Urban Nature Indexes
The IUCN Urban Nature Indexes (UNI) are science-based targets developed to help cities understand their impact on nature
Introduction
UNI was developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a blueprint for cities around the world to be more environmentally conscious by understand their impact on natural resources.
The Urban Nature Indexes (UNI) comprises of a set of 30 indicators nested across 6 themes set by science-based measured targets for improvement to monitor progress over time. The intention is to enhance environmental transparency and accountability in a goal-setting manner, the UNI aims to encourage local action for nature.
Problem statement
Design a user-centred solution that simplifies and visualises the UNI framework. The intention is to encourage transparency and accountability by promoting action for cities to measure their environmental impact, set goals for improvement and monitor change over time.
Business objectives
Our team met with the client regularly to understand the measure of success for the organisation (IUCN) had in mind. We learned they intend to promote widespread adoption by driving local environmental action and creating a sustainable and scalable platform. Below are the essential goals while the image underneath the goals shows how our team would incorporate these goals into the designs
Widespread adoption
Ensure that cities around the world adopt the UNI framework into their environmental policies
Drive Local action for nature
Enable cities to set actionable environmental goals and track progress over time, leading to tangible improvements in natural resources management and sustainability efforts
Enhance environmental accountability and transparency
Increase transparency by ensuring the UNI indicators and metrics are easier to understand
Simplify data interpretation and decision-making
Help cities make informed data-driven decisions by turning complex environmental data into easily digestible visuals and reports
Retention and sustainability
Ensure continuous platform use by providing long-term value through progress tracking and achievable goals
Project objectives
This set of objectives expands on the business objectives by interpreting them through the lens of how users will interact with the tool to understand further how the designs would address the business goals set by the clients and understand the users' perception.
Flexible
Flexible design provides for different city capacities and local contexts
Customisable
Comprehensive themes focus on outcomes for biodiversity conservation at local, regional and global scales and account for socio-ecological interlinkages
Reliability
Science-based development and indicator section, particular to the urban context
Trends & Targets
Improvement-oriented scoring captures trends over time rather than a single target
Supportive
Collaborative approach harnesses existing tools and standards whenever possible
User types
The user types assembled below were based on clients' understanding of their target audience. Given the nature of how this project came about with strict regulations for the participating cities and their involvement in the UNI framework, our team was involved at the last minute but we took the clients’ knowledge and formulated the user archetypes to base the design decision on.
“A world in which nature thrives in cities, delivering solutions to multiple environmental, social and economic challenges.”
Local government biodiversity officers
Anticipated to input data on their cities’ ecological performance and targets towards the UNI framework. They will require guidance on how to implement, calculate and upload the indicator results and targets. They will expect a list of actions that can be taken to improve the ecological performance in their cities
Urban planners & practitioners
Refers to individuals who are interested in the outcome, performance and progress made by participating cities. They are expected to visit the platform to view and compare the indicators, targets and trends of participating cities. They will require a simple overview of a given city’s ecological performance which includes metrics like economic impact, infrastructure improvements environmental sustainability and social development
NGOs & Academia
This user type is diverse, they include NGOs, international analysts and researchers engaged with the global biodiversity and conservation efforts being made by participating cities
Sitemap
Below is a sitemap that maps out the initial user journey that the main user types will take which includes considerations for the admin who is responsible for checking for accuracy in data submitted by the participating cities. The second user journey supports the city environmental officials who will input their data to be verified by the admin for the general public view
Sketched wireframes
With the tight deadline leading to COP15, the design team was cut relatively short to meet the time advocates for the UNI framework. There was no time to create digital wireframes. Design exploration was carried out on paper to ensure features had a high consideration for user needs and how they can help them achieve their goals
Introducting to the UNI frameworks
The screens below are the main anchor points to the value the UNI framework contends to its users. The home page briefly introduces the purpose of UNI followed by UI cards that announce the 6 themes that formulate the UNI framework
The city page is accompanied by a global map that pinpoints participating cities. The search bar effectively allows the user to search for a city of interest
The indicator page is where the 6 themes are broken down into 5 indicators that can be selected for more information. The toggle banner helped with navigation for better access to the rest of the themes
An intuitive way of assessing a city’s capacity against the indicators
A standardised scoring system was used to assign capacity for a participating city based on the resources available to them to provide better guidance for environmental improvements. The user journey went as follows:
Determine the participating city capacity level via a short questionnaire
Select 1-5 indicators from the 6 themes depending on the city’s capacity
Record results and achievements on the UNI platform and track progress over time
The current state of the city’s environmental performance towards the indicators
Visual representation of the data summited by participating cities is reflected through graphs, charts and images to narrate a historical record of change to determine the impact the UNI framework
Relationship between city officials and IUCN admin assessing their contribution towards the UNI framework indicators
The participating cities manage their data over the years via a dashboard. Colour is used to provide guidance to any progress made towards the data they’ve summited to the admin
The role of the admin comes in when the participating cities have submitted their data. Part of their responsibility is to ensure the calculations are accurate, to request missing data and to provide feedback before giving the final approval for the data to be shared publicly
