myCoral
The Ocean Agency x Adobe Creative Jam | Remote
Educating users on ocean health and promoting climate action through a pledge for ocean protection.
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TIMELINE
3 Weeks
April 2020 |
OUTCOME
We made it to the finals of the Adobe Creative Jam competition and got to present this prototype in front of judges, sponsors and fellow competitors! Carol and I collaborated remotely throughout the creative jam to conduct research and create wireframes, user flows, personas, and the visual design. Over the course of the two weeks, we collaborated on Adobe XD to create the design and interactions, while syncing up everyday to review progress.
myCoral is a mobile experience that allows users to adopt their own coral and pledge for ocean protection, all while learning about corals and their role in the marine ecosystem. Altogether, this experience aims to unite people from across the globe to celebrate a community of ocean protection enthusiasts.
myCoral is a mobile experience that allows users to adopt their own coral and pledge for ocean protection, all while learning about corals and their role in the marine ecosystem. Altogether, this experience aims to unite people from across the globe to celebrate a community of ocean protection enthusiasts.
SPONSORS
As a part of this competition, these are the organizations that sponsored the event and that we collaborated with to develop this prototype.
The Process
From research, ideation, wire-framing, designing, to prototyping, here's the end-to-end design process my team followed.
Problem Discovery
Surveys show that billions of people worldwide support greater environmental action such as combating climate change and protecting the ocean.
- Five billion people globally support greater climate action alone
- This support for action is however hidden from view and it isn’t inspiring the policy, funding, and action that it could be
- Revealing this support is critically important since businesses and governments respond to popular support far more than pressure from environmental groups
THE OCEAN AGENCY
First, we learned about current climate action problems that affect ocean health from The Ocean Agency. The Ocean Agency is a nonprofit that uses creativity, technology and powerful partnerships to accelerate ocean conservation action. For this challenge, they partnered with Adobe, Pantone, and UN Environment Programme to initiate a global campaign using creativity and technology to accelerate ocean protection and climate action over the coming year.
The Ocean Agency also created an Emmy award-winning Netflix documentary in 2019 called Chasing Coral, which brings awareness to the ongoing global coral reef crisis. We found this documentary to be extremely insightful and inspiring for our project, and we learned a lot about coral bleaching and the impacts of climate change on the world's reefs.
The Ocean Agency also created an Emmy award-winning Netflix documentary in 2019 called Chasing Coral, which brings awareness to the ongoing global coral reef crisis. We found this documentary to be extremely insightful and inspiring for our project, and we learned a lot about coral bleaching and the impacts of climate change on the world's reefs.
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GLOWING GLOWING GONE CAMPAIGN
In a desperate attempt to survive increasing ocean heat waves due to climate change, some corals glow in vibrant colour. The corals produce brightly coloured chemicals in their flesh that act as a sunscreen. It is one of the most disturbingly spectacular sights in nature. This inspired the Glowing Glowing Gone campaign which is a global campaign that uses colour and creativity to accelerate climate and conservation action.
Learn more about the Glowing Glowing Gone Campaign
Learn more about the Glowing Glowing Gone Campaign
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Research
When researching current ocean protection goals and initiatives, The Paris Climate Agreement was found to be very relevant. The Paris Climate Agreement is a landmark environmental agreement that was adopted by nearly every nation in 2015 to combat climate change and move towards a sustainable low carbon future. The Paris Agreement’s main aims are:
- To reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to limit the global temperature increase in this century to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, while pursuing means to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees.
- To become carbon-neutral by no later than 2050.
After researching initiatives such as the Paris Climate Agreement, we decided to conduct interviews with our peers on areas including:
- How people currently sign pledges
- Their experience using Adobe Sign
- How people are involved with current climate action initiatives
- How people react initiatives on social platforms
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Envision a mobile solution that could enable people around the world to show their support for ocean protection and climate action.
