Year
2023
Student
Anna  Snuparkova
Project
Brownfield what? A Gamified Service for Raising Awareness about Brownfields in Czechia
Tagged
brownfields, context of experience, human-centred approach, product design, service design
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Czechia, with a population of 12 million, is only about a quarter of Norway's size, which has 5.5 million inhabitants. Having lived in both places, I can attest that Czechia feels much more crowded, with towns and cities often blending into each other, and unfortunately, there isn't much wilderness left. In fact, there are 118.1 more people per square kilometer in Czechia compared to Norway. Despite this, there are still around 3600 mapped-out brownfield sites identified by CzechInvest, and it is believed that the actual number of such abandoned locations is twice as high.

Given the context there should be a growing demand in Czech society for preserving Greenfields due to the shortage of free land as land recycling is one of the most sustainable approaches to development. Apparently there are some changes in the general attitude, however the demand for
brownfields as locations for new development is still far too low. This is where the focus of the master project lies, exploring how product designers can contribute to transforming the current Brownfield situation in the country.

To answer the question, service design approach and the design thinking framework was used to outline the crucial stages of the design process. The research stage involved various design methods, such as literature-based reviews, semi-structured interviews, and online surveys. For the Ideate and Prototype stages, the Service design appriaches and Context of Experience
methodology was used, combined with the Levels of Activation, Cialdini's Persuasion Principles, and Product Attachment strategies, as well as gamification approaches.

During the research stage, several areas were identified where designers could make a meaningful contribution. After careful evaluation, one of these areas was chosen to serve as the starting point
for the product development efforts in the prototype stage. The goal was to create a product that would raise awareness about the issue of Brownfields among the general public, with the belief that spreading knowledge about this issue could help drive positive change in the current situation.

The product was designed using digital tools, such as the Affinity package and Miro board for thinking maps and the final conceptual solution offered by this master project is a service.

The product is a game that uses an already popular app called mapy.cz as its foundation. This app has a wide reach throughout Czechia and is popular among people of all ages, which is considered a crucial aspect in achieving the desired goal. The product targets active people and parents with children as its user groups. The main idea behind the game is that by playing it, users can slowly learn about the brownfield problematics and ideally become motivated to take action based on the knowledge gained.