and more and more  serious year by year.

 

who does the problem affect?

Biodiversity is an important global environment problem, it related to all lives on our planet both human and non-human. As stakeholder of this issue, this problem effect us a lot. losing biodiversity brought us big damage, rabbit is a good example after European brought them to Australia. Local biodiversity effect our farming industry, farming industry impact economy of society and food supply, these 2 aspects is closely linked to our daily life, that means biodiversity  really affected everyone living on this planet. And also, biodiversity is the reason of ecosystem balance, so actually, every single species is affected by this problem.

 

where does it occur?

Losing biodiversity problem occur the place where human activities get involved in nature ecosystem. More human activities involved, more this issue occur, the problem will be worse.

why is this issue important?

as I mention in above, biodiversity is closely linked to our daily lives, furthermore, this problem affect our future generations, it relate to the development of human beings in the future.

Once each group members  had articulated problem statement , we begun to brainstorm design response and asking feedback each other. In terms of our brainstorm and design experience, I outline 5 possibilities for potential design response to the problem statement.

• emotionally effect people’s thinking and understanding of this issue
• list the facts, examples and detailed number of losing biodiversity to let people understand how serious this problem is
• simulate a future if we lost biodiversity for the whole world, so people will understand what will happen if this problem will not be fixed.
• create some scenarios about what if we lost some particular species, how our daily life will be effected, for example, bee.
• create website which has educational function with data visualization and interactive response, this website will communicate the information both in emotion and physic aspect.

draft proposal

A website of helping people understand biodiversity is really important and closely linked to our daily life.

This web page will focus on user experience and divide to 4 different section. Each section has specific function.

Section 1, interactive map.

In this section, I will  map, the map will show the place of human in ecosystem, audience can cross off one or some species in this map, and there will be a scenario of if we lose the  crossed species, what will effect ourselves

Section 2   Facts

this part will list some species which is endangered, using  data visualization to tell the facts of population remaining and the percentage population decline in last 10 years. if audience click one of the species, there will be a story of how human activities make the number of this species decrease rapidly. Those horrible number and story  with visual support, audience will be emotionally moved.

Another part of section 2  will illustrate some example to tell people what damage we had because of the losing biodiversity.

Section 3  what we lost

this part will have some photos about  illegal haunting and illegal trading. the photo should  highly effect audience emotion, and deliver the message ” when the buying stops, the killing can too”

the main aim of this design is to help people understand the importance of biodiversity, and pay more attention for the problem of losing biodiversity.

Post 10: Reflection and Proposition

The Never-ending Summer 

Basis: Information/data that fuels my response the issue of climate change

• 90% of all urban areas are coastal / most cities are at risk of flooding and powerful storms 
• 70% of cities are already dealing with the effects of climate change
• Larger cities have a ravenous appetite for energy, consuming ⅔ of the world’s energy and creating over 70% of global CO2 emissions
• on per-capita analysis, attached low-rise dwellings perform best in terms of CO₂, with suburban and high-rise successively worse:

  [ The 37 tonnes of total CO₂ consumed per person each year by downtown Sydney residents is, for example, more than double the 16 tonnes produced by residents of Blacktown. There’s a carbon devil in the detail on density. ]
  

•  Greenhouse gases are still the highest contributor toward climate change

Issues: IN AN IMAGINED FUTURE, WHAT DOES CLIMATE CHANGE MEAN FOR US?

• How will infrastructure be if population continues to grow at the current rate and in the face of rising sea levels and growing temperatures?
• How will our energy and emissions change alongside a growing population?
• What sort of pollution will occur? This will most likely affect all sectors not just in regards to litter and physical waste, but also noise, air, light…
• How hot could it possibly get? How will we cope?
• How will we keep up with resources?
  

Post 9: Visual documentation of the brainstorming session

In the final group brainstorming session we collectively gave insight and feedback into each others issues and how best to/how to possibly undertake and provide a design solution. After some discussion in week 8 the pinpoint focus of my issue could be described in one word, and that was the word future.

Initially during the class I focused my mind mapping on purely the climate change factor in relation to weather patterns however I soon found that there wasn’t enough depth and engaging information to make a design solution for. Instead by linking issues of climate change to existing problems in Sydney such as infrastructure, urban planning, population – and on a wider level, resources – that affect young people today I felt that there was more of a story to tell.

Blog 10. Peer feedback + Design proposal

 

By Ji Young Bang

Goes Around, Comes Around Challenge Campaign. (GACA challenge campaign)

I always learn a lot of important things through peer feedback in the studio tutorial. It has been showing a recent revelation that I though I should share with others, and it has helped me grasp major part of may firm idea.

First, I am going to give the keynote to environmental activity ‘Goes around, comes around challenge campaign project’. My priority is to bring home to people the seriousness of environmental pollution. I have been impressed with ‘Ice bucket challenge’, resulting with many useful ideas. I feel obliged to put as much action into class peer feedback. Interesting items are necessary the way I have focused on the youth aged 18 to 24 years. First of all moving them to follow (incentive) is icing on the cake. Irrespective of the subjects, a strong motivating factor to prevent the worsening of the situation is in order, playing on challenge and movement.

My aim adjusted exclusively to local and foreign tourists has turned over to service design, a sort of campaign play for the youth (18-24) to get advertising impact. What’s more, it occurred to me that Facebook in social media is available to circulate to more people. The reason is that one of the Facebook functions is to let friends tag (#) pictures and videos, consummating its communicative competence. Action that people can follow in a simple and easy way will move toward reducing trash, the main culprit of environmental pollution. It starts with simple food packaging. When we pick up vegetables and fruits used relatively less packaging, we can cut down trash (packaging), bringing about the decrease of carbon dioxide emissions. The challenge campaign beings with one person putting up a food (or meal) picture tagged from Facebook on the subject of GACA challenge campaign. The picture carries simple packaged vegetables and fruits-related ingredients, and another person is expected to tag them in succession.

If we have less packaged food even once a week, we reduce so much garbage. The beginning of the activity campaign may be a petty affair, but it will get bigger and stronger and in the long end, it can be a success example in the near future, 5 years since performers are increasing ones or twos, highlighting the importance of environmental pollution.

Project title: GACA challenge campaign.

Practice type: Service Design

The issue: We must hard down the world natural treasury in Australia to our offspring, not the runs of its majesty. We must enlighten a matter of all humans’ common interest on all humans, time presses. Keen attention is there for a reason.

The possible change: Facebook is everybody’s favourite; nature conservation is everybody’s affair. The beginning can be a dull action, but thanks to multi-level sub-structuring method, participants will grow by geometric progression –i.e. one to two, two to four and four to eight and so forth, as a form of play type. Driven by curiosity in aroused by interest, more and more beholders are likely to take part around the challenge activity.

