Interaction - Bachelors

#JOIN THE DINNER PARTY

#JOIN THE DINNER PARTY is an interactive ‘manifesto’ micro-website for a speculative digital climate movement of the same name. Born out of recognising a global need for collective action and solidarity in the face of climate change, it provides a scalable platform to educate, inform and visualise a movement. Synthesizing a confronting and overwhelming topic into a digestible rhythmic dialogue, mimicking the power and passion of a call-to-action speech. At the heart of it, inspiring hope and redefining collective action, as it deserves to be celebrated. It’s a dinner party, after all.

Kiara Fourie

Laptop Mock-up of website page stating "# Join the Diner Party"

CONCEPT

The concept was born out of recognizing a global need for a population-wide transition towards a climate-friendly diet and how digital interventions could enable this due to their worldwide scalability. The digital interaction provides a globally-scalable and engaging platform to inform, educate and visualise a speculative movement of the same name.

The magnitude and rapidity of these potential effects should place [a population-wide diet transition] at the forefront of strategies for averting disastrous climate change.

DR PAtriCK o. BROWN and michael b. eisen, stanford university 2022
Laptop Mock-up of website page stating "We're facing a global emergency"

OPPORTUNITY

Our climate is already changing and all of us will be affected. At a time when we seem more polarised than ever, it’s never been more important to come together. In global support for what’s already ahead and in population-wide behaviour change to mitigate the worst of it while we still can.

However, with climate anxiety, compassion fatigue and misinformation overwhelming us before we even try, #JOIN THE DINNER PARTY aims to provide an uplifting, desirable and action-forward alternative; combatting the stigma surrounding climate activism.

The ultimate goal is collective action to enable population-wide and sustained improvements to the way we eat, and how we feel and think about food

Mingay et al, 2021
Laptop Mock-up of website page stating "Welcome, we're starting a movement for climate change"

AIM

Broadcasting our global collective strength by showcasing a selection of speculative participants’ stories from around the world; randomized every reload. Further, using repetition and animated text to synthesize this complex topic into a digestible rhythmic dialogue.

At the heart of it, instilling hope and empowering users to come together in a movement redefining and celebrating climate action. Because global solidarity in the face of this global emergency deserves to be celebrated.

PROJECT STILLS

EXPERIENCE SUMMARY

Name
USER TESTING REPORT
File Type
application
File Size
3 MB
Download File

Users are invited to explore predominantly through scrolling, an intuitive website interaction method, however, the output differentiates from most websites. Foremost, the content does not flow vertically and statically. Rather, it combines horizontal scrolling and subtle animations to engage users in a rhythmic dialogue. Using repetition, changing text and complementary visuals to digitally mimic a powerful call-to-action speech, and the passion it ignites.

As a complex and information-dense topic, that can feel laborious in itself to engage with, the seamless and straightforward interaction of simply scrolling reduces the cognitive strain required to navigate through the content. However, users are still engaged by being responsible to move the interaction forward, with the freedom of scrolling at their own pace, or using the navigation bar to skip to content. Engagement is further supported through interactable polaroids, flying parallax across the page and responding to mouse location.

Further, users are able to customize their user journey. By default, the content has been simplified to its core essentials, accommodating for the limited attention spans webpages receive. However, users who are captivated are given the option to engage with the content more deeply through optional click interactions.

DESIGN PROCESS

Name
PROJECT PITCH
File Type
application
File Size
2 MB
Download File

Kiara Fourie

With a passion for environmental and humanitarian causes, Kiara is an Interaction Design Student enthralled with design’s ability to transform the world. Captivated by speculative, human-centred and eco-feminist approaches, she prides herself on her research-driven and critically reflective creative practice. Aspiring to design innovative avenues to target the multi-faceted and intersectional injustices globally faced.