About this infographic
This infographic explores the emergence, effectiveness, and trustworthiness of climate apps in promoting environmental sustainability. It highlights the significant rise of these apps, like Alipay's Ant Forest and others, noting their large user bases and environmental contributions. The infographic delves into the limited existing research focused mainly on China, emphasizing the importance of environment communication, digital participation, and the concept of "trust" in the context of climate action. It outlines the methodology for app analysis, including creating a comprehensive taxonomy, conducting both qualitative and quantitative analyses of apps offering Nature-based Solutions (NbS), and expert interviews. The research questions probe the functions, trustworthiness, and effectiveness of NbS apps in combatting climate change. The expected outcome is a set of "trust indicators" to critically assess these apps on aspects like data privacy, NbS effectiveness, and policy engagement, aiding public understanding and interaction with these technologies. The infographic also cites key academic sources that inform this area of study.
The design concept captures the journey of plant growth, from a seed to a mature tree, as a metaphor for the development of our content. This concept initially focused on the stages of a plant's life cycle but evolved to include digital elements, specifically an app and visual indicators related to our framework. To enrich the narrative, the design incorporates an image of a person using a smartphone, displaying an indicator dashboard or screenshot. This addition not only brings in the digital aspect but also makes the concept relatable to users.
The landscape orientation of the design allows for the inclusion of a character engaging in tree planting, adding depth and context to the visual story. This comprehensive approach intertwines the natural process of tree planting, the symbolism of growth and progress, the exploration of the environment, and the practical application of technology through an app.
This final selection of Idea 3 represents a harmonious blend of nature and technology, effectively conveying our message. The next phase involves the meticulous crafting of this design, establishing a cohesive visual language, and refining the concept to its final, polished form.
Design development: considering different directions.
Idea 1: Beneath the surface
This concept plays with the idea of the truth about climate apps being hidden below the surface, and the research study being part of uncovering that/creating a way to understand their truth.
I’ve explored this idea by presenting the key paragraphs ‘Why climate apps’, ‘Theory’, ‘Research questions’ and ‘Methods’ above the ground, as these are means and preparation for setting out on the discovery. Whereas when we get down to the expected findings, I’ve positioned those underground as they are yet unknown, but will be revealed throughout the research.
We zoom in to a person on the ground using a climate app among a leafy landscape.
I like this concept but a lot of the thinking behind it is quite conceptual without being explained visually. I think we can do better, and maybe take some of the ideas from this that work into the next rendition.
Idea 2: Indicators
This next idea uses the storyboard strip format as inspiration, while also emphasising the idea of displaying the indicators visually. I like this because it demonstrates that the paragraphs are connected and lead up to the last one.
Being inspired by the output of the research, I’ve given the poster the visual focus of the indicator. Visuals that indicate a big dial or series of dials that provide a result once something has been evaluated.
This would allow the reader to instantly see that the text is about the rating something. We need to make it clear this is the app, so perhaps the bigger imagine in window 5 should also contain an app illustration to make that super clear.
The advantage of this it works semiotically with the theme of the provided title and emphasizes a level if trust rating. I.e. one associates a dial and color coordination with good/bad ratings.
The slightly trickier thing might be making sure this relates back to trees. We’d have to be sure that this was illustrated in the story elements as the connect is not made quite as clearly as it is in direction 1.
Let’s keep this in mind and move on to the next direction.
Idea 3: Growing in stages/frequency.
So this idea
So this idea started off looking at the sequence of plants growing from seed, to tree - the idea being that at each growing stage, we could add a different stage of our content. I really like this concept, but it did exclude the presence of either an app or visual references to an indicator framework. To build this thought, we can come back to that idea of a person holding a phone while pulling out a phone with an indicator screenshot or dashboard. As we’ve orientated it as landscape, we have enough horizontal space to add a character digging a hole to plant a tree, adding even more visual context.
This direction feels most complete to me, it brings together both the worlds of tree planting, idea of progress through growing, idea of discovering underground, and shows phone users using an indicator in the context of an app.
So I’m going to work with this one. The next step will involve devising the design itself, building up the visual language and working up the final idea.
