UX-Designer
Simon Sjödin
In this 3 week speculative HI project, Simon’s team worked with solving the problem of decreasing biodiversity in swedish forests by combining exponential technologies such as genetic engineering, bioluminescent plants and IOT. The result was bioluminescent trees that could be overviewed in an app made for forest owners to track their biodiversity, but also to create awareness & educate the public.
What if trees would glow in the dark when your forest senses lack of biodiversity?
It might seem far away, but truth is, technology is already there.
Design is optimistic, and can be used as a mean of speculating of how things could be in the future. This form of design thrives on imagination and opens a new perspective on what are sometimes called “wicked problems” just to open up for discussion and debate.
This project was about combining exponential technologies with speculative design since this is becoming a huge part of the role as a designer. In a world with rapid changes the designer needs to be able to adapt and speculate of how things could be in the future to be able to maintain a sustainable business.
In this project Simon’s team created a prototype of an app in 3 weeks time combining biodiversity with genetic engineering and internet of things.
Animals and plants are trying to reproduce in our forests but are hindered by deforestation and monotone reproduction of pine trees. Planting and harvesting these same trees over and over again leads to a decrease in the biodiversity and harms our already 2000 endangered animal and plant species within these ecosystems.
"How might we encourage the forest owners to protect endangered areas rather than destroying it?"
The science behind glowing trees already exists today, scientists have succeeded with using DNA from mushrooms to make glowing plants. The scientists from this study also talk about that in the future it’s going to be possible to activate glowing DNA genes by certain hormones. In the future, it's possible that we will have glowing trees instead of street lights.
Gene-editing - is also already being used around the world to save our forests today. Trees are being enhanced with different genes to resist drought, diseases, increased wood quality, stress and more. In this project Simon and his team asked "can this technology contribute to the fight against climate crisis somehow?"
Genetically modified trees that senses lack of biodiversity in the environment that can be overviewed from a tablet or mobile phone app. When there’s lack of biodiversity, the trees will glow.
The app made for forest owners in Sweden will help track biodiversity and also create awareness for how animals, plants and organisms are affected. The app would simply view a map of the owners property with the help of satellite imagery. On this map you would be able to see what areas needs improvements and it would provide you with tips on how to fix them.
Of course, it would also create an awareness for the general public that would in turn lead to an increase societal engagement of how important biodiversity is for a sustainable environment.
The app below was a prototype the team created to visualize their idéa rather than bringing a finished product. It provides stats of the forest, glowing trees warnings and a night and daymode.
One solution often creates another problem, which is also why speculative design is so great because it opens up for discussions about future technologies and issues that might evolve with them. Potential issues that Simons team discussed in this project were topics such as;
Since Simon's team only had 3 weeks to finish this project and during that time they had to come up with a brand new concept that they knew would be hard to test like in a regular project where you get to work with an existing product.
To stay effective, they started off with ideation workshops, that led to further research in form of market analyses and thesis reading. The first 1,5 week consisted of research and concept iterations whilst the last week was dedicated to prototyping and presentation work.
In this project the Simon's team had to be flexible and tweak the regular design process due to their project conditions.
The purpose of being able to work with speculative design is to be able to adapt to the future and to think outside of the box. If a designer keeps designing for what is present the company will often be one step behind once the product or service is launched. The project might not be something that a UX-designer would work with very often in his every day work. But the importance of being able to think speculative while designing is the reason to why Simon chose to include this project in his portfolio. Besides - ConiGlow is a pretty cool app, isn’t it?
Simons role in this project was as often with a hand in as much as possible. The work included research, speculative workshops and designing. The layout of the app was designed by Simon whilst the grahics of the interactive map and logo was drawn by his colleague Chris.
