Sustainable Futures - Pitch Proposal

Sustainable Futures - Proposal - Group E

Sustainable Futures

Group E7th March 2012

David Dewhurst | Danwen Wu | Medha Malhotra | Chao Geng

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Contents

Page

The Challenge 3

Research 4

Brockwell Park Community Garden 5

Concept Introduction 5

UI Function Requirements 9

How QReen will help 12

Website Wireframes 14

Mobile Wireframes 16

Technical Implementation 19

Development Process 22

Future Development 28

Appendix A - Questionnaire Results 29

Appendix B - Plant Information Sheet 33

Appendix C - Noticeboard Printout Template 34

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The ChallengeThis project was created with the aim of helping a local sustainable initiative. Food growing and distribution has a large impact on the environment. In London food contributes nearly 20 million tonnes of CO2 to London’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Greater London Authority and London Development Agency, 2007

Food purchased from supermarkets also contributes to waste and landfills, and intensive farming affects biodiversity. Britain has lost 97% of fruit & vegetable varieties since 1900, and globally 75% of the genetic diversity of crop plants has been lost in the last century. Local community grown foodLocal community grown food has many advantages. It reduces transportation and carbon emissions, helps build communities. It also reaffirms peoples connection with wildlife, something that is especially important in cities. Growing your own food also allows you to use sustainable, and organic methods and reduce the use of chemicals. There are many groups that encourage growing fruits and vegetables locally, these include plot allotments, city farms and community gardens. London local growing communityIn London 30,000 people rent allotments, and 14% of households grow vegetables in their garden. There are also more that 2200 community gardens. This shows there is a large interest in community growing in the city, and a good potential to extend our project across the city in the future.

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ResearchTo gain a better understand of community garden groups we conducted an online questionnaire and combined the results with data from Capital Growth (http://www.capitalgrowth.org/). Key points are shown below (see Appendix A for full results).The average size of these groups is 20 members. They communicate using the following methods:

Less than 20% have a smart phone, so alternatives need to be considered throughout the project. Most groups reported difficulties in communication and planning.

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Brockwell Park Community GardensBrockwell Park Community Gardens is a small charity specialising in horticulture and education. It is a volunteer-run organisation and operate with the help of up to 50 volunteers.

Brockwell Park Community Gardens Map User NeedsThe main problems identified at Brockwell Park were communication, management, attendance and gaining interest of new people. Our solution has been designed to help is all of these areas.

Concept introductionWhy gardeningBase on the research, local food is potentially developing in this city with many benefits and the community gardens are ample public resources. Therefore, to construct the concept, we combined the local food and the resources of community gardens aims to trigger users’ physical behaviour to build a green community. Problems solutionsIt is always tough to attract people to get involved in a new system, however, it is the basic requirement of a enabling solution. To achieve this goal, a series of tasks

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were designed as a means to make people participate. By doing so, users learn the knowledge and enjoy the process of gardening. It is hopeful that they can adapt the interest to the other sustainable areas in their daily life. Meanwhile, their behaviour can actually help the community in terms of local food growing. All the participant will be benefited by the physical harvest at last of the campaign. Media selection With the help of mobile technique and QR code, information can be delivered easily between the garden owners and users. Participants can follow the guide to finish the tasks according to their mobile phone. Also, social network can help them to share the experience and discuss with other co-workers. Strangers are linked together to accomplish a whole task step by step. Of course, there are backup versions offered to the non smart phone users, including an interactive website and physical paper sheets.

Competitor reporti-garden: Virtual planting game, with online tutorial, i-calendar, and tips, it helps users to plant their own virtual vegetable and fruits.

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Season: An application which helps consumers to define the seasonal food and avoid to buy the imported food or even genetic food.

Analysis and conclusionCurrent ‘green’ applications mostly stay at the ‘watch and learn’ stage. People interact with computer and finish the virtual task. By doing so they can learn the knowledge and information. Enabling Solution Case StudyGaia campaignA very good example of a user-involved enabling solution. Gaia is an organization in the USA, it cooperates with a local supermarket and designs a tag on which a special icon and QR code are printed to identity green food. Customers who buy the ‘green food’ will be offered an opportunity to donate a tree. After scanning the QR code, they can choose a place on the map and the organization will automatically help them to plant a real tree in the selected place. It shows a good

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connection between ‘green food’ and ‘green behaviour’.

User behaviour analysis

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In the project, there are five levels of user behaviours which will be involved. 1. Users watch and learn the information. 2. Users click and finish the task we previously designed. 3. Users share the part which they think is interesting. 4. Users physically do something to help the community. 5. Users can even cooperate with strangers. Based on the research, it will not be a successful enabling solution unless users reach the forth level.

