Deliverables

  • Design Space: In order to gain a wider understanding of the problem at hand, and to gain inpiration for my future concept, I started the designprocess by researching articles on Climate-fiction, climate challenges we face today and how Augmented reality has been used in some solutions connected to climate change. There were three articles in particular that inspired my work and that played an important role in this early stage of the research process.
  • Funk, A. 2021, Can Climate Fiction Writers Reach People in Ways That Scientists Can’t?, Smithsonian Magazine
  • Miller, A. 2021, 4 Ways AR and VR Can Help Save the Planet, AR Insider
  • How Augmented Reality Can Teach Us About Climate Change, 3rockAR
  • As I continued to explore the design space and tested existing AR applications I started to build an imagine of what my concept could contribute with in this market that already had a lot of great inventions. I found two areas within climate change particularly fascinating and relevant to my location in Cape Town; endangered species and pandemics connected to climate change.
  • Concept 1 - Endangered Species: My first concept takes place in a scenario where humans have exterminated several animal species, and even more species are endangered. To raise awareness among people, and for future generations to be able to learn from our mistakes, the user can scan a normally animal-dense area around them and see wild animals through AR on their phone. These will include birds, tigers, pandas and rhinos. The user can, if they feel strongly enough about a particular animal species, start a charity campaign to support the rehabilitation work around that animal species' recovery.
  • Concept 2 - Virus Detector: This concept was inspired by the cli-fi sector which focuses on the spread of diseases as a result of climate change and human behavior. The user can use the camera on their phone to scan the people around them, the app will generate a result on the risk of infection and display the result thourgh AR elements. The goal of this concept is to spread information and awareness about different kinds of pandemics and diseases, but also to make people feel more safe about their health and potentially be able to stop the spread of infection.
  • Next page - Solution Discovery