Note: See week 1 here for our problem brainstorming + HMWs.

Summarized Ideas

<aside> 💡 A narrative, interactive story experience focused on either

• showing consequences of individual actions on the environment
  • maybe a choose your own adventure in which you make choices at different points in the day: what to eat, how long to shower, whether to take the train or a car, etc —> end of day you get 3D data visualizations of carbon emissions, water used, etc
• building awareness/empathy for differences in quality of life around the world due to pollution, differences in water quality, diseases, etc (interactive quest-like journey, location hopping)
  • see how your actions in one place would have proportionately different effects in another place, interact with the locals, etc
• visualization of microecosystems through interactive water and soil sample collection, before and after forest fires, after construction, etc (anything that has potential to severely disrupt and ecosystem) (interactive quest-like journey)
  • maybe you take samples back to your “home lab”

What we like

• immersive storytelling
• as much direct hand interaction as possible
• movement around a space (not static experience)
• sounds that contribute to the environment realness, dialogue

</aside>

Advisor Meeting

<aside> 💡 Maddie West:

• Hasn’t found a killer education app yet
• Option 1: likes bc it give user autonomy; not just a static entertainment
  • as shower goes longer and longer affects other place in the world?
  • if you throw can in bin, teleported to where it goes
• Option 2/3: liked the location hopping - draws on XR features
• Advice on user interviewing
  • what gets ppl to change their behavior,
  • talk to students who are studying environment: when talking to ppl about the environment what have they seen that moves the needle

Interactions/features specific to XR

Scale (360 sphere) — helping people feel their position/smallness

• a lot of interaction paradigms: scaling with controllers, having set scales that they move between, exploring the different modalities

Testing different interaction paradigms — using hands vs. controllers (do through user testing)

Navigating without controllers

• Teleporting, throw something and you go to where you threw it, can predefine it as well
• can define new motion experiences

What makes a good vr experience

• not just 2D ported over
• look at 3D storytelling — unfolds as you move around
• can play with passthrough, flashbacks, clue solving

Existing Apps

• mostly day in the life - empathy building
• common to do macro to micro
• google maps: fly into location, scale let you see how big earth really was
• Blue — existing ocean experiences (may not be on quest 3 though) </aside>

Interviews

Instructors and students studying/teaching in the environmental space.

Note: planning on conducting user interviews over the next couple days with people not well versed with sustainability-focused research and daily living.

Goal: how do they explain concepts to others, what have they seen that moves the needle, what tools do they use already

Faculty key insights:

Interview w/ Kate Maher

• Understanding the scale of carbon removal and system changes required to address climate change is challenging but important.
• Students often overlook larger systemic changes, focusing instead on smaller actions. The concept of understanding the massive scale, such as what 10 gigatons of carbon per year represents, is challenging for many students.
• Using animation and building concepts up step-by-step can help explain complex climate science concepts.
• Communicating both challenges and solutions, as well as highlighting positive progress, can make climate change feel more tangible and less polarizing.
• Design education that allows students to explore their own ideas and take ownership can spark passion and motivate students to carry projects forward in meaningful ways.

Student key insights:

Interview w/ Drive (Terachet) Rojrachsombat

• Hands-on, experiential learning like field work and labs is very effective for learning earth systems topics compared to just lectures.
• 3 components — modeling, field work, laboratory hands on work; The Stanford at Sea program provided a unique opportunity to combine field work, lab analysis, and modeling to deeply learn about ocean carbon chemistry.
• When explaining climate topics, it's best to make it personal and relatable by connecting it to the individual and how it may impact them directly.
• VR could be a useful tool for environmental education and source of inspiration by allowing people to experience natural disasters and environments they may not otherwise see, to build empathy and connection to nature.

Low-fi Prototype Ideas

1. Individual Impact Tracker: educate users about the environmental impact of their daily decisions through interactive simulations that show the immediate consequences of those choices

   Individual Impact Tracker Ideas

2. Explore Energy: an interactive daily living simulation with global destination hopping to experience differences in energy consumption around the world

   Explore Energy Ideas

3. EcoExplorer: explore several distinct ecosystems, such as a mountain stream, a coastal estuary, a city river, and a wetland. Each environment offers unique challenges and learning opportunities related to water quality and ecosystem health.

   EcoExplorer Ideas

4. Time Machine: from a college student POV, explore the impact of your daily decisions on the environment

   Climate Time Machine

5. EcoRescue: combines environmental missions with rescue operations.

   EcoRescue