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Topic 2 Final Reflection

  • What did you learn?

From this project, I learned a lot about creating something physical and combining it with something digital. I also learned a lot about user testing, and applying feedback I received without jeopardizing my vision.

  • What feedback did you receive? Any reflections on critique itself?

I received a lot of good feedback during my user testing about the usage of the app itself. One flaw I made before user testing was making a lot of assumptions about what the audience would know how to do. For instance, I assumed that all users would be able to easily figure out how to unsubscribe from their newsletters, but I found that it was not obvious for many people, or they didn’t have experience doing it.

  • What might you do differently in terms of process or content?

I would have liked to have a working prototype to present, where the light in the planter would be controlled by the app mock up. That way, it would be much easier to present and give people a better picture on how the product works. I would also like to do more research on equating information given about CO2 emissions, so that users have a better idea of their impact on climate change.

  • What was inspiring? What parts?

Creating the mock up was very inspiring, because it felt very real when testing it myself on my phone. Once I started making and testing the mock app, I got more excited about the project.

  • Revisit the assignment prompts: how did your project relate to the original prompts, in terms of critical lens, audience, tone, etc…

Looking back at the assignment prompt, I think I was able to be specific about what I wanted to research, which was how email affects climate change. I was able to show documentation on my experiments and practice. I had a lens that I looked through, which was from a users perspective, and I also had a clear audience in mind, which were average people with office jobs. My intention was to educate the audience on the need to manage their inboxes, and to criticize how corporations put the onus of climate change on the individual. The tone was to be ironic, and mimic a cheesy infomercial.

  • How did you balance research and experimentation? Which is easier for you? How can you focus more on the areas that you shy away from

While research was easier for me, I felt that experimentation was more interesting. The research came quickly, since I already had a clear idea of what the topic was about, and just needed evidence to support it. Experimentation was interesting for me, because its rare for me to get to build anything physical. I had a clear goal in mind, which was to combine the digital with the physical.

Topic 2 Interview

I interviewed my colleague, Aneesha Desai, who is a climate activist and engineer.

Q: Can you give us a quick description about who you are and the work you do?

A: I’m Aneesha, and currently I work on a team at Google that does research on climate change. We analyzes data to see where products source their materials from, and help companies to use the data to figure out how to reduce their carbon footprint. I also created an app called Planet Possible, which educates people on climate change and encourages them to take action.

Q: Can you tell us how you initially became interested in working on climate change?

A: A few years ago, I initially became conscious of my non-environment friendly habits, and started to try and offset my carbon footprint by changing my daily habits, like becoming vegan. It wasn’t until the wildfires in Australia in 2020 which made me realize that I wanted to make a bigger impact and decided to join my team at Google.

Q: What are your thoughts on the general public and their idea of climate change?

A: Typically, I see people react in three different ways. The first group are hardcore climate activists, and are very passionate and knowledgable about climate change. The second group are climate change deniers, who don’t believe climate change will impact their lives. And lastly and more commonly, I see people who are aware of climate change, but don’t know where to start making an impact. We found that about 85% of the people make up the last group. Many people care about the problem and want to take action, but lack knowledge about the topic and can’t find ways to participate in the cause. This is what led me to build my app Planet Possible, which educates people on all the industries that contribute to climate change, and gives them ways to reach out to key people to enact change.

Q: What do you think is the most effective way to motivate people to change?

A: Through building Plant Possible, we’ve found that people are most inclined to participate in a rewards-based system, where they are given rewards for their actions. We found that just providing facts and statistics on your carbon footprint does not enact change, and people need more to be motivated to change. This is why we’re pivoting the Planet Possible app to a more rewards-based platform, where people attain points when they offset their carbon footprint.

Topic 2 User Tests

User Testing 1 video

User Testing 2 video

User Testing 3 video 

The main thing I learned from the user testing was that there was a need to show people how to unsubscribe from their unwanted junk mail, so I added the tutorial after connecting the planter to guide users on how unsubscribe from a typical marketing email. Another thing I learned was that users were most likely not going to read the text on the app, so I minimized the amount of text there was on each screen. And lastly, there was feedback on equating the statistics to something relatable, for instance, comparing the amount of CO2 emitted from your inbox to miles while driving, so that people can get a better idea of their carbon footprint.

