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RODENTIA LINE

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2022
8 Weeks 
Speculative
UX Design and Research

Overview

This project was created as part of my MA User Experience course in collaboration with 3 other students. This project was in collaboration with the speculative design agency, Takram. Our aim was to design a way for non-humans to navigate around London. To achieve this we used co-design principles to create a speculative modular design system that would allow rats to freely navigate through London

Outcome

For our final outcome we created a speculative modular system that would allow rodents to freely navigate around London. When creating our outcome, we decided to work backwards and consider how rats would likely behave if humans had not interfered with infrastructure and design to limit their movement. Our bricks therefore allow the rodents to freely pass through tunnels and buildings, out of dangers way. The intention behind this design was to create a safer living environment for the animals we  co-inhabit with every day but tend to ignore. 

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"Design a way to help Non-humans to navigate the city"

Why Rats?

When deliberating about what non human we wanted to focus on, we realised that we were subconsciously categorising them as more or less desirable based off our own human bias. This was a steep learning curve as we recognised that we were bringing in human bias from the very beginning of the process and not treating all non humans equally and with a flat ontology.

 

In order to challenge ourselves and our subconscious bias we decided to work with rats as they are a creature typically seen as ‘less than’ or a ‘pest’ within human centred society. When in reality according to post humanism they are equal to any other human or non human.

Field Research 

For our field research we used several key research methods to gain an understanding of rats current behaviour in London and peoples opinion of them. With the use of Gureilla interviews, AEIOU and cognitive feedback loops, we were able to gather a vast amount of research to help our design process.

Gureilla Research

At the beginning of this project we wanted to focus on the rats living in the underground tube stations. Therefore we crafted our questions towards those who would come across them the most frequently 

This proved to be an effective way of gathering information quickly and from a large amount of people. During the process of interviews we were also able to adapt and refine of questions based off of previous responses. 

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Questions template and beginning to code responses

AEIOU Analysis 

After gathering initial responses about people opinions of rats in the London underground, we wanted to observe how they act and do an AEIOU analysis of the tube station. This allowed us to deepen our understanding of the environment we were planning to work with.

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Example of one AEIOU on the tube 

Cognitive Feedback loop

Additionally, we  created a feedback loop to understand how helping rats navigate the city could lead to different outcomes. This allowed us to highlight their potential motivations, human interactions and social understandings. 

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Learnings

Through the use of desk research, Gureilla interviews, AEIOU, and cognitive feedback loops, we identifed two key issues that we wanted to further explore.

Rats have a poor quality of life 

How can we increase their quality of life and create a safer environment for them?

There is a lot of stigma and general disliking towards rats

What design methods can we use to help open up the discussion and break some of the stigma?

The Design Process 

Exploring an underground tunnel system

To start off our design process we wanted to experiment with the idea of underground tunnels that could be built into parks and forest. The idea of these tunnels was to create some shelter and quick passageways for rodents and other small animals.

 

Additionally it would be made from a material that could adapt and chew. This way we are not limiting their ability to move around and they could alter the tunnel to cater to their needs

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Original sketch demonstrating idea

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Prototype of our adaptable tunnels

Analysis 

While we liked this idea of creating a tunnel system that was highly adaptable, we realised that rats are natural burrowers and create their own shelter instinctively. Therefore this design would not be very effect in allowing them to navigate the city. 

Therefore, following this prototype we decided to change our focus towards increasing their safety in the busier and more populated areas of London. 

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Camouflaging strips 

After our first prototype, we  wondered what would happen if we made a really simple edging that could run along buildings and walls. This edging would be dark and textured to allow the rats to be less obvious to the human eye and therefore more likely to avoid harm

Original sketch demonstrating idea

Prototype of how the edging could work

Tunnel bricks

For our last prototype, we decided to work backwards and consider how rats would likely behave if humans had not interfered with infrastructure and design to limit their movement. We therefore wanted to design a navigation system for them to pass through walls, fencing and any fixed structures allowing them to freely move around the city. This lead us to the idea of designing a new brick, that could be incorporated into boundary walls around the city. 

Original sketch demonstrating idea

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First prototype of our brick

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Second prototype of our brick

Testing Edible Bricks

Co-deisgn was something that our team was particularly interested in for this project. We wanted to explore how we could incorporate the animals in the design process.
Rats are notoriously known for chewing through things. So we wondered what would happen if we made our bricks with a door they could chew through. This would allow them to rely on their natural instincts and chew their own pathway. 

To do this we made a base that would hopefully be appealing to rats (with a strong smell and textures) and completely safe for them to consume. After finalising the mixture, we added it to one of our bricks and left it outside for testing. 

The brick befoe

After 2 hours outside in park

After 24 hours outside in park

Analysis 

With hindsight we learnt that it would have been beneficial to  set up a recording device to monitor how the animals were interacting with the tunnels. However as there was clear animal markings on the tunnel we were still happy with the results.

The different arrangements our bricks could be used

Designing with comedic approach

When presenting this idea to Takram, they asked us about our final visualisation of the tunnel system and if we wanted to make it something intentionally visible or invisible to humans. 

Due to the stigma around rats, we decided that it could be interesting to take a comical approach to our design and intentionally make it very bold.  This would ideally help ease the tention and make people curious about the deisgn outcome

Modular Tunnel System

After testing the bricks, we decided that we wanted to build a few different styles that could be build and structured in various different ways. Creating a modular system would allow people to build different style tunnels depending on what is best suited for the area / wall.

Testing the Tunnels

Once our design was finished, we took our tunnels to be tested by a real rat. While the environment the tunnels would be used in was different, testing allowed us to see how the rat interacts with the system and overall usability. 

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Testing the bricks with a pet rat

Analysis 

Testing ensured  that the  tunnels were the perfect size for the rat and provided enough space to move around and hide in. 

Overall the rat seemed to enjoy our structure and could easily navigate around it. The rat was also using it as a safety shelter.  

Final Outcome

The Final Outcome:
Rodentia Line

For this project our final outcome was 'Rodentia Line'. A tunnel system for rats to navigate safely around London. Our speculative modular bricks would allow walls around parks and green spaces to have small gaps and internal tunnels for small animals to quickly pass through.

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Mockup of how the bricks would look 

My design of a Rodentia Line Crest 
 

To demonstrate out intention and final deisgn outcome, we created a demonstration video of how these tunels could work if implemented in the future. To help break the stigma and encourage people to have an open mind to the idea, we approach this task with a comedic approach.

Creating a love story between two fake rats and with a gaming approach, we aimed to create a video that was light hearted and easily digestible for hesitant viewers. 

Comical demonstration video

Importance of Post humanism design
Overall, reflecting on this project highlights the importance of incorporating post humanism design into our society and challenging the mindset that humans are the dominant being. While I acknowledge that I can not testify to the efficacy of our design for rodents, I believe it is a step in the right direction. This project prompted us to consider how non humans interact with the world and how we need to start considering them in our design practices. Applying post humanism theory to design allows us to understand how we are intertwined with everything around us and can not continue to design with only a human centred mind.

Design through making

Due to this project being very different to anything any of us  had worked on previously, we did not have a clear idea of what our final outcome was going to look like. However, I would now say that this was our groups greatest strength - designing without an end goal.

 

While we had a general idea of what we wanted to achieve, we did not know how it would eventuate. We used prototyping as our primary research method and made as many potential outcomes that we wanted to. This allowed us to consistently view our work from a distance and allow the material realisation to guide the next stages of our work. Therefore we were able to design different avenues, learn new skills and finish with a strong design.

To learn more about our working progress you can read my weekly blog posts here

Reflection 

Learnings

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