AUTHORS
Andersson, J. Gärdebo, A. Herrström, J. Jägerklou, W. Polteg, S.
THE PROJECT
In this study, we have applied a Participatory Design (PD) methodology. Therefore, we used research methods that involved the user target group and made decisions based on the data derived from those methods throughout the design process. Our research question asked, “can we create a digital artifact which has the potential to motivate young people into experiencing nature?”.
Duration: 2 months
Course: Brukarorienterad design
Tools: Adobe XD,
KEYWORDS
Participatory design, Co-design, Co-creation, Holistic, Gamification, Persuasive design, Storyboarding, Future workshop, Affinity diagram, Sketches, Mockups, Prototype.
METHODOLOGY
In this project, we have used a PD research methodology and used a co-designing approach in the design process which enabled the users to play an active and influential part.
FUTURE WORKSHOP
A future workshop is a method that explores and clarifies the common problems in a current situation. As one of the staples in participatory design, it includes users and stakeholders in the process in order to get a better understanding of the context. The aim is to explore ideas and suggestions that will be able to help us create our digital artifact and in the long run, also take us closer to answering the question at issue. This is achieved by a future workshop using the method “brainstorming” where the intention is for a group of people to come up with a large number of ideas together in a relatively short time.
STORYBOARDING
Through the Future Workshop, we gained a solution concept to answer the research question. Our goal was to create a digital artifact, hence we chose to further develop the concept into a prototype in alignment with user participants by conducting a storyboard session. In our storyboard, we wanted to use paper prototyping in the form of sketches because it is one of the most rapid form of prototyping. We prepared sketches for five different pages. This allowed us as designers to obtain user feedback as early as possible in the design process. We prepared three storyboard scenarios. Each storyboard described different concepts of situations where Seek Nature was used to motivate its user to go outdoors. By showing the scenarios with sketches we wanted to be able to share an understanding with the participants of our vision that later was refined, rejected and tested with the users.
AFFINITY DIAGRAM
From the future workshop, lots of great ideas and data were gathered. To systemize the data, an affinity diagram was created. Affinity diagram is a method for grouping and organising large amounts of data generated. The most common practice is to gather all the ideas on post-it notes and create a wall of information. You then draw connections between the different ideas to create groupings of ideas, furthermore, you can give each group a collective name and sort the ideas in the groups in hierarchical order. Affinity diagrams are a way to go from analysis to synthesis and by connecting the dots you can gain a holistic insight to develop potential ideas of solution.
FLOWCHART
We began the prototyping process by creating a flowchart to work as a possible structure of the application Seek Nature’s system, see fig. Having the flowchart during the later prototyping process helped to visually communicate the structure of Seek Nature.
PROTOYPE
INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPE
The final product resulted in an application with the purpose of promoting mental health for people between 16-24 years old with nature as a resource. We believe that there are many possibilities to develop Seek Nature further. We have talked about different kinds of missions and perhaps also connect the seek nature profile to other social media platforms and work in synergy and profit from the social aspects of those applications, e.g. Snapchat. In this project, we have touched the fields of gamification and persuasive strategies without prior knowledge to the fields. If the application Seek Nature was to be further developed, we wish to implement more elements from those fields to be able to motivate its users even further.
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