Topic 2 Final

Project

The Phytometer is a product that you can put on your desk that helps to maintain your inbox and offset your carbon footprint. The Phytometer Planter connected to your inbox, and when you receive junk mail, the UV light that keeps the plant alive is turned off. The only way to turn the light back on is to unsubscribe from the newsletters that are flooding your inbox. The main intention of the project is to encourage people to unsubscribe to the unwanted emails in their inbox. It isn’t enough to just delete them, we should unsubscribe from the lists to make sure they’re never sent. It is intended to be ironic and sarcastic, since corporations should not being sending so many email regularly. It is also looking at corporations critically who put the onus on individuals for the cause of climate change, when the biggest carbon footprint are caused by large corporations and out of our control.

Link to the Figma prototype

I-A-E

Ideas

  • Climate change is bad
  • Everyone should try to reduce their carbon footprint

Arrangements

  • Hard arrangement: people are required to use their computers/email for work and life
  • Soft arrangement: businesses target customers using a “free” and quick tool — email

Effects

  • People think sending emails are free of physical repercussions
  • People receive lots of emails a day that they ignore
  • People are unaware of the things done behind-the-scenes to send/receive email

Systems Maps

These systems maps are to look at the types of emails sent to our inboxes, and determining what are essential and what are not. This was the basis of the project, which helped me to determine that marketing emails are the most prominent type of email in my inbox, and the ones I ignore the most.

Janky Prototypes

Interview

I interviewed my colleague, Aneesha Desai, who is a climate activist and engineer.

Q: Can you give us a quick description about who you are and the work you do?

A: I’m Aneesha, and currently I work on a team at Google that does research on climate change. We analyzes data to see where products source their materials from, and help companies to use the data to figure out how to reduce their carbon footprint. I also created an app called Planet Possible, which educates people on climate change and encourages them to take action.

Q: Can you tell us how you initially became interested in working on climate change?

A: A few years ago, I initially became conscious of my non-environment friendly habits, and started to try and offset my carbon footprint by changing my daily habits, like becoming vegan. It wasn’t until the wildfires in Australia in 2020 which made me realize that I wanted to make a bigger impact and decided to join my team at Google.

Q: What are your thoughts on the general public and their idea of climate change?

A: Typically, I see people react in three different ways. The first group are hardcore climate activists, and are very passionate and knowledgable about climate change. The second group are climate change deniers, who don’t believe climate change will impact their lives. And lastly and more commonly, I see people who are aware of climate change, but don’t know where to start making an impact. We found that about 85% of the people make up the last group. Many people care about the problem and want to take action, but lack knowledge about the topic and can’t find ways to participate in the cause. This is what led me to build my app Planet Possible, which educates people on all the industries that contribute to climate change, and gives them ways to reach out to key people to enact change.

Q: What do you think is the most effective way to motivate people to change?

A: Through building Plant Possible, we’ve found that people are most inclined to participate in a rewards-based system, where they are given rewards for their actions. We found that just providing facts and statistics on your carbon footprint does not enact change, and people need more to be motivated to change. This is why we’re pivoting the Planet Possible app to a more rewards-based platform, where people attain points when they offset their carbon footprint.

UX Docs

The storyboard of the intended flow the Phytometer product.

The user flow diagram of the Phytometer app.

 

A user journey diagram for the intended audience.

User Testing

User Testing 1 video

User Testing 2 video

User Testing 3 video 

The main thing I learned from the user testing was that there was a need to show people how to unsubscribe from their unwanted junk mail, so I added the tutorial after connecting the planter to guide users on how unsubscribe from a typical marketing email. Another thing I learned was that users were most likely not going to read the text on the app, so I minimized the amount of text there was on each screen. And lastly, there was feedback on equating the statistics to something relatable, for instance, comparing the amount of CO2 emitted from your inbox to miles while driving, so that people can get a better idea of their carbon footprint.

Rubric/Goal Assessing

Totally fulfilled: My project becomes real, and helps many people reduce their junk mail. 

Somewhat fulfilled: People remember the presentation when looking at their inbox and are more conscious about what emails are sent to them.

Not fulfilled at all: My intended audience do not believe their inbox makes an impact on climate change.

How might you measure the success of your fully realized project? 

I would measure the success of my fully realized project by comparing inbox sizes before and after using the product over a long period of time. 

What are some “key performance indicators”? Indulge your wildest dreams!

In 2 years, corporations are banned from automatically subscribing users to newsletters. They are also required to make the process to unsubscribe more obvious.