Analysis the main problems

UI function requirements The main two problems they are having now are sharing information and triggering the user’s physical behavior, in terms of those two problems, the interface was designed with the consideration of solving user engagement and sharing information.

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Qreen has been split into three main functions to tackle the problems.

Forum design Notice board Plant diary (In the mobile app there is QR scanner support)

-Posting new discussions-Commenting on old discussions-Posting photos

-Regular events-One off events-Ways for users to say they will attend-Option to add events to iOS built in calendar (with alarms)-Information on new members-News items

-Add tasks for an individual plant-Shows information/ tip for growing plant.-Select main plants to create preprinted information sheets-QR code for the individual plants

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Qreen includes two platforms, one is a mobile app the other is a website, both of which share the same data and work flows. Therefore, users will spend less time navigating and figuring where what content is. In terms of sustainable issues, it can reduce unnecessary energy use, and users are willing to read the information.

How QReen will help the group with their problem Forum/ NoticeboardThe noticeboard page includes calendars for users to check events. They can subscribe to these in their local calendar. By using the calendar function it is easy for users to track events and meetings. In addition, when they post news on noticeboard, qreen allows them to send email and share it to social networks, so their information can be spread to other users.

Plant Diary/ QR scanner In order to trigger the user’s behavior initially they need to learn individual plant basic knowledge such as growing season, therefore, we designed plant lists for users to access basic knowledge. In the plant list with several green solutions, users can follow sustainable gardening tips to grow their food, for example using eggshell as fertiliser which will not cause chemical pollution. On the left hand side there is an alphabet to aid users searching for plants.

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QReen’s concept is a collaboration work with other members, accordingly, task records are designed into the interface, users can use the plant diary to check the growing history of other member, the diary uses time lines to present the plant growing process, each point has one task, when users finish one task they can tick one point, and others users will therefore not do a task twice. Furthermore, by using the diary they can leave comments and upload photos, users who are not in the garden can still check a plant’s new status.

The weather forecast is an essential part of planting, we keep weather information in the plant diary. A one week future forecast is available, and past weather is recorded in the diary next to completed tasks.

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Website Wireframes Log in / app introduction

Noticeboard

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Plant List

Plant Diary

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Mobile Wireframes

Loading Screen QR Reader

Plant Diary New Entry Dialogue

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Photo added to diary Noticeboard

Forum Event Details

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Supporting sustainability issues

● Green tips- planting food by using sustainable solutions, such as using washed water to plant.

● Trigger actual behavior- giving task and collaborate with others member.

Creating learning process From the questionnaire results, the physical noticeboard still has a high percentage of use, so we will keep it to spread information. On the other hand, we keep developing new media, so users will not have frustration in their learning process, and can go through a learning process to the future stage, users can use new media instead of physical items.

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Technical implementationAnalogue DeliveryIn order to allow full access to people without smart phones and with limited or no Internet access we are also including analogue options in the system as well. A summary of the latest news and events can be automatically generated and printed, then put on a noticeboard (see Appendix C) . A summary of each plant can also be generated and printed in the same way (see Appendix B) . Resealable plastic wallets can be used to keep the printouts protected, and also allow gardeners to mark tasks done and write comments using a dry wipe marker pen. Plant LabelsPlant tags are often used to label plants in gardens. These could be used to display the QR codes, however they are often made from plastic, so we propose a more sustainable alternative by attaching the QR codes to old CDs. The QR codes can be printed on labels, or on paper and glued to the CD. Alternatively if the gardener has a printer that can print onto CDs that can be used instead, and so avoid wasting paper.

All the printouts have black and white designs to save colour ink, they also avoid unnecessary design elements to minimise print use. The design of these printouts will be controlled by using printer only CSS sheets. These are selected by the browser when rendering content to be sent to the printer. The media tag is used to define printer CSS sheets, as shown here:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="print.css" media="print">

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Digital DeliveryThere are three main parts to the digital implementation. The server, the mobile application, and the website. ServerThe server will contain the main database for the system. This will include tables for the following items:

○ Users■ User name■ Password■ Name■ Image■ Access rights

○ Plants■ Name■ Image■ QR Code■ Basic plant growing information■ Diary of events

○ Events■ Details■ Location■ Members Invited■ Members Attending

○ News■ New information■ Images

This database will be MySQL, an open source database management system. This can be managed using phpMyAdmin, also a free open source tool. ForumThe forum has the same standard features of many forums, so instead of designing and implementing a forum from scratch, an existing solution can be integrated into the system. MyBB (http://www.mybb.com/) is a free and open source forum software that can be installed and run on the server. A custom template will need to be designed, but all the other features, such as user management, moderation and private messaging are all handled automatically. HostingThe hosting of the website and database will be a significant proportion of the total energy use of the system, so choosing an energy efficient and carbon neutral server is crucial to retaining this projects sustainability. We propose to use GreenWebHost

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(http://www.greenwebhost.net/) a solar powered and carbon neutral hosting company. By using a combination of solar power and carbon offsetting they are able to offer a carbon neutral system that is still cost effective.

WebsiteThe website is initially designed for desktop browsers. In the future a mobile version of the site could be relatively easily created using the assets created for the mobile application.The website will be designed using HTML 4.01 transitional and CSS to give maximum compatibility to legacy browsers. The site should be tested on browsers starting at versions Internet Explorer 6, FireFox 3.6.3 and Safari 4.0.3 up to the latest versions at the time of testing.This is important to make the site compatible with as many users as possible, and is also sustainable by not adding to the pressure on users to upgrade their computer in order to use online services.JavaScript and PHP will be used to supply the live data from the server side database. PHP will be used to construct each page as it is loaded, whilst any dynamic data (AJAX) or interactions will be handled by JavaScript and jQuery. jQuery will allow animations, and easy AJAX implementations. Mobile AppA native application is required in order to be able to scan QR codes. The mobile application will be produced using PhoneGap (http://phonegap.com/). PhoneGap is a free open source HTML5 platform that allows easy creation of cross platform mobile applications. This project will initially design and test for iOS, but because of the use of PhoneGap it can easily be adapted to support other platforms such as Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone. PhoneGap required HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.Assets such as images, icons and javascript code can be reused from the website to create the application, thus saving development time. In order to scan QR codes the ZBar PhoneGap plugin is required (http://blog.infoentropy.com/Use_ZBar_barcode_reader_with_PhoneGap). There are a number of steps to take throughout the project to maximise efficiency, reduce energy use, and increase the overall sustainability:

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● The code should be as efficient as possible● Image file sizes should be reduced using compression where possible. ● Reduce the number of separate HTTP requested needed per page by

keeping the page design as simple as possible. ● Reduce the amount of network traffic needed by using compression and

optimisation of the server database. This will also help the battery life of the mobile when using the mobile application.

● More techniques can be seen on Yahoo!’s Developer Network (http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html)

An added bonus of this approach will be faster reaction times of the system.

The Development ProcessTimescaleApproximately 6 weeks using a team of 3 or 4 members.

● Data Creation

● Encourage community to help generate plant information and sustainability tips and advice. A wiki should be set up to allow all community members to contribute to the content creation phase.

● Creating sustainable plant information for key plants● Format existing data to fit our system

● Graphic design and Visual assets (some already existing, some need updating or creating) - The UI is already created

● Logo and icons● UI graphics● Plant images and graphics● Tag graphics● Info poster graphics

● Development○ Agile Development● Creating one database, that can be used from both the website and the

phone● Development of the application● Development of the website● Alter the application code for a mobile site.

● Testing - during and post development.● Prototype testing● Beta testing● Analysis

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Work process & communicationThe project should be done from home with 3 scheduled face-to-face meetings:

1. After the wireframe and interaction has been decided by us and are ready to

be handed over for production2. After visual design is done, and first prototype is created3. The last one after the testing of the prototype.

There is no need for there to be direct contact between the members of the team they can work from home and communicate via Skype saving this way the energy and money that travelling takes and cutting costs when it comes to renting a space to work for such a short time.

Costs and funding - comparisons

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Case 1 - If we (Team E or a group of volunteers) develop the projectAs a team we have the design and development skills. We require a database of information about the plants and how to grow them. This database could either be generated with the help of experienced gardening volunteers or be linked with an existing database. This would cut down the cost of hiring any data generation service. The UI of the phone application and website is already created by us, and some visual elements are done as well, so we already have an idea of the visual assets and design. Technical development was kept in mind throughout the generation of concept, so we are already clear as to how this project would be developed using which technologies. Since we have worked on this as a group, project management and coordination would not require another person. The only expenses incurred would be of the domain and hosting. We volunteer to not charge for the apple developer’s fee, as it is an investment for a developer. The only drawback is fitting the production within our academic schedule. If the project needs to be developed during our course, it would be difficult to analyse the timescale. We would be able to develop it more efficiently after our course has been completed. Our team would be using our own computers and working from home. The team would comprise a designer - using a 15” Mac Book Pro, a Developer - using a 15” Mac Book Pro, Research and Testing - using an iMac and a project manager using a 13” Mac Book Pro.