The design action to support change: When the GACA challenge campaign bears fruit, it is deeply impressed on our mind, and so unconsciously we’ll refrain from handling general waste recklessly.

Will do improvement after week 10 class and tutor feedback

• Will combine with application with this challenge campaign.
• Design will be little bit different then above design proposal but same context.

POST 10: Reflection and proposition

After conducting all my primary and secondary research I decided to focus on Factory Farming as it revealed to be one of the biggest causes of global warming and had the least awareness. When I began thinking about my proposition ideas I was trying to sway away from the idea of informing people about the negative side of factory farming and more towards focusing on the positive aspects of not supporting it. When I presented my idea to my colleagues, they were very interested in the idea of showing the consequences of factory farming to increase this awareness and explain what it does to the environment. The first question I was asked was ‘what is factory farming?’ I tried to describe it as briefly as possible “the animals are a product here, they’re all cramped together unsustainably in tiny cages because there’s lots of them and it’s cheap to do this”. I realised then that I needed to include a way of describing exactly what it is in my idea somehow, either in my app ‘Food for Thought’ or in one of my posters.

Project Title: App – Food for Thought

The issue: One of the biggest causes of Global Warming is Factory Farming. Not many people are aware of what factory farming even is. Most people don’t even know that the name ‘factory farming’ even exists as a thing. It is the main cause of deforestation, gas emissions, rise of co2, the huge consumptions of fossil fuels, methane and greenhouse gases.

Design action for change / proposition: To decrease global warming by creating awareness on Factory Farming and getting people to be more consciously aware about their choices with food and the impact of their choices on the environment.

My proposition idea is not to eradicate the idea of eating meat but to decrease this amount and decrease the amount of people supporting factory farms by increasing their awareness of this issue and increase their decision to not support it.

My idea is an app that documents the amount of intake of food with and without meat.
It begins with the choice of two meals. When the user chooses the meal with meat they can check to see if the meat they are purchasing is factory farmed through a map that comes up. The map also shows where there are stores that aren’t factory farmed meat. The next page will show information about this provider / factory farm. It then navigates to a ‘did you know’ page that shows the benefits of not supporting factory farms and through this it will describe what factory farming is. The user will get a choice of how they can help which will be a page that can navigate to petitions, sharing the app or events around them or they can choose to exit the app which will go to a results page of their meals and their added friends meals. When the user chooses the meal without meat it will navigate to a page that will inform them of meat replacement foods as not many people are aware of how to sustain a diet without meat and this is very important. The page will then navigate to the same ‘did you know’ page as above and the results page. Every time the user clicks on either meal with or without meat, it will document this result to create an overall result / statistic of their choices.

After speaking with my colleagues I decided that through my 3 posters in one of them I will inform the users / public of what factory farming is by showing the first person point of view of an animal that lives on a factory farm in comparison to one that doesn’t. I thought it may be a little confronting however poetic and will reveal exactly what factory farming is. The next poster will show the research that lead to my proposition and the third will be information that shows how factory farming impacts our environment / how we can help through our choices.

Above: Wireframe diagram of my app Food for Thought.

Post 8 – Brainstorming possibilities for a design response

Brainstorming activity

Through all the collaborative and individual mapping, we came to the stage of developing a statement that set the direction of the proposition. Therefore, in last week class we had a brainstorming exercise to help generate ideas for the possibilities of our proposal. I gathered all the information from my primary research and mapping all the human and non-human stakeholders to generate the map below which identifies what, when, where, why and how of the issue.

The Problem

The topic that I am most interested in was Zero Waste Program and waste management in Sydney. After researching about these topics from the past few week, I found the issue is still broad and they are solutions to the problem already. Therefore, I narrowed down and looked at food waste specifically. A recent survey by the Sustainable Restaurant Association showed 25% of diners were too embarrassed to ask for boxes. I found that surprising and interesting. Not many people in Sydney are aware of the problem of food waste. Most teens feel shame and can’t be bothered to ask for take away containers when they cannot finish their food in restaurants. The aim of the proposition is to raise the awareness of food waste and to encourage people to use and ask for a doggy bag.

Who does the problem affect?

General Public (habit of individual)

Diners
Restaurants
Waste management (Politician)
Nongovernment organization like foodwise, OzHarvest and etc.
Companies(tax)
Health of residents who live near landfill

Due to the project requirement, I am targeting the demographic of individuals in Sydney aged between 18-24 years old because they are mostly involved with this problem.

Infographic idea

Australians throw out $8-10 billion of food every year. Four million tonnes per annum of food is wasted which ends up in landfills. It got me to come to my first idea which is to map out how many food waste does different stakeholder like restaurants or individual produce in a year and compare to the size of bus/ other object depends on the quantity of waste. It may get people attention on the facts but it doesn’t achieve the goal of encouraging people to not waste their food. Therefore, it needs further develop in order to build a solid idea that works.

What are the boundaries of the problem?
A lack of awareness of the general public of this problem

What will happen when its fixed?

Free up the space of landfill
Reduce pollution
Benefit to the people who live near landfill

What will happen if the problem wasn’t solved?

no more space for landfill
cut tree and use nature environment for the waste
speed up air pollution
Speed up global warming

When does the problem occur?

Happening everyday

Where is the problem occurring?

Around the globe especially developing countries

Compare developed countries and developing countries

What impact does it have on all stakeholders?

I found this exercise useful Looking at the issues from particular perspectives, I came up with ideas more easily. Also, Through our group discussion, group mates showed their own focus and it was interesting to see the ideas that they came up with, which also inspired me.

Post 10 – Reflection and Proposition

Reflection

The feedback from my colleague and tutor last week is beneficial towards my final proposition. It guides me to think more deeply about how the proposition would actually achieve in real life. It’s obvious to tell the strength and weakness of it by answering their concerns and doubts. My initial proposition idea is not strong enough to meet the aims. Therefore, I set the direction in class and ask for their opinion. They provided me some great ideas and examples to look at which is inspiring.

The first idea was a combination of data visualisation and generative system that proposing a campaign that ask consumer to weight their leftover in the restaurant or food court. The gathered data will form some kind of shape onto the map which will post in the restaurant as a interactive poster. Every time a customer waste their food will contribute to the change on the map. The idea can raise the awareness of people who waste food but its hard to target the demographic that I want to focus on. Therefore, I need to develop a more solid idea that is more specify.

Proposition

Project name: Finish your bowl 

Type: Data visualization

Issue: Aussies throw out $8 billion worth of edible food every year and 27% of the waste is leftover. Eight billion dollars is a lot of money. Also, a recent survey shows that 25% feel embarrassed to ask for takeaway containers. These problems will cause the overload of landfill in Australia.

The possible change

To raise the awareness of the issue of food waste to the biggest wasters which the age group 18-24 years old consumers in NSW, also to the general public.