Bibliography

Armstrong, Martin, and Felix Richter. “Infographic: The Carbon Footprint of ‘Thank You’ Emails.” Statista Infographics, 4 Dec. 2019, https://www.statista.com/chart/20189/the-carbon-footprint-of-thank-you-emails/.

Dirty Messages: The Unseen Carbon Footprint of Communication. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358277360_DIRTY_MESSAGES_The_Unseen_Carbon_Footprint_of_Communication.

“’Think before You Thank’.” ‘Think Before You Thank’ | OVO Energy, https://www.ovoenergy.com/ovo-newsroom/press-releases/2019/november/think-before-you-thank-if-every-brit-sent-one-less-thank-you-email-a-day-we-would-save-16433-tonnes-of-carbon-a-year-the-same-as-81152-flights-to-madrid.

“Why Your Internet Habits Are Not as Clean as You Think.” BBC Future, BBC, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200305-why-your-internet-habits-are-not-as-clean-as-you-think.

S. D. U. Mageswari, P. Suganthi and M. Meena, “Carbon Footprint of Information and Communication Technologies,” 2022 International Conference on Edge Computing and Applications (ICECAA), 2022, pp. 338-342, doi: 10.1109/ICECAA55415.2022.9936485.

Publics and Counterpublics

The art piece I chose to analyze is Reynold Reynolds’ piece, Burn. Burn is a short video piece created in 2001, which depicts an ordinary looking middle-aged couple who are casually sitting in their living room while it is on fire. The couple looks to be oblivious or unaware of the fact they are in a burning room.

This piece seems to be created for the average American citizen, based on the fact that Reynolds spent most of his life in America, and the decision to chose middle-aged actors for the piece. The living room that is on fire in the video also looks like a traditional American home in the 1980s.

Reynolds uses the actors, the setting, and the fire to create the metaphor about the obliviousness of Americans to the world around them and also possibly their own country. It could also be a metaphor for the oblivion towards how climate change is affecting the earth itself.

The artist is very clear about identifying the public as all American citizens, and is sending a clear message to them that awareness is required to save ourselves from a burning fire.

Topic 2: Systems Maps

For my topics “How email affects climate change”, I created two systems maps. The first one is to analyze the feedback loop of how emails are constantly generated. The second map is exploring the different categories of emails an average user receives and discover all the different places emails can come from.

IAE Response – Apartment hunting in NYC

This is a picture of people standing in line to view an apartment in New York City. Finding an apartment in New York City is notorious for being expensive and competitive with a lot of spoken and unspoken rules. I think the I-D-E framework would be a good way to analyze the process.

Idea:

  • People should be able to rent a place to live
  • Landlords should be able to find tenants to rent to

Arrangements:

  • Landlords have open houses for people to view their apartments
  • Landlords set the rent prices of their apartments based on the market
  • People apply to rent apartments
  • To apply, Renters need to prove their income to be 40x the listed rent, have a good credit score, prove they have savings in a bank account, pay for a security deposit upfront, and pay an application fee

Effects:

  • Limited housing options make renting an apartment competitive
  • People secretly offer over the listed rent price or more money to brokers to get a leg up on competition
  • Real estate brokers are able to add extremely expensive fees because people are desperate
  • People need to spend over their budget to afford rent because the lack of inventory drives prices up
  • Landlords are not maintaining their apartments and buildings because they know people are desperate
  • People are giving away very personal information when they submit their applications (their income, bank statements, credit history, etc.)
  • People are frequently scammed
  • Real estate brokers are very rude and demanding

An arrangement I would change is to add more rent stabilization laws so that people can have more affordable housing. I would also require landlords to always pay the brokers fees so that people aren’t scammed as often.

Topic 2: Daily Practice 2

For Day 2, I continued my illustrations for my topic, “How email affects climate change,” and drew the layout of a junk email I received today to see how long it would take to find the “Unsubscribe” button. While drawing out the layout of the email, I felt how long it look to actually reach the end, where the “Unsubscribe” button was accessible. It shows how companies want to make it as inconvenient as possible to actually unsubscribe to their emails.

Topic 2: Daily Practice #1

For my daily practice, I decided to create illustrations/infographics on my topic, “How email affects climate change”. Each day, I plan to create an illustration of all the junk email I receive for that day, and organize the information to see what patterns/conclusions are formed. For Day 1, I drew an envelope of each junk mail I received for the day and color coordinated from each sender to see a high-level overview of which company sends the most emails in one day: