Local Technologies Catalogue
For climate action For climate action
Roles:
User Researcher
UX Designer
Developer
Part of a research project, the Catalogue of Local Technologies for Climate Action sistematizes over 50 rural grassroots innovations from multiple Chilean communities.
Local Technologies Catalogue
Date
December 2020 - December 2021
The Pitch
This website is a platform that collects and shares several artefacts, strategies or community practices to mitigate socioenvironmental problems. Its objective is to be a tool to spread concrete ideas and actions from the communities in order to fight climate change.
Technologies Used
Django, MySQL, HTML5 Web Share API.
Team
Tomás Aritzía, Aline Bravo, Ignacio Núñez, Alen Lauzán, Josefa Méndez, Pedro Poblete Lasserre.
Funding
This project is funded through the Millenium Scientific Initiative, FONDECYT, and University Diego Portales.
The Process
Finding the Design: December 2020 - January 2021
When I was first approached, the team didn't have a clear understanding of what the Catalogue should've been, and what it needed to do, so I proposed to carry out some design exercises to define scope based on all information they've collected regarding the users.
I facilitated four remote workshops using an online collaborative whiteboard and the basic principles of Human-Centred design: 1. Users and Stakeholders; 2. User Journeys; 3. Requirements; and 4. Prioritization.
Prototyping: February 2021
Three high-fidelity "broad and shallow" prototypes were created and presented for the team to evaluate and validate. Core functionalities were shown and visual design ideas that made it to the final version of the Catalogue were raised here. Prototypes were created using Adobe XD.
Simultaneous to all the design work, the team was visiting communities and collecting and systematizing technologies. An alliance with Fundación Superación Pobreza, a Chilean NGO, for them to function as local partners for the project.
Development: March 2021 - December 2021
With the final feedback round from the prototypes, development work started. Graphic designer Josefa Méndez joined the team and designed the visual language of the website. Illustrator Alan Lauzán was commission to create a drawing for each of the technologies.
The website was built using Django Framework, using MySQL as database system. Django Admin was deemed robust enough for backend administration.
All in all, there's not much to say about the development process: it is a very standard Django project. The long time in development related to the delays in content, rather than the complexity of the task.
The Impact
The website launched at the end of December, and it has been recognized as a success by the team. The website receives a healthy number of visitors every month, and further funding opportunities are currently being secure to expand to other territories and add new functionalities (e.g. transform into a fully fledged PWA that can be installed in the user's mobile phones).