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Ideation
We considered what social platforms or websites users will encounter the mobile experience, and if that would be all within one social platform or through multiple channels. As a part of our ideation process, we also had to ask ourselves what or who the motivating factors and influencers are, and what part they play in the campaign or social promotion.
BRAINSTORMING
First, we began by asking ourselves: Where do users typically learn about these issues, what motivates them to invest time into learning more, and how do they usually take action or show their support? This allowed us to understand the user journey of how teenagers and young adults receive, process, and take action on societal or environmental issues.
USER FLOW DIAGRAM
We build a user flow diagram that would help us create a narrative for our user. We mapped out the user's flow through the mobile experience, from discovering it on Instagram, adopting the coral, singing the pledge with Adobe Sign, and finally Photoshop Camera to make it their own. Based on the flow chart, we created wireframes, mockups and later the working prototype in Adobe XD.
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WIREFRAMING
Based on the flow chart, we created wireframes, mockups and later the working prototype in Adobe XD.
Visual Design
The short experience we envisioned would require compelling visuals to succinctly get the message across. By using real imagery and abstracting it to the point that it is still recognizable and yet not distracting we created assets that we could later put together and play around with in the prototype. With all the assets finished we had to create our prototype and put everything together, in Adobe XD.
Our visual design reflects the fun and engaging ways that people around the world can get involved with ocean protection and climate action. We imagined the impact if even just a fraction of the 5 billion climate change and ocean protection supporters, could stand up and be recognized.
Our visual design reflects the fun and engaging ways that people around the world can get involved with ocean protection and climate action. We imagined the impact if even just a fraction of the 5 billion climate change and ocean protection supporters, could stand up and be recognized.
Introducing the myCoral Mobile Experience
Find the full Adobe XD prototype here.
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A stimulating learning experience
The myCoral mobile experience starts out with an engaging learning experience that introduces users to coral reefs, their role in the marine ecosystem, and the result of rising ocean temperatures on corals.
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An interactive coral region map
After being led through a learning experience, users begin adopting their coral. Users select a coral reef region where they would like to adopt their coral from - from the Hawaiian coral reefs to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
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Select a coral type and learn more
Users can then choose the type of coral they wish to adopt, from a selection of corals in their chosen region. Users learn more about each coral species and their scientific names through an interactive slider.
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Name your coral and sign the pledge
Users can name their coral through a fun interaction, then proceed to sign the pledge to support ocean protection alongside The Ocean Agency. This pledge will serve as a global campaign to accelerate climate and conservation action.
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Add a filter with your coral on Adobe Photoshop and share
After adopting a coral, users can browse through customized filters in Adobe Photoshop, and take photos with their new virtual coral. Sharing these coral photos and selfies on social media enable people around the world to show their support for ocean protection and climate action.
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Reflection
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The openness of the prompt
The prompt we were given for this two week designathon was very open ended and ambiguous: "How do we inspire ocean protection and climate action?" This lead to a very interesting ideation process, where I learnt that it is important to keep your options open while you’re exploring, and to embrace the ambiguity of the prompt.
Designing for a campaign
This project helped me also learn about the importance of user engagement through social media. This mobile experience is centered around a social media campaign, therefore my team had to consider the factors that go into the success of a campaign, such as social media activity, awareness, and conversion rate optimization.
The prompt we were given for this two week designathon was very open ended and ambiguous: "How do we inspire ocean protection and climate action?" This lead to a very interesting ideation process, where I learnt that it is important to keep your options open while you’re exploring, and to embrace the ambiguity of the prompt.
Designing for a campaign
This project helped me also learn about the importance of user engagement through social media. This mobile experience is centered around a social media campaign, therefore my team had to consider the factors that go into the success of a campaign, such as social media activity, awareness, and conversion rate optimization.
WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENTLY?
I would love to do more in-depth research on social media campaigns and how they succeed, especially with campaigns run by non-profit organizations like The Ocean Agency and The World Wildlife Fund. This would help me make more informed design decisions when designing this mobile experience campaign, and work with more realistic constraints.