To encourage the young generation to change their habit

To reduce food waste of the overload for the landfill problem

The design action to support change

I propose a campaign called ‘finish your bowl’ to design a bowl that has text on it the inside and outside. It will sell it to the public and use in food court or restaurant. On the inside of the bowl will have the data visualisation of my research showing the amount of food waste in Australia in a year and use the number to compare to other objects. For example, the amount of food waste of 2016 can fill in 2 opera house.

Also A series of posters showing the data of and the bowl as an image to support and promote the campaign. The poster will show the top view and side view of the bowl separately in order to show the text clearly.

Post 10 – Reflection and Proposition

By Vicky Lam

Reflection: original draft design proposition

I presented to my colleague and tutor of my draft design proposition, namely “Reduction in Australian livestock greenhouse gas emissions”, with a view to address to the issue of the need to reduce carbon emissions in the livestock industry, which is the second biggest emitter after the energy sector and its emission level is very close to transport sector in Australia, by the livestock farmers and the red meat/diary product consumers as they are the key stakeholders with respect to the emissions. To achieve this, I proposed to raise a campaign by means of a set of creative posters mainly through data-driven visualization to draw the awareness of the impact of climate change and livestock industry on each other and to appeal to the livestock farmers to adopt carbon farming and to the consumers to consume less red meat and dairy products and create less food waste as far as possible. Here below are some sketches of my design: –

One major feedback received is that posters per se are less engaging to viewers as passers-by and less effective for the target audience of young generation in the age range of 18 to 25. As a campaign, one of the suggestions is to make the message follow the stakeholders – in this case, the consumers including the young generations – such as by combining art and data to generate the eye-catching key messages on the issue with some forms of creative data-driven visualization as part of the information packaging or the infographic packaging for meat and dairy products in order to engage the viewers and try to encourage them to change their diets of consuming less red meat / dairy products (which may also good for health) and to reduce food waste.

 

Development: revised draft design proposition

After obtaining the feedback, I did further researches on the topic of information packaging / infographic packaging, and find this approach is feasible for putting infographics on the product packaging, and some relevant illustrative examples as sought on the internet are shown below: –

 

(Source: McMahon, T., Paper shopping bag, published 9 July 2012, Maclean’s, viewed 20 September 2016, <http://www.macleans.ca/society/life/is-local-food-bad-for-the-economy/ >)

 

(Source: Warriner G., Infographic milk packaging, Pinterest, viewed 20 September 2016, <https://au.pinterest.com/pin/471259548489189665/ >)

 

(Source: Kamal R., Fast food potato chip packaging, published 5 November 2013, viewed 20 September 2016, VISUALOOP, <http://visualoop.com/blog/15200/straight-to-the-point-with-infographics >)

 

Incorporating the art of infographics as part of the packaging design could creatively depict information and data visualization that people do not tend to engage with if presented in a traditional way of plain data or charts. If used properly and effectively, it is pretty good for information or storytelling, and could raise awareness of the issue and engage the consumers and promote a global passion for the need to change in response to the posed problem or issue.

So, I changed my design proposition as follows: –

Project title:
“Save our Earth, Shape our diet, Less red meat”

Practice type:
Data-driven visualization in form of infographics as part of packaging design for meat products

The issue being addressed:
Livestock sector is the second greenhouse gas emitter in Australia after energy sector and its emission level is very close to transport sector, and red meat consumption per capita in Australia still ranks high in the world

Expected possible change to achieve:
Diet change of consuming less red meat (beef, veal and mutton) or more poultry meat / pork in lieu; and treasuring our food and reducing food waste

Design action to support the change:
By means of putting infographics on the front of the plastic packages as the visual system, for a set of four meat product packaging design (for cattle, mutton, pork and chicken meat) with short key words of different relevant messages and data-driven visualization, which may work alone or work in conjunction with similar relevant messages and data visualization printed on reusable shopping bags. Such messages and data visualizations relate to beef consumption, cattle/sheep populations and/or GHG emissions. The design would focus on data and let the data speak for itself as far as possible supplemented with some key words and possibly with some illustrative pictograms instead of using conventional narrative media, whose familiarity and realism is often desensitizing (especially to the young generations), to tell the distressing problem or issue. To achieve the design outcome, minimalistic infographics can be displayed on the product packages in order to fit the package sizes and more complicated data-driven visualization with the sharp appealing message can be printed on reusable shopping bags.

Here below shows some illustrating sketches and mockups of my design ideas: –

 

 

 

Post 10: Reflection and proposition

At first, depending on the research I did, I decided to design an App, which can notice people saving water in their daily life. The App based on people to note down the amount of water they using everyday.

draft of icons

There will have different icons to show different things, such as flushing toilet, cooking, drinking, floor mopping and so on.

draft of icons

In the App, you can see your water-using amount for a day, week, month and year. It will show as a table to help you see the changing. The other function is that you can see the average of the water-using amount from the other App users and contrast with them. You also can find the average of water using amount in different countries.

In order to attract people to use this App, especially the target audience, which are 18-25 years old people. I want to make a small game for them to play, I think the name of that can be ‘Catching’. To play this game, you need to have an ID in this app and because this app is international, so that every people only can play this game one time per day. The top three can get the vouchers that supply from their government in each city, on the other side, the value of voucher is $15. When you playing this game, the time of that is just one minute, during that time, you need to click the water drop on each boxes as many as you can, the screen of that will continue to move on until the time end or you click wrong area.

During the discussion in the class, one important thing my colleague point out for me is that how to know the amount of water using for different part. For this problem, I am thinking about using the data, which already on the Internet. You can just note the times you use, and then will have probable water consumption. The other suggestion from classmate is that for the appearance of those icons, I can fill them with water to make it looks more interesting and close to the theme.

Final Proposition

During the weekend, I have a discussion with my friends about this project and one problem is that how to use my app to make people think water scarcity is important? To be honest, if I am a user of the app, I will not feel we are facing water scarcity. Based on this point, I have reconsidered my idea.

• Project title: Love water no waste
• Practice type: App
• Issue: Water Scarcity

In Australia, some people have lack of awareness of saving water, you cant see doesn’t mean it’s not happened. This time, I want to focus on the Australia, and to design this app in order to let people saving water to prevent the water shortage crisis again. This design is for the government, and the target audience is 18—25 years old young couples, who live by their own.

When you open the app, it will show different photo of water scarcity, such as dry land, water drop from the tap or some poster of saving water. Then it will change to the home page.

About the functions, I think about 5 parts. The first one is your daily usage. Depend on the research I did, the water bill in Australia is not pay like tons or kiloliters, it has three levels. The first level is the cheapest one, which can meet the daily usage. Level two need to pay more than level one, but level three need to pay multiple of the money. My app is based on the level one for the month of water usage. Same as the picture below, this water drop will show how much your water usage left, and it will note your today’s usage and contract with the average, which depend on the data from the government.

