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
Corey Nelson
Layoffs
2022 • Advancing Research Community
Alana Washington
Theme 3 Intro
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Bram Wessel
Enterprise Information Architecture
2020 • Enterprise Community
Uday Gajendar
10 Years of Enterprise UX: Reflecting on the community and the practice
2025 • Enterprise Community
Heidi Trost
To Protect People, You Have to Protect Information: A Human-Centered Design Approach to Cybersecurity
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Peter Van Dijck
Designing AI-first products on top of a rapidly evolving technology
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Peter Merholz
Customer-Centered Design Organizations
2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Gold
Jorge Arango
Exploding the Notebook: How to Unlock the Power of Linked Notes (2nd of 3 seminars)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Llewyn Paine
Day 1 Using AI in UX with Impact
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Ilana Lipsett
Anticipating Risk, Regulating Tech: A Playbook for Ethical Technology Governance
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Darian Davis
Lessons from a Toxic Work Relationship
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Kit Unger
Theme 1 Intro
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Peter Merholz
The Mysterious Case of the Missing UX Career Path
2022 • DesignOps Community
Kate Stern
Scaling Learning for the Future
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Kelly Goto
Emotion Economy: Ethnography as Corporate Strategy
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2024 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold

More Videos

Bria Alexander

"Adjust your conference time zone setting depending on where you are to avoid confusion."

Bria Alexander

Opening Remarks

November 18, 2022

Ted Booth

"Radical innovation isn’t the main form of change; the main form is connections, like open APIs with massive downstream effects."

Ted Booth Sam Ladner Fredrik Matheson Russ Unger

Discussion

June 8, 2016

Alla Weinberg

"Mental health challenges are now the norm among employees across all organizational roles."

Alla Weinberg

Workers Are Sick of Change: The Cure is Psychological Safety

June 6, 2023

Julie Gitlin

"Ruthless prioritization is really the outcome of conversations that helped me focus on where I can make the most impact."

Julie Gitlin Esther Raice

Design as an Agent of Digital Transformation at JPMC

June 9, 2021

Victor Udoewa

"Community members are always participating and always leading, and they may invite professional researchers up to equal participation and equitable co-leadership."

Victor Udoewa

Radical Participatory Research: Decolonizing Participatory Processes

March 9, 2022

Christian Crumlish

"I feel a lot of pain and anxiety in the community people wondering, you know is our seat at the table slipping away."

Christian Crumlish

Introduction by our Conference Chair

December 6, 2022

Bria Alexander

"We want you to feel included and be able to take advantage of the awesome content and speaker efforts."

Bria Alexander

Day 2 Welcome

September 24, 2024

Simon Wardley

"If I don’t have a map, I can’t see the landscape, I can’t see the patterns impacting it, and I’m left only with purpose and blind action."

Simon Wardley

Maps and Topographical Intelligence

January 31, 2019

Sarah Auslander

"Thousands of parents came with their children to play in the pop-up urban play space downtown."

Sarah Auslander

Incremental Steps to Drive Radical Innovation in Policy Design

November 18, 2022