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Case 2 - Interns or Freelancers through online postings or job forums (Elance.com, odesk.com, peopleperhour) Posting the brief on a website like www.elance.com or other freelance websites can get you a competitive quote. Freelancers rates are based on how much experience they have, the amount of time they require, and the scope and reach of the project. The price range varies from £8 - £20 pounds per hour for a fresher to £35 - £60 for someone with a bit more experience in Design. Development can cost from £15 - £60 per hour. There also a possibility that one person can do both design and development, cutting the task of coordination and management. Since it is a charity or a volunteer based initiative, using services from these websites is a good option as there are always people that are looking to extend their portfolio and working with such initiative makes it better. So mentioning in the brief about sustainable factors, could get responses from willing people aware about the issue. Hardware used cannot be commented on as each person has personal choices, but it would be good to find someone who is aware of energy efficient hardware. Case 3 - A design firm For a project of this scale, a design firm is not a suitable option. Most design firm charge more than this project can afford. The reason is often to cover salaries, office rent, electricity costs, hardware and software costs and other expenses. However some design firms do work with charitable organisation on a reduced or pro bono rate, however this work is often not given top priority so may take longer to complete than with the other options.

Hardware and equipment used / Material use- physical items

● Reuse CD plant tag - On average we have all thrown away at least 10 CDs in the past year. Instead of creating a new plant tag for the QR codes, we could re-use these CD’s as a QR code holder saving them from the landfill.

● Noticeboard - If a new noticeboard is required we recommend using

environmentally sustainable single-sided notice boards. We recommend the brand Sundeal. They are made of 100% recycled materials (newsprint) in Britain. This notice board also results in you creating a lower manufacture and delivery carbon footprint. They are quite cost-friendly ranging from £12-£40 depending on the size.

● Plant sheet - Ideally uncoated, non glossy, unbleached paper stock. This

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contains as little chlorine as possible making it easier to recycle. Also paper that contain high recycled content as possible,preferably no virgin trees/pulp used. These details are mentioned on the paper stock covers and are widely available at not very hight costs. Also it would be good to source locally manufactured paper.All blank/white design. Keeping a clean white design, requires less printing there fore saving energy &inks and is easier to recycle.

○ Font - There has been a debate over the greenest font available and the final two contenders have been ‘ecofont’ ( the free version is ‘VeraSans’ )and ‘century gothic’. Some argue that century gothic is the greener one, but latest studies show they are almost the same. We recommend using Century Gothic as it is a pre-installed universal font and looks better than ecofont in large sizes. Ecofont is a design award winning software that inserts small holes into your printed letters. While this has no effect on legibility it reduces the the ink or toner use by 25%. This not only saves money but also saves some of the burden on the environment associated with production of printing supplies.

● Printer - The garden will already have access to a printer, but if a new

one is required we recommend the following: Save energy and space with an ENERGY STAR qualified multi-function device that combines several capabilities (print, copy, scan).The first step to eco-friendly printing, obviously, is finding an eco-friendly printer. Ink jet printers in general tend to use much less energy than laser printers. They make a great choice for a home office or small business that does not have huge printing needs (for marketing or other purposes). Here are some eco-friendly printers that are available in the market today and we suggest it would be a good investment for the future:

■ Dell 1235cn Color Laser Multifunction Printer – This is one of the world’s smallest color laser multifunction printers that is Energy Star certified and RoHS compliant, which helps minimize its impact on the environment.

■ HP Officejet Pro 8500 – This all in one printer claims to save 50% more energy than laser printers and is manufactured by a company that has taken significant steps towards saving the planet.

■ Samsung SCX-5530FN – This printer has Blue Angel Certification a sought-after eco-friendly recognition based on their “resource-saving and low-emission”.

■ Source: Green Living Ideas (http://s.tt/12GoH)

○ Inks - Most of the printers come inclusive with ink cartridges. But it would be worth an effort to check with SoyPrint™ if they could change your existing cartridges into oil-free, soy ink. Print Recovery Concepts, Inc., announces an environmental breakthrough in office printing for businesses, schools and colleges. They are the first company to offer printer cartridges using ink derived from soybeans. The cartridges will be supplied by Print Recovery Concepts under the SoyPrint™ brand at prices comparable to brand name, oil-based versions currently available. Source : www.soyprint.net

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● White Board Markers - AusPen represent the most economical, environmentally responsible and highest quality refillable whiteboard marker in the market. Made using recycled plastic from discarded inkjet cartridges, to minimise use of virgin materials for the pens and a special nib design. The nibs are double sided so they last for many refills, and twice as long! They donot dry out easily even if the cap is left open for 24 hrs. On top of that, because they are refillable, they cost less in the long run and are even better for the environment. Most markers contain Xylene so they stick better to the white board. Xylene is a really harmful chemical. These markers are Xylene-Free. Courtesy www.auspen.com

Apple laptops and computers - Apple laptops and computers are better

than Energy Star specifications. Apple products are designed to be energy efficient. Lower energy consumption both reduces your utility bills and lessens the environmental impact of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Energy Star is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. department of Energy, Energy Star identifies energy-efficient home and business products.ENERGY STAR qualified office equipment can help you save energy, money, and help protect the environment without sacrificing quality or performance. ENERGY STAR qualification and beyond ”Every product Apple sells not only meets but exceeds the strict guidelines for energy efficiency in the ENERGY STAR specification. No other company in our industry can make that claim. In fact, we go well beyond the ENERGY STAR specification, offering products that are at least twice as energy efficient as the specification — and in the case of Mac mini, over six times as energy efficient. It’s because we design both the hardware and the software for our products that we can make them so energy efficient. And we're continually investing in technology to make our products even more efficient and minimize their environmental footprint. “ - Courtesy www.apple.com

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Future DevelopmentThis solution has been designed for the Brockwell Park community garden, but can easily be extended to include other community gardens in the future. In order to expand the system each new garden will be given a new database on the server. This will contain all the plant, news and discussions for that garden. A central database of users from all gardens should be kept so that the system can identify which garden a user belongs to. Getting different gardens to communicate with each other and share ideas and resources will be a potential benefit of the system. Therefore we propose that the forum section will be shared amongst all gardeners from all the gardens in the system. The other sections will be kept separate.

ConclusionQreen is a digital solution designed to help Brockwell Park Community Garden improve communication amongst it’s members, spread knowledge and experience, increase motivation, and encourage new people to join and start growing locally produced sustainable food. If our system proves to be a success it can easily expanded to help community gardens throughout London and the rest of the world.

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Appendix A

Questionnaire Results

Number of members

42 35 15 20 25 80 8 12 12 20 20 10 7 5 30 20 ave 23

mode 20

Structure - Committee with one or a few leader - informal Response Chart Frequency Count

Physical notice board

33% 2

Email

67% 4

Facebook

17% 1

Twitter

33% 2

Blog

0% 0

Telephone

33% 2

Website forum or message board

17% 1

Other, please specify:

50% 3 newsletter,top down emails

Percentage with Smart Phones <20%No Wi-Fi

9 Type of plants grown (Tick all that apply)Response Chart Frequency Count

Flowers

67% 4

Vegetables

83% 5

Trees 83% 5

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Herbs

100% 6


17% 1 anything useful

11 How regularly to do hold meetings?Response Chart Frequency Count

Weekly

17% 1

Monthly

33% 2

Yearly

0% 0


50% 3 never,fortnightlyad hoc

Meetings per year: mean 18, median 20

13 Do you use tags to identify plants?Response Chart Frequency Count

Yes

60% 3

No

40% 2

How do you manage the gardening tasks with the group?Top-down email, noticeboard in the shed, long-term planning by leadervolunteers are divided up into interest groups working on specific projectsSuggest options during work sessions

16 Are there any problems managing or communicating amongst the group?

Yes!

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yes, as with any voluntary group

Hard to work out if other group members are likely to be present (can't work alone for H&S reasons and very varied expertise)

Regular attendance.

18 If you have time please comment on if you think your members would benefit from a system to manage your plants, record plant progress and problems, and to learn about the requirements for different types of plants. What would you find most useful from such a system?I think this will be crucial in our future but my background is in botanic gardens where plant records are essential. To be honest the concept of a plant records database is a future aspiration given the level of techoinology available to most of our volunteers. Most useful feature of such a system is the ability to cross-reference the horticultural data with economic botany aspects of the plants uses and cultural significance to different ethnic populations.

What sort of system? It is difficult to get people involved and we simply do not have any spare time for increasing bureaucracy. It is the philosophy of the group to do things, and involve people creatively, not tick boxes.

Not sure if they would. Depends if people use that type of way of engaging in the world. They could gain a simple, effective way to manage all their plant dealings on their phone - if its well designed

Tagging with schemaless metadata like Wordpress posts e.g. "Bed (A-D)" or "Row in bed (1-36)" Adding dated "comments" to show when they were sown, when weeded last, when planted out etc. Notifications of when jobs are due e.g. next weeding, thinning out jobs.

Yes for some scenarios. Recording status over time.

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Appendix B

Plant Information Sheet

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Appendix C

Noticeboard printout template

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Documents

Sustainable Futures - Pitch Proposal