Second part is the news about water scarcity. You not only can find the news from Australia, but also can find news from all over the world. This function can let people know more about water shortage and understand the danger of water scarcity.

Third one is the bill payment, because this app is link to the government, and there already have the website for people to pay the water bill. However, it is easier to pay through the app, because I found the web is kind complex, which have too much items.

The forth part is a function that give people a concept that how do we use water in our lives. This one is showing like a table, and using the visual way to show how much water we use outdoors, toilets, clothes, washers and so on. I choose to use water drop to show this and each drop mean 748 gallons water.

The last function is a way to let people saving water through the competition. This part named ‘Add friends’, which means you can add friends who are using this app. The app will show a rank list of all your friends’ daily water usage. In this function, you can click the heart after each person’s name, which means you praise this person and you also can see how many hearts he or she got. Every Sunday will have a week winner, the person who use less water can get the laurel.

Blog Post 10—feedback, research, revision

Feedback

On Thursday, we had the opportunity to work with one of our fellow classmates in order to dissect and critique our draft proposals and thus receive suggestions on how they could be improved. I found this process really useful, particularly because I was paired with someone looking at the same issue as me—climate change—which meant that she was able to share deeper insights with me about the issue than someone who had just general knowledge of the issue.This exercise allowed me to discover flaws and gaps in my proposal that I had not picked up on my own, as well as helping me to think of new ways to approach the proposal.

In response to my focus area looking at the factors that influence a person’s views on climate change, my draft proposal, as seen in blog post 8, laid out a concept for some type of service/generative design that would deliver tailored climate change messages to people, showing them the realities of the issue, based on information collected about a person’s values and experiences. Both my partner and my tutor agreed that it was a very interesting concept, but they gave me some very useful feedback, which I have discussed below:

1. It may be difficult to visualise

Because the concept still seems quite broad, it may be difficult to visualise the service that it is providing. In order for this concept to work, the service it is delivering will need to be well thought out, and really consider the audience of 18–25 year olds that it is targeting. My partner and I brainstormed some possible options in response to my proposal, including an anthology (inspired by Ella Cutler’s work); a field guide; or a climate change ‘package’. I think that whilst all of these sound really interesting, I perhaps need to venture into the digital space in order to utilise more generative design systems, and also a system that can continue to be updated to produce a more accurate response for each individual user.

2. It should definitely be a service design

In my draft proposal, I also suggested the idea of creating a data visualisation which would utilise a visual system to present scientific facts of climate change in a non-biased and neutral manner. Whilst my partner found this idea to be interesting as well, they suggested that it could perhaps also be a service design and be joined with the other proposal. This was an interesting suggestion, and one that I will take on board, as I still quite like the idea of developing a visual system.

3. Everyone brings their own bias to any form of communication

This idea that was raised by my partner is something that I have come to realise through my own research. My partner raised the issue in relation to my idea of creating a visual system that would present information in a neutral manner, and I realise through discussion that people will bring bias even to a visual system. In light of this, it may perhaps be better to focus more on the service/generative design proposal.

4. Come up with some personas

This was an idea suggested by my tutor and I think that it is a method that will help me to determine ways in which to realise my proposal, as well as the types of services that may help different people to understand climate change and its impact.

5. Think about the language that is used around climate change

After reading through my draft proposal, my partner pointed out that it seems very much to relate to the kind of language that is used around climate change. I thought this was a very interesting observation, and I really want to look at how to use language to realise my proposal, rather than using graphs and numbers.

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Research and Revision

After Thursday’s feedback session, I came away still unsure about the direction I was heading in, and not confident about the idea I had proposed and whether it was fulfilling the ‘brief’ I had set myself in the form of the problem statement set out in blog post 8.

Prompted by these feelings, as well as a realisation that I perhaps had not done enough research to really be able to define my design proposition, I set out to find some more scholarly sources, in the hopes that I would discover a point of inspiration. Whilst initially I simply looked at more articles discussing the factors that influence a person’s views on climate change, which all cited the factors of beliefs, values and experiences, I soon stumbled across an article by Saffron O’Neill and Sophie Nicholson-Cole about ways of engaging people in the issue of climate change through visual campaigns. This provided me with a revealing insight into the prevalence of fear campaigns in the dissemination of climate change information, “…with the language of alarmism appearing in many guises.” (Nicholson-Cole & O’Neill 2009, p. 358) Whilst using fear to incite action may be effective at first, it has been shown to over time distance people from the issue as they feel helpless and are unable to see any way of taking action. The alienating impact of fear in climate change campaigns I would argue is heightened by the fact that “climate change is temporally and spatially remote from the individual.”(Nicholson-Cole & O’Neill 2009,p. 360) The article concludes that in order for climate change messages to reach people effectively, they need to be set in a local context, and that “communications approaches that take account of individuals’ personal points of reference (e.g., based on an understanding and appreciation of their values, attitudes, beliefs, local environment, and experiences) are more likely to meaningfully engage individuals with climate change.” (Nicholson-Cole & O’Neill 2009, p. 375).

In essence, this article highlighted to me the prevalence of the use of fear in the dissemination of climate change information. Considering my own exposure to climate change campaigns, as a member of the general public, I cannot recall a single one that has not used fear to incite change. The most memorable campaigns to me have been run by the World Wildlife Foundation, which uses fear as its main driver, and I can say that, whilst the campaigns have caused me to stop and think, they have not ever encouraged me to take action because they are so overwhelming. As such, my new design proposal is centred around the creation of a campaign presenting the realities of climate change in a less confronting and more relatable manner.

Because I have altered my idea, I have written a new problem statement, in order that I have an updated ‘brief’ to refer to. This can be seen below:

There are 2 problems that I have identified within the broader issue of climate change, being the confusion surrounding all the varying messages that are conveyed in relation to the issue, as well as the sense of alienation from the issue that is harboured through the continued use of fear as a means to incite change across climate change campaigns. These issues together predominantly affect the general population, but also more specifically the stakeholders who are creating campaigns to convince people of the effects of climate change, and scientists and governments. The main boundaries of the problem are a lack of understanding of how fear, rather than inciting action, actually causes people to feel disconnected and alienated from the issue. Further to this is a feeling of helplessness by the general public as the majority of imagery used in campaigns is of ‘icons’, or “…tangible entities that will be affected by climate change” (Nicholson-Cole & O’Neill 2009, p. 375), which are far removed from the audience, such as polar bears in Antarctica. The problem occurs most predominantly in the representation of climate change, as people come to feel as though any action they take to reduce climate change will not actually have any impact as they can only see the big picture. It is important that the problem is fixed in order that people feel empowered to help in the reduction of climate change, and so that they are not alienated from the issue and unable to interact with it.

My refined design proposal can be seen below.

