Open Waters
My Role
UX Researcher and Designer
The Team (5)
Human Centered Design Students
Service Design Students
Industrial Arts Student
Tools Used
Figma
Miro
Duration
4 Week Studio
(September 2020)
My Key Contributions
User Research
Concept Ideation
Prototyping
Storyboarding
Process
Research
Secondary Research
Primary Research (Expert Interviews)
Generate Insights
Ideation
Basic Sketches and Experimentation
Prototyping
Final Sketches
Mockup on XD
Present
Presentation to a panel of faculty
As a part of the class ‘More Than Human Worlds’ , we were given freedom to conduct research on various topics and pick any topic that we were interested in as a group. We then had to delve into the topic and conduct extensive research to identify a problem space and come up with a solution.
Our chosen topic
Our research will surround understanding the philosophy behind human systems, to bridge the gap between innovation and evolution through the perspective of ecology and human psychology to further build an inclusive dialogue.
We further narrowed it down to 5 broad categories we’d like to conduct research on - Human Psychology, Biomimicry, Ecology, Ethics and AI/Tech.
Research
In order to understand concepts like biomimicry and psychology are currently being used in the tech field, I conducted some secondary research.
We wanted to understand at what step these concepts are brought in and the different ways in which they can be used to benefit the design process.
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We then identified experts from the 5 fields we chose initially whom we could interview. We used a semi-structured questionnaire during the interview as we wanted a more casual conversation that could lead us in new directions as well.
Each interview ranged between 20 - 30 minutes after which we put up the key points from the interviews and colour coded them based on the 5 categories
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These were then further narrowed down to a few important points that could lead us to a problem area.
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One common theme that emerged during these interviews and our secondary research was the importance of marine ecology and how marine restoration is a field that should be given heavy importance to. This then led us to our problem statement.
Problem Statement
How might we facilitate better awareness and empathy in the upcoming generations towards non-human species so that they create inclusive design interventions in the space of policy, governance, transport, living and consuming resources responsibly by using education as a tool.
Ideation
We then elaborated on the specific problems obstructing marine restoration that emerged such as inadequate educational resources and unethical fishing practices. This in a way organically led to us brainstorming and ideating on ways we could intervene as designers. One point we got from an interview stuck with us during this process - implement micro steps that can lead to macro changes. At a student level we were unable to think on bigger lines on how we could physically help with marine restoration, however, that statement gave us an idea.
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Final Project brief
To facilitate interaction between humans and non-human species in the marine ecosystem through a gamified education model for students between 1st and 8th grade to create a sense of awareness and change behavioral perceptions in the longer run, allowing for the creation of inclusive design interventions.
Welcome to Open Waters!
An interactive website for kids between the 1st to 8th grade, to learn about the marine life, it's wonders, beauty, hardships and more. Pick a character and get started on your journey in the deep waters!
Our Goal
Our goal is to bring about sustainable decision making in kids, as kids are most open to learning new things and ideas that would shape the way they think and make decisions in the longer run. The aim is to bring in a behavioral change in them, and lead to an inclusive dialogue between humans and other non-human living species.
Why a gamified interaction
Kids can learn about the adverse effects of human actions on the marine ecosystem if we create fun, simple and interactive elements that facilitate this learning. Allowing the kid to feel like they can explore at their own pace and giving a feel of a game/comic they would willingly interact with and not something they're forced to "study".
PROTOTYPING
Menu options with directions to a forum, fun quiz and an option to donate for parents
Scrollable character selection
Storyboard
A storyboard (created by me and another business service student) depicts an ideal situation in which this platform would be used by a student.
CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP
Customer Journey map of Open Waters that shows the basic path a student would follow while using the platform, their touchpoints, goals and emotions while doing so.
Challenges we faced
Being a vast area of research, we initially struggled with understanding how to narrow down to a pain point and how to choose which pain point to focus on. Understanding which problem area would be more ideal to tackle and and provide a solution for took a good amount of time for us.
Moreover, being on a time constraint of four weeks, we initially felt we took on a topic that was much too big for us to narrow down and choose a good enough pain point to work on. However, as we continued working on the project, we were able to clearly choose what to focus on and what to leave out
Final Thoughts
This is a project we are extremely proud of as a team as the amount of research and effort put into was immense and the outcome was well received. Though this may not be an immediate solution for marine restoration, it as an extremely important intervention that could drive the process as kids are the future and only if they understand the importance from a young age can they make better decisions in the future.
Going ahead we would like to make a coded prototype of the website and test it out with our target audience. Moreover, as a group we were extremely interested in VR and would like to explore VR and integrate it with our platform.