To give some initial context, my interaction focuses on the broadcasting approach to the
brief. We were tasked to consider the term the nature disconnect, and how we would
approach reconnecting people and nature from the view of an interaction designer. Prior to
designing the interaction, I researched existing products, services and interactions that either
relate to the brief (nature disconnect, focusing on cameras and broadcasting), or that interest
me personally. This research allowed me to find inspiration to inform my design choices and
consider new and alternative approaches to a pre-existing problem.
One project that fascinated me was Microbial Home, created by Philips lighting as a cultural
probe. Although none of the ideas or concepts was relevant to the specific area of design I
was looking into, their far-future vision of a more eco-conscious day to day lifestyle was very
inspirational, as well as how far outside the box they were willing to think. This probe
included bioluminescent lights, a human and food waste ‘recycler’ to produce methane gas
and an evaporative cooler to store food.(https://www.dezeen.com/2011/10/29/microbial-
home-by-philips-design/ )
One of the first inspirations is Spotify. Spotify is a global music streaming platform, which
really needs no introduction or description. Spotify features a clean, minimalist interface; a
tile system perfectly compliments the music content and allows the album artwork to be on
display at all times. The main point of inspiration however is Spotify’s ‘Nature sounds’,
‘ambient sounds’ and ‘sleep’ genres, among many others. These feature collections of
Spotify-curated playlists (with names such as ‘rain sounds’ and ‘natural concentration’). I
personally use playlists like these to help with long study sessions, relaxing and occasionally
meditating.
Another inspiration is shetlandwebcams.com, a series of “the most northerly network of live webcams in the UK, located in key viewing points throughout Shetland.”. With these live webcams, anyone with an internet connection can stream video from around the small island of Shetland, such as their ‘cliff cams’, specifically placed to get good views of puffins in summer.
However useful these ambient sounds are to myself and others (some Spotify curated
playlists having as many as half a million followers), due to most of these soundtracks being
recorded in a studio, they mostly have a ‘fake’ sound. Some of the audio is looped, or
obviously composed using a computer. This is one of the reasons I approached the brief in
the way that I did, and followed this path of creating ‘genuine’ ambient nature soundscapes.
Another inspiration is the Light Phone, one of many modern ‘dumb smart phones’. These
phones only allow you to check the time, and make and receive phone calls and texts. I chose
this device specifically as inspiration as it takes an ultra-minimalist approach.
Forest is a productivity app I personally use which restricts access to your phone for an
amount of time, with a penalty if you give up. To use the app, you set a timer, planting a seed
and effectively ‘locking’ off your phone’s other apps. If you leave the Forest app, your plant
will die, but if you leave your phone for that amount of time, it grows into a tree that is added
to your forest. You can share your forest and compete with friends too, if you want.
Pause is a mindfulness app that I use that combines ambient nature and white noise sounds
and a simple physical mindfulness exercise. This app does not have a connection to the
environment, but it has a very simple, colourful and pleasing graphic design and is effective
at stress relief.
Noisli is another app and website I use, where you can tailor your own nature sounds by
turning on and adjusting the volume of different sound tracks. This allows you to create your
ideal concentration soundscape.
Another inspiration for this project was our class visit to Tentsmuir Forest. Although more
than anything it was a very enjoyable experience spending a day with my friends and course
mates, walking through the forest all day, it also gave me a lot of thoughts, inspiration and
context for the work within the module. The Tentmsuir visit was intended mainly for the first
half of this module – working on three design boards, each from the approach of an
interaction, product and interior designer respectively – however I still found it very
beneficial for the entire module. I recorded some audio on my phone while I was there, which
I used for my app prototype.
Below are some of the photos from Tentmuir that I used throughout this project.
