Terrari-Tim

How a little terrarium can transform a big world.

Team: Roz Hillenbrand, Nathan Keyes, and Michelle Gao

Methods: Research, Prototyping, Design

Duration: 4 Days

Challenge: During this 4-day design challenge sprint, we were tasked to explore ways of using technology to think about harmonious cohabitation between human and nonhuman agents. As three students of the University of Washington at Seattle Master of Human-Computer Interaction and Design program, this project was presented to us during a pre-school week-long Immersion Studio course that allowed us to review the entire design lifecycle in a fast-paced introductory environment.

Formative Discovery:

To kick-off this project, we launched into our research consisting of primary research augmented by secondary research we were able to cohesively synthesize into 4 primary finding groups. As a group, we come from a variety of educational and professional backgrounds giving us the working knowledge needed to draw on a wide range of resources and participants for generative data collection needed to shape our project direction. When we first began narrowing our research scope, I had envisioned using this opportunity to go bold with monumental blue sky concepts.

Primary: We interviewed two individuals who have lived in a variety of locations throughout the United States that we’re able to provide unique insights and allowed us to reframe our perspectives and goals with this project.

Secondary: With our secondary research, largely consisting of a literature review, we concentrated on identifying sources and answers to a few of our key questions to drive our findings. The areas we reviewed were urban infrastructure, lifestyle, and constraints.

Together our findings allowed us to gain a better understanding of the field and scope we were looking to design around. This led us to our four research insights.

Research Insights:

• As you move away from the city center, public utilities and infrastructure receive less routine maintenance and care.
• Existing infrastructure the United States is reaching or has already gone beyond, it’s intended lift span disproportionately negatively affecting older urban areas.
• The general public has a limited understanding of sustainability practices due to a lack of education.
• Green amenities in urban spaces can offer habitat to 90+ species while improving local ecosystems and air quality.

Ideation:

From our insights and questions, we had defined three questions to answer through our ideation sessions and concept brainstorming.

• How might we encourage an individual to engage with interstitial spaces through sustainability?
• How might we teach local communities about their natural environments?
• How might we shift the perspective and infrastructure from the idea that we guide and manipulate nature, to nature guiding us through education and sustainable practices?

From the 3 concept questions, we selected the primary direction of our sprint with this question in mind: How might we shift the perspective regarding the design of infrastructure from one that dominates nature to one that is guided by nature and native species where the building is taking place, relying on sustainable practices.

Prototypes: Our prototype was a combination of physical, digital, and experiential designs that allowed us to test possible story flow, use cases, and hiccups that potential users may encounter.

Design Solution:

Through our iterations and concept development, decided on a 3 part solution.

A terrarium that is placed in specific neighborhoods. This is a protected terrarium that can mimic the native elements of the environment in the neighborhood.

Using an interactive plaque linking to a website through a QR code is an educational and engagement platform that provides information about the plants and the neighborhood along with a live stream of ‘Terrari-Tim’ to view the terrarium even if you’re not in front of it.

The final part of our concept is a community-building interaction that when the terrarium has filled its space, the members who have kept informed on Tim will be invited to a ‘T-day’ in which they are given the opportunity to take a trimming from Tim along with a specifically designed grow kit and access to a new feature of the site made up exclusively of members who received a trimming from that session.

This three-part design solution addresses our scope and identified needs for harmonious cohabitation between human and non-human agents.

Reflection:

Moving Forward:

For this project, we identified 3 next steps that would take this concept forward.

• Develop, design, and iterate for physical prototypes of the terrarium
• Identify and begin discussions with local organizations to partner with for implementation
• Define our digital interaction space with additional user testing

Key Takeaways:

Throughout the week, lessons were learned and we left looking forward to our MHCI+D program.

• Conceptual and service prototyping is quite challenging
• Rapid sketching is an important tool for getting ideas across to others quickly
• Working with an equally committed team provides an exciting learning opportunity through this project and throughout this upcoming year.