“Our house is on fire” Greta’s words are resonating with so many people around the world and the issue of climate change is on the agenda more than ever.
And we know how to stop it. Plant more trees, stop generating electricity from dirty fuels and invest in public transport. For this to happen we need urgent climate action from decision makers.
Friends of the Earth asked me to design an engagement tool that inspires users to demand their local authority to take stronger action against the climate emergency.
The deadline for creating this product was tight. It needed to be launched in time for the Global Climate Strikes happening in September 2019, only 1½ months away.
THE ROLE
UX Designer and Researcher
UX Designer and Researcher
As the UX Designer I used user insights gathered from research, psychology, and UX best practices to takes a consumer-centric approach to designing a product that could act as a change agent for Friends of the Earth.
My goals were to provide the following:
- Insights and ideation. I uncovered insights and translated concepts into features that address user behaviours and motivations.
- Experience strategy and vision. I created frameworks and prototypes to share the vision, design principles and content strategy.
- Design execution and validation. I designed across and collaborated with developers to translate the product for each platform context and validated each feature via testing.
THE APPROACH
Iterate. Iterate. Iterate
Iterate. Iterate. Iterate
By adopting and following an iterative design approach it allowed me to create and test ideas quickly. Ideas that showed promise could then be iterated rapidly until they take sufficient shape to be developed; those that fail to show potential can quickly be abandoned. It’s a cost-effective approach which puts user experience at the heart of the design process.
An iterative approach to this project allowed for rapid resolution of misunderstandings within the project team and established clarity early in the development lifecycle
THE DESIGN
Ideation
Ideation
I realised that the success of the product would ultimately be because of two factors: the design of the tool - is it attractive enough to draw people in and use it? And the story which we tell – how can weave a compelling narrative throughout the tool to engage people with our message?
I quickly organised and facilitated two ideation sessions with Friends of the Earth colleagues.
The first focused on the design. We analysed existing tools and data visualisations and did SWOT analysis to work out what would work for us and where opportunities lay. The people in this session were developers, brand designers, and project coordinators.
The second looked at the narrative. I gathered copywriters, media officers and analysts to look at the available data we had and draw out story ideas that we could test with our audiences.
Narrative ideation focused on the data collected on each local authority - how could we use this information to create narratives to test at each point in the user journey?
Prototype. Test. Repeat.
After ideation the first wireframes were created. Simple outlines of potential layouts lead the groundwork for future iterations that increased in fidelity. Working backwards from a fixed launch date mean that I had to work in an agile way – presenting, gathering and responding to feedback in short space of time.
Low fidelity prototypes enabled quick development of ideas that ensure maximum delivery of value
The importance of user testing throughout this design process was key in uncovering any usability issues and ensure we were creating a product that delivered on its goal. In total three rounds of testing were conducted, with five participants in each round.
Key insights from testing:
- The copy and narrative throughout the design needed to work for both for the communities that are doing badly in tackling climate change, but also those areas that are performing better than average.
- Users want to the tool to focus on them. Relevant copy and images that relate to their area and what they can do about it perform better than more generic images and text.
- The climate change data and scores are meaningless to users unless they compare them with other areas.
Clickable and responsive prototypes gave a realistic user experience for testing.
User journeys helped visualise the series of steps a user may take. They help the project team analyse if there were any parts of the process that can be consolidated (in this case the 'validation' and 'why' screen were cut from the final design). User journeys were also used in this project to ensure that measurement and analysis occurred at each touchpoint to assess the success of the climate action tool.
THE FINAL PRODUCT
How climate-friendly is your community?
How climate-friendly is your community?
The product went live in September. It brings together multiple datasets to look at each local authority in Britain in an easily accessible and scannable way. Users enter their postcode, and view a summary of how well their town or city is performing on climate change, and what some sensible next steps might be particular to their area.
You can view the tool here: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate-friendly-communities >
"Gemma was instrumental in creating our climate data postcode lookup tool. From her response to the original brief through to hi res prototypes, she produced work of high quality which allowed internal stakeholders to feed back on the project at regular intervals. She was astute at navigating internal politics and conflicting priorities to deliver the most effective product possible."
Joachim Farncombe, Digital Delivery Manager - Friends of the Earth
THE IMPACT
#TakeClimateAction
At the time of writing the tool had had over 133,000 post code lookups. With almost 13,000 people signing up to join their local climate action group in their communities – working to bring bring about big systemic change in the real world.
Postcode lookup tool was featured in Time Out magazine.
If you're doing exciting things and need help with anything user experience related, I'd love to talk.