Inspiration
Climate change is an extremely prevalent issue in our world today. We wanted to create a project that would be attractive to multiple audiences. With our personal experiences dealing with inconsistent and unpredictable weather, it is very clear we are heading in a bad direction. We wish to provide a set of guidelines to allow current generations, as well as future generation to do everything in their power to slow down the effects of climate change.
What it does
New Leaf is a Digital Humanities project that focuses on bringing awareness to the current dangers of climate change, assesses the user about their current "Green thumb" status, and simulates growing an ecofriendly garden plant. New Leaf has interactive elements that allow you to navigate throughout the website at any point. Additionally, New Leaf has a intricate and attractive UX/UI design that was intended to provide a satisfactory and accessible user experience for everyone.
How we built it
We used HTML, CSS, and JQuery to design and add functionality to our website. We used Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop in order to create original and creative features/graphics.
Challenges we ran into
We faced many obstacles when it came to our game we designed. We had little to no experience using JavaScript before, especially in regards to a game design. There was a lot of learning/experimenting when we were implementing our ideas.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
As a team, we are extremally proud of our determination. There were many point throughout the night, where we were ready to give up and felt defeated. However, we used a lot of communication and problem solving skills to combat these emotions. When one of us sensed the other was struggling, we took a second to pause, ask them to go through their code, and look with a fresh set of eyes to identify any hidden errors.
What we learned
When tackling the concept of accessibility and inclusive design for New Leaf, we decided to use a color contrasting software that would grade how well foreground and background colors would look to those with a color visibility impairment. We learned how sensitive certain colors can be when paired together. It's clear that a lot of consideration and time needs to go into developing projects like this in order to include as large of an audience as possible.
What's next for New Leaf
We would like to create more depth to our garden simulation. We would like to include more choices, differing paths to take, challenging levels, as well as responsive design. Lastly, we would enjoy adding more general UX/UI design in order to make our website more sophisticated and professional.
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