Context
8-week project in 2021
Project Type
Collaboration, MA project
Role
Project Manager, UX Research, Prototyping, Creative Coding
Team
Maria Séves, Eric Dodd, Vanessa Van, Sanya Nayar
Uncovering the secret life of plants
🚨 A microclimate emergency
Chelsea Physical Garden approached with the challenge of designing a new experience for visitors of the garden. They wanted to bring attention to their current and newly declared microclimate emergency. Additionally, they were looking to break the barrier with younger audiences, inviting them to have fun in the space while learning to respect nature.
🍃 Plants as the main characters
For this project, we wanted plants and nature to be in the foreground of the experience. We extensively researched plants communication and communal existence while also conducting different UX methodologies to generate design ideas.
🚑 Assessing the health of crops
Our solution focused on the health of crops, which is directly related to their photosynthesis capacity. As photosynthesis plants are invisible to the human eye, we challenged ourselves to make it tangible, experiential and informative.
Final Outcome
📸 A tour for the garden
A new perspective on plants' health
Discover the health of plants. Our goal was for people to connect with the garden at a new level only achievable by humans with the aid of technology. The entire experience has three phases:
- A brief introduction on the photosynthesis of plants and a tutorial to use our special health assessment tools
- A Raspberry Pi-powered camera photoshoot around the garden begins. This special camera allows its photographers to capture the hidden side of the sunlight effect on a plant.
- These pictures are printed and used in the third phase, a workshop. The visitors learn more about the health state of the garden and build their own physical devices to observe the photos.
🔑 Key Insights
A peaceful environment
During our initial research at the garden, visitors shared that it was a place for reading, meditating and spending time in union with nature. This sentiment, contrasted with the urgency of the imminent climate emergency, set the tone through which we communicate the message in our design.
💥 Impacts
An experience that transcends the gardens' gates
We created a product and formula that can be replicated anywhere. From other botanicals gardens to the comfort of your home, the camera and workshop are affordable and easy to use.
The Creative Process
The process of designing an experience is never linear, and so was the case of this project. There were many iterations, steps, absorbing and synthesizing information, testing and designing. In this section, I'll highlight some phases and methodologies that lead us to our solution.
Diary Study
During four days, I monitored two different species in the same recipient, keeping their roots exposed. Our goal was to understand how plants are affected as time passes on a micro level.
This experiment helped us visualize how movement occurred as the flower searched for the sun to photosynthesise.
Our next steps in this research will involve investigating the effects of sunlight exposure on plants. We want to enhance the movement that plants make as they chase the sun and grow.
Research through design
Design insights
The slow nature of changes in plants was our main point of focus at this stage in the research. Using infrared, a light that the human eyes can't see, and photography we aim to reveal the secret life of plants.
NDVI
Plants use light to absorb nutrients and produce their food, a process called photosynthesis. They can absorb all coloured light channels except for IR light, which they reflect as it doesn't bring them benefit. This is visible when you take an IR video and apply a filter called the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Many places use this altered image to assess the health of vegetations, monitor pests and diseases and accompany the growth through the seasons.
Hacking cameras
The IR cameras prices are out of our budget, and so we decided to try to make our own. We went looking for old digital cameras, as they can be easily altered by removing a filter and adding a true blue filter.
Raspberry Pi
Part of the process of hacking cameras involved physical computing. I was responsible for making the prototype using the PiNoIR Camera.
Storyboards
As we set our topic, we created two scenarios in which this experience could run around photosynthesis. The Chelsea Physic Garden is one of the oldest botanical gardens in Europe, and we wanted to match our experience with this antique vibe. We looked into different objects that could reproduce our images in an analogue way. After we researched, we found the stereoscope, a Victorian object used to give depth to images, almost like a vintage VR set. These objects were implemented in different ways into our storyboards. To generate ideas, we did a crazy 8 session and picked the two favourite ideas.
As we took these scenarios in a speed dating session, our peers showed the most interest in the funfair experience, although the workshop could still be incorporated as a part of the whole. At this stage, we still need to delimitate how we want this setup to happen. Organizing all the pieces we gathered into a linear and more clear experience will help us understand what our final product will be, as well as identifying missing points and refining the experience.
User Journey
The role of the user journey is to create a linear map of the experience. We looked over the entire visit, including the duration of each activity, the people needed to make it work, and overall expectations for the user's moods during each exercise. The user journey helped us simplify our journey and visualize on a macro level how each step could happen and which points would need to be improved.
User Testing
We ran tests during multiple steps of our design process. Our last test allowed us to assess the flow of the tour, how a person experiences it, and their takeaways.
We replicated the garden spaces with multiple areas representing the different steps of the experience's journey. The three steps are simple: start with an introduction to the journey. Second, receive our hacked camera and get near-infrared images of the plants. Finish with a workshop to make your image viewing device, in this case, a stereoscope.
Results
The project was short yet fulfilling. Our team was diverse and, with our complementing set of skills, we found a balance between sharing tasks and collaborating. When presenting this project, we received a lot of praise. They enjoyed how we brought science and art together with this singular way of seeing plants through the NDVI lenses.
📝Takeaways
- It's interesting to get a non-human thing and put it right in the centre of our design. The goal of having the plants as the main character of our design forced us to be creative and to adapt existing methodologies for these unusual circumstances.
- However, it was also important to take people in every step of the design journey, inviting them to collaborate and co-create this experience with us.