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Revised Design Proposal

Project title:
‘Bringing Climate Change Home’

Project type:
Service Design

The issue:
Through my research, I have come to understand that using fear as a means to incite change in the general population with regards to climate change is not as effective as it may seem. In addition, I have found that a lot of campaigns focus on ‘icons’, “…tangible entities that will be affected by climate change” (Nicholson-Cole & O’Neill 2009, p. 375), which are far removed from the audience, such as polar bears in the Antarctic. Thus people find it hard to connect with the message being conveyed, and feel helpless and as though any action they take will not make a difference.

The possible change:
The aims of my design proposal are:

1. To bring the issue of climate change into a local context.
2. To use a means other than fear to communicate the climate change message to the target demographic of 18–25 year olds, amongst others.
3. To connect with people in their own environment.

In addressing these aims, the intended outcome of the design proposal is an increased appreciation of the realities of climate change within a local context, as well as an understanding of actions that can be taken locally to reduce contributions to climate change.

The design action to support change:
Drawing on both the feedback I received about my previous proposal being difficult to visualise, as well as the extra research I have undertaken since this feedback session, I have created a proposal which could take on 1 of 2 forms in an attempt to bring climate change into a local context in a non-threatening yet instructive and thought-provoking manner.

The first form which my proposal could take is a ‘small square book’ type publication, perhaps accompanied by posters and flyers, which presents through the use of whimsical illustrations both how climate change is affecting the local environment, as well as suggestions of small actions that individuals can take in order to reduce their contribution to climate change. The whimsical style serves to make the user feel comfortable, as well as distancing the book from the emotion of fear which is used in a lot of other climate change campaigns. Through positioning the information within a local context, as well as suggesting small opportunities for action, the book will hopefully engage the reader as they feel a connection through ‘cultural cognition’ (Schrader & Shattell 2013, p. 842), feel positively about the effects of their actions, and again move away from the alienating tone of other campaigns. In order to connect with the target demographic of 18–25 year olds, this campaign would be delivered either to all people within this age range, or placed in areas that people in this demographic visit regularly, such as universities. However, it could be used to target any demographic.

The second form which my proposal could take, which would fall more under the guise of a data visualisation, is a series of posters which would use handwritten statements to make up topographic maps of different areas in Sydney. The statements would either be the views of individuals from the local area on climate change, or facts about the effects that climate change is having on the local area. Through positioning these statements on local topographic maps, the issue is brought into a local context, and people can begin to consider the issue in their own surroundings. The fact that the text would make up the topographic map presents the issue in a non-threatening manner as people will at first just see the posters as normal topographic maps, and will only engage with the deeper message upon closer inspection. Also, the use of words rather than images makes the message more individual as people can conjure their own images in their minds as to what the effects of climate change might look like in their local environment, rather than being confronted by an imagined apocalyptic scenario. This also makes it less confronting as people are not immediately faced with this image.

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References

1. Nicholson-Cole, S. & O’Neill, S. 2009, ‘“Fear Won’t Do It” Promoting Positive Engagement With Climate Change Through Visual and Iconic Representations’, Science Communication, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 355–379.
2. Schrader, S. & Shattell, M. 2013, ‘“Cultural Cognition”: What Mental Health Researchers and Clinicians Might Learn from the Climate Change Debate’, Issues in Mental Health Nursing, vol. 34, no. 11, pp. 842-843.

Emilie Glasson

Post 10:Reflection and proposition

In this week I presented my drafted proposal in class and I got the feedback from my colleagues and tutor. In terms of my proposal, I think it is not solid and strong enough and I am very confused about it.

Actually, I had few ideas about using data visualization or service design to create my proposition before this week. These two proposition are both about smog issue in China, which has become more serious in recent years.

For data visualization, I considered to create a promotional video, which can bring attention to smog issue in China. In addition, for service design, I was prepared to create an application, which aims to help people to know air quality every day.

After all feedback and suggestion being given in week 7 class, I realized I have some advantages and disadvantages. Thus I summarized all feedback and came out these following points:

I decided to give up my promotional video proposal. Because of four weakness/disadvantages:

1. I have less time to achieve successful video, which is to appeal general public to pay more attention to smog issue.
2. The promotional video cannot present data visualization clearly. Also it is not strong enough to support my topic issue.
3. The promotional video is not the best way to analyze data in smog issue.
4. The promotional video cannot directly and physically change people lifestyle of using transportation

And I decided to develop my service design idea through an application. The advantages of creating App (application) service design come followed：

1. Based on my research and investigation, I figured out the most fundamental methods to solve smog issue are government policy. Such as pollution emission control and punishment/penalty level increase. Because, the two biggest factors leading to smog in China are fuel, coal and fuel oil. According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences data, 60 % in PM 2.5 were from fuel coal and fuel oil. And the other main factor is motor vehicles emission pollution. However, as a normal people I cannot require the government introduce related policy. But as a designer I can do something when I am waiting for the government to introduce and perfect the policy of smog issue, which is going to slightly change the severeness.

2. As we are in the era of advanced technology, people would like to accept new things. Especially the Apps are more convenient for people and benefit for their life. The application is a better way to use and help user make some change in their life.

3. The app is handy from online shop via merely several taps on apple store or android store. Some of them are free to download.

4. In my opinion, if checking smog level is single main function of this app, the application is not versatile. I am considering if I should add interactive function or promotional activities. For example, users could upload photos or any evidences to proof they use public transport. Whoever collect ten times of using public transport, the user will deserve free Uber once.

5. Another positive point of my application design is that my users, age group around 18-25, are more interested in new things and easily attracted by technical skill. This age group is also the potential of general public to change their life and benefit their next generation.

My proposition:

Project title:

Have a Go

Practice type:

Service design application

The issue:

Smog issue in air pollution under climate change.

The possible change:

Uese application to slightly change the severeness of smog. Provide air quality index and smog level to remind user of using protection, Wear mask or reduce outdoor exercise.

The designed action to support change:

Provide interactive options or promotional activity.

 

 

Post 10:Reflection and proposition

The development of proposal

Project Title: Clean Energy: The better way
Practice type: App (service design)
Issue: find and build the clean energy in your location

The emissions of greenhouse gas are the primary cause of the global warming. Change clean energy to replace the fossil fuel is pressing and will be a new trend. But the use of clean energy is not abroad, most people have lacked awareness of clean energy. They worry about the price, stability and not sure the benefits. Clean energy has lots of advantage and will be an effective solution for global warming.

To focus the lacked awareness of clean energy. I am going to publicity and generalize what clean energy is what it includes? What kinds of benefits can clean energy bring to the skate holder? And help people find the available clean energy in their location and communication their use experience.
The function of the app is:
The app will assist the householder to find the available clean energy in their place in Australia.
This app will help the user compare the energy price chose the cost performance clean energy, locate the energy company information and contrast.
This app will provide a communication platform for the current and future clean energy to exchange their user experience and collect the useful information for choose and set the clean energy in their house.

Reflection and poster draft

For this week class, I get some feedback from my tutor and classmates of my three posters drafts.
The first poster visualizes the what clean energy is. I am going to make several icons of all the clean energy that we have in the earth. These icons also can use for my final app.

The second one visualises the benefits of clean energy, after discuss with my tutor I guess I need to include the research in my blog post. So the second one will visualise the benefits that the leading skate holders can earn from the clean energy.

After the data collection, I found a map of the distribution of clean energy in Australasia. The third poster will visualize this map in apparently graphic. And this map can use in my final app too. All of these pictures just sketches base on the feedback and proposal I will do more development in the next weeks.

References

Renewable energy map, Clean energy council, viewed 26 September 2016, <http://www.cleanenergycouncil.org.au/technologies/renewable-energy-map.html&gt;.

Post 9: Visual documentation of the brainstorming session

In this week, first  we do the what when where why experience, to expand the problem, the details about this is in my post eight. After that, we are work in groups doing the mind maps. The image in the next is about my personal issues map.  All the skate holders map that we did before is the whole global warming issue. And in this post,  the map that I made is the sum up of skate holders about clean energy. According to the skate holder, I also write the benefits that clean energy can bring for them.

The benefits are:
Clean energy has little to no global warming emissions.
Clean energy can Improved public health and environmental quality.
Clean energy is a vast and inexhaustible energy supply.
Clean energy can provide Jobs and other economic benefits.
Clean energy can make the stable energy prices.
Clean energy will bring a more reliable and resilient energy system.

References

Union of concerned scientists, ‘Benefits of Renewable Energy Use,’ RENEWABLE ENERGY, 8 August, viewed 26 September 2016, <http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/renewable-energy/public-benefits-of-renewable.html#.V-pm7juoeoI&gt;

Reflection and Proposition Toward Coral Bleaching At The Great Barrier Reef

Learning

The drafted proposal had a good foundation. From the foundations of research into the changes of coral reefs along the Queensland coast, stakeholder influence and understanding, to the targeted audience, the peer feedback suggested a clear understanding to where the design action was headed. The colleague and I conversed on the functionality of the design solution questioning how the data visualisations will be resolved? What will make the proposition intriguing to the suggested audience? Is it possible to collect data in a more efficient and accurate way? Through clear analysis of the findings and filtering through statistical or conceptual findings the data should be resolved through a series of interconnected information visualisations. The colleague referenced the tool of ‘processing’  through code to interpret mass forms of data and scaling them accurately to achieve the desired result. Particularly through the use of API, CSV tools to filter through the research and develop a visual solution that is well informed.

Another point of feedback highlighted the need to close in on a specified response for the desired audience. Understanding the design solution, its functionality, usability and relevance to the audience will allow for a more well thought out and refined design solution. Whilst the proposition understood the issue in a clear way, or possibilities to change through the use of data visualisation and information graphics, the 3D application of this was somewhat vague. Through understanding user activities, designing for catalogue, book or instillation application were discussed to resolve this problem.

Overall, the discussion of possible ways to organise and collect statistics and research for the information visualisations allowed me to refine the way these information graphs could be applied. Thus allowing for the refinement of the design proposal.

 

Refined Design Proposal

The Catalogued Death of the Barrier Reef

Practice Type

Illustrating the eventual death of the Great Barrier Reef, will looking at time, colour and relationships through information visualisation. Data graphics, charts and keys communicating the issue of Coral Bleaching at the Great Barrier Reef.

The Issue

Coral bleaching affects marine species and habitats of the northern region of Australia, particularly the biodiversities and ecosystems that live on the 2300km of the great barrier reef. The coral bleaching affects the 600 types of soft and hard coral of the region and the variety of species that live and interact with the area. The issue is bound by the lack of education of governments, coastal communities and recreational users of the ocean prompting over-fishing, over-tourism, and disposal of waste in the area, thus disturbing the natural balance of life within the habitats and ecosystems interacting with the area. Eventually, the cause of the coral bleaching lies in the hands of these built systems all inextricably reliant on the ocean. Ocean conservation is urgent and imperative in these areas, the ocean is the being of all life and without it all life may perish or be harmed, from ecosystems in water to on land.

Future generations, impacted by the capitalistic and consumerist society of today are the main stakeholders effected in this transition period of climate change. With a tally of three mass deaths of coral fisheries around the world it is imperative to understand the trends in deaths, directly impacted by human behaviour and in turn visually understanding the deterioration, erosion and suffocation of the massacred coral fisheries. Approaching the issue in a new way may be communicated through understanding, temperature, light, colour, oxygen, shape, texture and body of these habitats.

• Climate change is evident through the changing patterns of sea temperature increase, altered weather patterns, ocean acidification and sea levels rising.
• Coral bleaching is impacted by coastal development and catchment modification: clearing and modifying coastal habitats, artificial barriers to flow, and disposal and resuspension of dredge material.
• Changes to reef environments through land-based run-off, nutrients from run-off (including its links to crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks), sediments and pesticide run-off.
• The remaining impacts of fishing, illegal fishing, collecting and poaching, incidental catch of species of conservation concern, effects on discarded catch, retained take (extraction) of predators, and retained take (extraction) from unidentified or unprotected spawning aggregations alter coral reef environments.
• Finally marine debris both on land and from sea sources.

Overall, the prominent stakeholders impacted by the issue are coral species and the marine life surrounding. Looking at the issue, species by species, colour by colour, form by form will communicate the death of the reef in a new way.

Possibility to Change

Understanding coral bleaching will be successful with change. To measure the success of the design solution will be reliant on evoking urgency. The solution will be illustrating trends in a new way, educating audiences efficiently, showing time, showing change, showing rhythm or sound through multiple information visualisations that work complimentary to each other. Whilst looking at the coral reef as a whole, the prospect of understanding the deaths is masked. By looking at the trajectory of the death of specified species in a coral reef habitat and furthermore relating this to time, colour and form will show a more poetic response to the issue.

Design Action

Experimentation & Visualisation

Through the visualisations of time, colour and relationships of the reef, I have developed a design action that can be used as a coastal package of sorts to be used or employed within the tourist industry of the proposed area, North and Central Queensland coast. The action will be incorporated and tied into a catalogue or information booklet prototype, tourist cards or an instillation piece by the sea or near diving. Targeting the 18-25 year travellers, both localised and international will require sensitive and engaging forms of information graphics, localised to the great barrier reef. The Information prototypes will be integrated into the system of tourism and delivered as a sort of coral reef package for all users of the reef.

