Eco-Discovery Maps of Shenzhen

The development of Shenzhen, from a cluster of fishing villages into a global center of technology and international trade, has been a fascinating case of rapid urbanization. Disguised by modern architecture, it is easy to overlook the fact that Shenzhen still provides important ecological value as the green corridor that connects Southern Mainland to Hong Kong. It is still the home to many indigenous species, and also the resting place for many endangered migratory birds.

That why I was very excited when we were invited by the Shenzhen Foundation for International Exchange and Cooperation (SFIEC), a non-profit organization, to design a series of interactive maps to help the citizens of Shenzhen to rediscover and reconnect with local ecology and the changes in its natural history.

In the beginning of the design process, we identified at least two main challenges with this project. First, we believed the maps had to provide new experiences for people who are already familiar with the parks and natural reserves in the city. And secondly, IFSEC has a special interest in helping the expat community to integrate to Shenzhen, therefore the final product had to provide an inclusive appeal to locals and the expats alike.

We decided to approach the project in a co-creative way. Our initial step was to form alliances with the management teams of a number of notable parks and conservation projects in the city, from which we learned about unique features and must-see species on each site. One example is the black-faced spoonbill, an endangered migratory bird that rests in just a few spots in Shenzhen each winter on route to Vietnam.

Next, we conducted in-depth interviews with a number of citizens of Shenzhen, local and expat, to understand their ideas and expectations with connecting with nature in their city. Although differing in many ways, this diverse group of Shenzheners also shared many similarities. First, they generally had a dislike for the apparent sense of control and "man-madeness" of city parks and believed nature should be explored with an element of serendipity. Secondly, they believe the most memorable experiences with nature involve learning new facts about ecology and natural history. And lastly, they share concerns for environmental issues and wish to advocate for more sustainable human practices.

With these understandings, we decided to design the maps to provide a off-the-main-road discovery and learning experience. Users begin their journey by picking up the physical map at the park entrance, and they are immediately presented with the anticipation of a "star species" and must-see features. They then follow the map and stop at marked spots to engage in fun and intellectually challenging tasks. For example, a task may be to the find white secretions on mangrove leaves and guess what they are (salt, if you are interested). Another task is to guess why one would not find any black-faced spoonbill eggs in Shenzhen (the birds do not breed there). These tasks are delivered interactively through Wechat by entering codes presented on the maps.

In the end, the entire bilingual map system consisted of one city wide map featuring 12 notable nature discovery sites, as well as 5 smaller site-specific maps with complementary digital interactions. For each of the 5 sites we decided to go in depth, we have also included a related message for environmental protection on the back of the map, to use as a selfies prop, as a part of the effort to generate more conversation in these topics.

These maps will be available in the parks and various other locations in Shenzhen by winter of 2019.

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This project was a group effort.

My teammates were:

Visual design | Yin Dai

Research | Jingwen Zhang

Account management | Lucia Ruan