PEIR - Personal Environmental Impact Report
The Story
The Groop recently collaborated with PEIR - Personal Environmental Impact Report - which is a Nokia-sponsored research group at UCLA. We were tasked with creating an interactive touchscreen demonstration of their product for Wired's NextFest, the premier global exhibition of emerging sustainable technologies.
PEIR is an online tool that allows you to use your mobile phone's GPS capabilities to explore and share how you impact the environment and how the environment impacts you. Your daily location data is merged with PEIR's environmental models to calculate your pollution exposure and impact levels. The Groop's challenge was to showcase this complex technology in an engaging and user friendly design utilizing two 65 inch vertical touchscreen displays.
The Results
The Groop began by creating an dynamic user narrative based on how a typical user will interact with the PEIR platform. This design technique allowed The Groop to tell the story of PEIR's many features and showcase its social impact and potential instead of merely describing its functionality. This strategy led to a design that relies heavily on user interaction and exploration to reveal the rich opportunities of PEIR.
The Groop's experience in emerging media and kiosk interaction design enabled PIER to attain very positive reviews, interest and exposure at NextFest. Additionally, to set PIER up for success after our engagement, The Groop created an in-depth style guide to inform the design of the PEIR website as they refine and bring their product to to market.