The graphics will be outspread. Audiences will be able to pick up information cards sprawled in with post card stands, or tourist offices of the area. Information booklets and posters of up and coming trends, outlook reports, packaged in a practical tote bags will be offered within the tourist industry, abroad diving ships, tours and/or any other recreational practice. Products of which audiences are able to unpack and interact with can  provide a more physical understanding of context and urgency toward the issue of coral bleaching. To eradicate tourism on the reef would harm livelihoods of the area, nonetheless integrating educational systems through well resolved prototypes of which the suggested audience are willing to take on induce investment into the issue and eventually motivation for change for future generations.

post ten: allegory, allelopathy, and adios.

Recently I was cleaning out my childhood bedroom (10/10 would recommend as a method of procrastination) and during the rummaging I came across my Dad’s old dictaphone. 

Blog post 10

Idea Proposition!

After weeks of research, mapping exercises, peer feedback and a transition brainstorming exercise there came in a week where we had to share our draft proposal idea with a peer and teacher to get a better clarity on solution directions. In between the semester break; I realized that my sub-issue ‘Coral Bleach’ within the big issue of climate change is based in Queensland. Until last week I have been looking at exploring the idea of generating research based in Sydney hop on- off bus, which was inappropriate. I then looked at exploring the idea of a day trip journey data collection of a tourist in Queensland but as personally I have never visited Queensland which in a way acted as a barrier with my primary knowledge of the place. I shifted the approach on my design idea to a point where I can still continue using the same concept of reinforcing the information on Coral bleaching to create awareness and engage them to participate in reducing their carbon footprint while still visiting Australia.

In week 7 for a draft proposal, I shared the idea of a small book that interprets the current scenario of the coral bleaching through visual interpretation and elaborate the issue by some information on “Dos and Don’ts” for any tourist to make sure they don’t leave behind the bigger carbon footprint mark in Australia. The feedback from the teacher and peer was supportive and included some core possibilities that can be achieved with visual metaphors and digital adaptations.

Draft Proposal:

Project title: Don’t leave your mark.
Tag line: …for the better Coral world.
Practice Type: Service Design
Issue: Coral Bleaching
Target Audience: Queensland Tourists
Possible Change: Reduction of carbon footprint in Queensland tourism sector
Design action:
Australia tourism industry is one of the biggest contributors in its economical growth. My service design approach will focus on the same industry where in we create an awareness of Coral Reef bleaching at Great Barrier Reef and also involve tourist in the process of reducing their individual carbon footprint. The whole concept is for tourist and by tourist.

A design solution, which is offered in form of a small tourist handbook which will have a small visual interpretation of how corals are vanishing from Great Barrier Reef on acetate sheets. This enables the reader to feel the issue by its storytelling style. Second part of the book will display some basic information on the current mass bleaching events on reefs and how the corals are dyeing due to environmental toxins. It will also throw some light upon how carbon footprint from tourism industry, which is also one of the causes for coral bleaching events. The third part of the book will feature some dos and don’ts they can use in order to release minimal carbon footprint while they are visiting Queensland. The fourth and last part of the book will be similar to part one where transparent sheets of Corals are placed back in reef making it a worth watching wonder of the world.

This small handbook will feature some great tourist spots coupons; map to move around apart from the coral reef issue. It can be available at tourist counters, travel agencies, bus stands, stations and airports for traveller to avail the information easily. Extension for the idea on a digital platform can be an interactive mobile app that allows the traveller to view all the information on app and can be linked with GPS, which can offer the visitor with better commutation mode, eatables, local shopping which in a way contributes in less carbon footprint. The whole idea of “Don’t leave your mark” is to create an emotive expression for any sightseer to empathize the after effects of high level of carbon footprint  in Australia.

References:

4 Free Brainwriting Tools for Idea Generation in Research – Brainspores 2014, Brainspores. viewed 25 September 2016, <http://www.brainspores.com/4-free-brainwriting-tools-idea-generation-research/&gt;.

 

 

Blog post 9

Triggering through Brainstorming!

After working individually on the problem statement (as per blog post 8), as a group we collaborated once again to brainstorm the initial idea generations.

We started our discussion, by first briefing each other on the category of climate change as we were individually looking at and sharing our problem statement with each other. Our issues were overlapping in a way as they had more or less same stakeholders. We together used some important keywords from all our researches as a base point that can be used to generate design ideas.

Brainstorming initial ideas by group.

Carbon footprint, Livestock industry, Sustainability, Greenhouse gas, Carbon image and Carbon tax were starting points for us. Without much thinking we let our brains over speak and wrote all the possible ideas that were popping out of our mind.

Strength – By not thinking deeply on each idea, it gave us an opportunity to write as much as we can. This in a way helped us in later stage combining two or more initial thoughts and creates a concept as a design solution.

Weakness – Sometimes in such scenario the ideas and keywords get repetitive. And with more information I worried that I might miss out on some important aspect and cover the irrelevant.

Sketches done while brainstorming.

Later we shared our initial ideas with the teacher and got some peer feedback. I developed a sketch version of what I can use as a starting point in all three type of executions.

Generative Experimentation: Data collection of the emotions, a tourist has while visiting different tourist spots in Australia.

Data Visualization: Mapping the carbon footprint of a set of tourist in their one-day trip to Australia visit.

Service Design: Exploring the idea of a one-day journey on a hop on- off tourist bus and how at each point a tourist will be encouraged to reduce their carbon footprint by either offering them a better commutation mode or offering them discounts on eating vegetarian food.

For example, back of a museum ticket will have the information on how one can reduce their individual CO2 if they take a public transport back to their hotel, or may be a Café voucher which can have some information on a particular food type that contributes to less gas emission in the environment compared to some other food item while its production.

My peers also contributed their feedback on my ideas and gave me a better understanding on which is workable concept. With a basic starting point I think it should be a good start for a semester break where I can explore more using research to understand the design possibility and its practical execution.

References:

Brainstorming 2015, Disabilitythinking.blogspot.com.au. viewed 17 September 2016, <http://disabilitythinking.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/brainstorming.html&gt;.

 

Blog post 8

Transition time!

Week 6, a week before the semester break was a transition period where in we took a leap of faith and explored our design possibilities. Again in our small issue groups we brainstormed the idea of visual representation of the issue signifying through the category of service design, generative experimentation and data visualisation. Based on the question given in the class we all could look much deeper into the problem and understand the problem statement, which in turn will help us create a draft proposal of our blog 10.

Who does the problem affect?

“Climate Change”, is a global issue and there are various factors that are responsible to the high level of CO2 in the atmosphere. Similar to the density of the issue, there are big volume of the different stakeholder involved and majority fall under the category of ‘AFFECTED’. Through the weeks of process, I narrowed down the issue based on ‘Coral Bleaching’ and I had futhermore looked at the causes of mass bleaching events happening in the recent years. With different research methods like mapping, probe, I realized that ‘Common people’ needs a lot of exposure understanding the issue and accepting the urgency of the issue.

What are the boundaries of the problem? What will happen when it’s fixed?

