Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

Bridging Design and Climate Science
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 • Climate UX Interest Group
Share the love for this talk
Bridging Design and Climate Science
Speakers: Victor Lombardi , Ted Booth , HK Dunston and Andrew Otwell
Link:

Summary

The third in a series of discussions centered around Climate UX. To make an impact on the climate, many different audiences will need to understand and use climate science. But the science is complex and evolving rapidly. How might we best approach it as translators and facilitators? Through case studies and discussion you’ll learn how four designers are doing this today. Panelists: Ted Booth, HK Dunston, Andrew Otwell; Moderated by: Victor Lombardi  

Key Insights

  • Climate UX involves translating highly complex and evolving scientific data into usable, understandable formats tailored to different audiences like journalists, scientists, and consumers.

  • Victor Lombardi’s Climate Shift Index uses real-time algorithms to model climate change attribution for weather events, making attribution science accessible for daily media use.

  • Scientists strongly prefer literal, detailed representations of data over metaphorical or simplified visuals, as abstraction can cause mistrust and suspicion.

  • Designing for scientists requires embracing their mental models—frequently based on Excel-like grids and ‘clunky’ graphs—instead of pushing novel visualizations.

  • Ted Booth’s startup uses ambient sensing (monitoring the environment rather than equipment directly) combined with AI to predict HVAC system efficiency and maintenance needs.

  • Invention in climate tech often involves creating new units of measure and visualization approaches, like degrees Fahrenheit per hour to represent HVAC performance.

  • HK emphasizes the role of culture, art, and storytelling alongside science to interpret and react to climate change, as science alone cannot guide human response.

  • Learning to design in scientific domains often requires humility, asking many questions, and grappling with unfamiliar foundational knowledge rather than relying on metaphor.

  • Science prioritizes avoiding false positives (identifying phenomena that don’t exist) over missing some phenomena, which influences how risk and catastrophe are communicated.

  • Designers can provide cultural cover or guardrails that enable scientists to communicate nuanced and complex findings to broader audiences effectively.

Notable Quotes

"The maps lose scientific accuracy but gain understanding by simplifying complex data into color keys that people interpret quickly."

"Scientists want to understand how things work at the bottom level of detail; they don’t want metaphors or abstractions that feel like black boxing."

"In science, it’s better to miss a phenomenon than to misidentify one that doesn’t really exist."

"Excel is the mental model of the scientific research world—a two-dimensional grid of literal data."

"Sometimes you just have to plant a flag and say this is what we can do, even if the math and boundaries are complicated."

"Climate is not operating in geologic time anymore—we face radical, rapid changes unlike past eras."

"For scientists, the cost of being wrong is very high, while designers iterate constantly, embracing failure as part of the process."

"Designers bring a unique cultural perspective to multidisciplinary scientific teams, helping interpret and communicate complex data."

"There is a romance and incredible creativity in data visualization, but sometimes simpler is better, letting the data speak for itself."

"Learning scientific domain knowledge requires humility—being willing to say ‘I don’t get it, can you explain differently?’ and asking dumb questions."

Ask the Rosenbot
Mackenzie Cockram
Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Research from Discovery to Live
2022 • QuantQual Interest Group
Sam Proulx
Accessibility: An Opportunity to Innovate
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Ryan Matthew
Bridging Design and Code: AI-Powered Design System Integration
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Marc Fonteijn
Increase your confidence, influence, and impact (through a Professional Community)
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Dianne Que
Real Talk: Proving Value through a Scrappy Playbook
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Johanna Kollmann
Insights-Driven Product Strategy: Get your Research to Count
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Nick Cochran
Growing in Enterprise Design through Making Connections
2019 • Enterprise Community
John Calhoun
Meters, Miles, and Madness: New Frameworks to Measure the (Elusive) Value of DesignOps
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Christopher Taylor Edwards
Design as a Team Practice, A Practical Guide to Cross-functional Collaboration
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Juhan Sonin
Design Now! The Agenda for Action
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Bilan Hashi
The Tension Between Story Collecting and Story Telling in Research
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Daniel J. Rosenberg
Designing with and for Artificial Intelligence
2022 • Enterprise Community
Kevin Bethune
Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Kayla Farrell
What It's Like To Be a User Researcher at Compass
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Laura Klein
Unique challenges of innovation in enterprises
2020 • Enterprise Community
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold

More Videos

Nalini Kotamraju

"Research operations is the spine of any successful research and insights group."

Nalini Kotamraju

Research After UX

March 25, 2024

Dean Broadley

"If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together."

Dean Broadley

Not Black Enough to be White

January 8, 2024

Denise Jacobs

"When we start changing our behavior, we start changing the voices and behavior around us."

Denise Jacobs Nancy Douyon Renee Reid Lisa Welchman

Interactive Keynote: Social Change by Design

January 8, 2024

Kim Fellman Cohen

"If you don’t have the support you need—budget, time, people—your program is at high risk of failure."

Kim Fellman Cohen

Measuring the Designer Experience

October 23, 2019

George Aye

"Saying no shouldn’t be about being difficult but about accountability beyond any one person."

George Aye

That Quiet Little Voice: When Design and Ethics Collide

November 16, 2022

Nathan Curtis

"Short-term pairings with different design people help bring back contributions into the central system."

Nathan Curtis

Beyond the Toolkit: Spreading a System Across People & Products

June 9, 2016

Greg Petroff

"We want to know agents better than they know themselves to drive tailored, contextually relevant solutions."

Greg Petroff

The Compass Mission

March 10, 2021

Chloe Amos-Edkins

"We have this collective superpower navigating the breadth and depth of human experience across cultures."

Chloe Amos-Edkins

A Cultural Approach: Research in the Context of Glocalisation

March 27, 2023

Mackenzie Cockram

"Agile can feel like a cult, but the data helps show it’s working and not just a belief system."

Mackenzie Cockram Sara Branco Cunha Ian Franklin

Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Research from Discovery to Live

December 16, 2022