Using the idea that story-telling leads to people wanting to make a change, I developed an app to foster an intimate narrative. Specifically, this app fosters the connection between people, animals and their habitat.
The goal of this project was to revitalize people's connection to the animals and habitats all around the world. I wanted to foster a daily, empathetic, personal connection between the user and the adopted animal, hopefully igniting the user to seek climate action and create an entry point for everyday people to get involved with the climate crisis.
In my research for this project, I found that making the climate crisis personal for an individual can result in climate action. Creating personas and exploring user journeys helped direct the goals and needs of the app design and branding of the app.
The two main resources for the infographic are listed below:
Benson, Eric. “Connecting with People to Create Climate Action”. Produced by Eric Benson. Climify, November, 2022. Podcast, Length in 55:52. https://open.spotify.com/episode/1m6sagHoCnblgWc1eITxXv?si=110ccbc633244c47.
Devinney, Timothy. “Make It Personal: How to Get People to Care about Sustainability.” Network for Business Sustainability (NBS), April 11, 2022. https://nbs.net/make-it-personal-how-to-get-people-to-care-about-sustainability/.
After researching other apps that focus in biodiversity and animal narratives, I discovered that most of these designs are limited in their capabilities and they are not user-friendly. It is important that the Wild Stories app is very easy-to-use, sleek and authentic. Since the goal of the app is to create an emotional connect between user and animal, the user's experience needs to stay positive and easy throughout the whole journey of the app.
The final app design takes the user through a personal journey with an animal. The design is intuitive, not having clutter or distractions to deflect attention away from the main actions of the app. The hierarchy of the design and layout is clear, concise and polished.
Something I wanted to particularly think about and target in this project was how to quantify change. I am asking the people who use this app to change their actions and their relationship to the climate crisis. I am asking people to go from being disconnected with nature and without a direct impact from the climate emergency, to connecting deeply to nature and noticing a daily impact of the climate emergency. How can I track that change? I slowly answered that question through my research and app development.
1. User should adopt at least ONE animal
2. User should learn, donate, or take action outside of the Wild Stories app.
3. User should follow up or check in on conservation progress.
With these requirements, the Wild Stories app has a baseline for quantifying the impact of the app.
Branding:
I designed the Wild Stories logo to feel fun and very identifiable. The silhouetted bird in the logo, a Piping Plover, is an endangered species. He is the icon of the brand because these birds specifically display a vulnerable species that has created a lasting impact on the City of Chicago. The story of Monty, the Piping Plover, can be found below.
Logo Animation: I animated a Piping Plover to introduce the logo to the viewer. It was important to me that I introduce the app through an empathetic link between an animal and the audience.
App Design:
I designed the Wild Stories logo to feel fun and very identifiable. The silhouetted bird in the logo, a Piping Plover, is an endangered species. He is the icon of the brand because these birds specifically display a vulnerable species that has created a lasting impact on the City of Chicago. The story of Monty, the Piping Plover, can be found below.
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