Looking at my target audience, which is common man, they have ample limitation when it comes to the attribute of ‘Power’. Apart from the correct exposure about the issue and how they can be a part of a positive solution approaches, they have the limitations in using any possible solutions. Common mass is never a part of the policies that government set for the industry sector, which is a main contributor in ‘Greenhouse Gas Emission’. But impending these boundaries can be possible in different ways like reducing the individual ‘carbon footprint’.

When does the problem occur? When does it need to be fixed?

Coral bleaching events have been observed very frequently in the recent years but most crucial events are of mass bleaching which bleaches the most of the corals in Great Barrier Reef. If the problem persists then the Australian Tourism industry will face the after effects in its economical growth. This issue needs to be treated at the utmost urgency with all the possible solutions.

Where is the problem occurring?

Climate Change is observed in all parts of the world, especially in the developed countries. But Coral Bleach as a sub issue is based in Australia, which also observe a large amount of tourism, attracting because of Great Barrier Reef.

Why is it important that the problem is fixed? What impact will it have on stakeholders?

The problem of reducing the CO2 level in the atmosphere is crucial for the future generations, for them to witness the Great Barrier Reef as one of the wonders in the world. Not only human but also non-human and many other living actors are involved in the issue, which needs to be addressed. We might observe a positive impact on the ‘Affected’ where as negative impact on the ‘Effectors’ category of the stakeholders.

It was very difficult for me initially to develop the problem statement, as the issue was still pretty vast and the category of common people still required some more analysis. At this point I revisited my actors mapping exercise and explore the tourism industry’s affects on climate change.

Five point summary identifying the design response:

1. A service design map that allows the tourist to calculate their carbon footprint while they are visiting Australia.
2. A service design approach where all the monument and sight seeing entry tickets, coupons have the ways describing the “How to reduce your carbon footprint”.
3. A generative experimentation through a probe kit developed to collect the data that understand the emotions one experience while visiting different parts of “Great Barrier Reef”.
4. A generative experimentation that allows us to collect the data from tourist of their level of carbon footprint while visiting different places in Australia.
5. A service design approach of a self-guidebook for tourist to understand the issue of ‘Coral bleaching’and how can they can contribute in reducing the effects of these mass bleaching events.

Final problem statement –

How does the tourists create an impactful contribution in reducing the ‘Carbon Footprint’ while still visiting Australia?

Draft Proposal:

Issue: Climate Change

Sub-Issue: Coral Bleaching

Target Audience: Tourists

Visual Response: Service Design

The Australian tourism industry is one of the largest industries contributing the economical growth of the country. But apart from that it is also a big contributor for the carbon emissions in the country. Not all the aspects of this issue can be resolved as they involve lot of different factors but it can be approached at an individual and a small level. There is a lack of exposure on the issue in this sector; the service design approach can help in creating awareness on the urgency of the issue.

My approach for the solution direction will be specific targeting the tourists from 18 to 35 years of age who visit Australia for their recreational or leisure tour. The visual execution will help them understand the importance of these coral reefs in the ecosystem as well as its presence to be witnessed for the future generations. The design possibility will also allow them to engage themselves to become a part of ‘Better World’, which can be achieved by reducing their carbon footprint while they are visiting Australia.

References:

Service, P. 2016, Presidential Candidates: It’s Time to Prepare, Center for Presidential Transition. viewed 16 September 2016, <http://presidentialtransition.org/blog/posts/160427_time-to-prepare.php&gt;.

 

 

 

 

The Final Proposition…?

Recap of last post: last week, a tentative design solution was proposed whereby an app would be created to locate users to their closest bin in an attempt to prevent birds from choking and starving on litter.

 

Feedback from Peers and Tutor

After presenting my draft proposal, it was clear that my ideas still needed a bit of conceptual tweaking. Some of the main feedback I received was to:

1. Shift the focus of the design action to target the bins/other stakeholders instead of people.

 This was helpful feedback as focusing on the more inanimate stakeholders of the situation meant that I could potentially create more playful design interventions, such as giving the bins or rubbish personalities, or finding a way to get the bins to communicate with people rather than forcing people to use bins.

2. Create more of a link between my design proposal and research—where have the birds gone?

 It was also clear that, while the birds where the main motivators of my proposal, the actual design intervention itself did not reference birds in any way. After discussing this with others, it was clear that the area of birds had a lot more exciting potential than what I had already explored. Finding a way to look at waste through the lens of birds was something I needed to work on.

3. Step back from the project and broaden my thinking more.

 It’s true that there is such a thing as an idea being too focused. In order to create a proposal that’s more conceptually rich, I was advised to step back and do some experimental mapping/more research into birds and waste, so that I could find potential links and ways of visualising them.

 

Further Research

I decided that I needed to look further into how the public interacted with birds in order to gauge which direction my design intervention might go in. To do this, another web scrape on Twitter was undertaken, which looked at the keyword of ‘bird’ in the Sydney region. However, after looking at a few of the posts, I had found that the Australian White Ibis was being referred to as the ‘bin king’. It was clear then that the Ibis was the perfect target for my design idea; no other bird marries quite as nicely with bins as the Ibis does, thanks to their frequent scavenging of bins around the city. With a new Twitter search for ‘Ibis’ in the area of Sydney, I had found a few more nicknames for the Ibis:

 

Bin nicknames for Ibises found on Twitter.

 

This concept of Ibises eating things they shouldn’t be supported my original research focus of how humans are impacting on birds and allowed me to broaden my problem statement to look at birds eating waste (as opposed to birds eating litter).

 

The Design Proposition

Project Title: The Sydney Ibis Food Diary
Practice Type: Data Visualisation/Generative Systems
The Issue: Ibises eating waste

The Sydney Ibis Food Diary uses the common practice of Ibises eating waste to make a statement about how humans are impacting on birds. By observing wild Ibises in their city habitats, my design proposition will seek to identify, document and visualise what specific Ibises are eating.

In doing this, I’m hoping to make people recognise that a Sydney Ibis’ diet consists mainly of food scraps and trash and to highlight how unnatural this is—the things they are eating, if looked at without knowing that it is an Ibis eating them, are very similar to a human’s diet. In the gathering of this data, perhaps trends in food scraps will come to light which will also reveal information about us as well.

I believe it will also be beneficial to record the area I’m studying the Ibises in, in order to see if there is a link between the kinds of waste present and the area they are feeding in.

These preliminary visualisations will act as the precursor or advertising to spark a conversation between 18–25 year olds, general public participation will also be available through social media. A Twitter hashtag #SIFD with an accompanying post template for users to enter what they saw the Ibis eating and where they were will also be part of the project. This design proposition itself does not intend to solve the problem of waste or littering, but by expanding its reach to include members of the general public, it will generate conversation and may get people to notice trends in trash and the problems with waste.