Commissioned by the University of Sheffield.
In partnership with South Yorkshire Sustainability Centre

UI Design for Climate ReAssemblies interactive documentary

Last year, I was commissioned by Lena Dobrovolska, a research associate at the University of Sheffield, to create UI and animation work for the Climate ReAssemblies project.

Initially brought on as an illustrator and animator to visualise participant stories, my role later expanded to designing custom UI for an interactive documentary (i-doc) made on Stornoway. 

My Role: interface asset design + animation
Duration: 2.5 months

Project overview

In late 2023, the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority held a citizens’ assembly on climate change, where 100 South Yorkshire citizens produced 33 recommendations for climate action and resilience.

The Climate ReAssemblies project at The University of Sheffield poses the question: what’s next?

Project team then worked with a small group of citizens to turn these recommendations into animated scenarios for an interactive documentary.

The aim was to inspire hope and action in the face of seemingly insurmountable global climate issues.

A view of climate assembly where a group of people are sitting at a round table and exchanging ideas.

Climate Assembly (a still from the Eco-Living Travel animation)

Sitemap

The sitemap for the interactive documentary was organised by the client and included creating background designs and buttons for the pages highlighted in a white background.

A selected part of the interactive documentary sitemap

Homepage

For the homepage, we created a map-centric design rooted in South Yorkshire’s geography. Beyond displaying boroughs and towns, it visualises transit networks and natural features such as water bodies and green spaces.

It was important to include these natural elements in order to emphasise participants’ connection to the local landscape.

An illustrated map of South Yorkshire region, including the view of water bodies, green spaces, train and tram lines. The map also includes interactive buttons for different subpages in the documentary.
Line drawings of early button designs for the interactive documentary. These includes a few versions of people on bikes for the Eco-Living Travel story subpage as well as various drawings of fresh produce for Grow Your Own story subpage.

Early sketches for button designs

SY Climate Assembly

A view of a climate assembly where people are sitting in an audience and listening to a speaker at an assembly.

One of the most important sub-pages on this i-doc was the South Yorkshire Climate Assembly (SY Climate Assembly) sub-page.

It features interviews with the climate assembly expert speakers, varying from climate activists, ecology managers at Sheffield council to non-profit organisation representatives. 

People at a climate assembly are sitting around a rectanglural table and listening to two speakers presenting.

Nicky’s and Gareth’s interview sub-pages (Those pages were designed by another team member)

Pencil drawings of a young black woman, white woman, a man in glasses and a beard and another man wearing a tiny beannie.

Sketches of the participants

Scenarios Workshops

Scenarios workshops button of a wooden a-board with a black and yellow poster.

Another sub-page I had to create was the Scenarios Workshops page, which documented the storybuilding process.

For the workshop sub-page, we designed an environment that mirrored the actual workshop space. The interface centres on a close-up view of the worktop where participants developed their stories. Lena’s addition of original workshop audio made the sub-page more engaging, allowing
the viewer to experience both visual and auditory atmosphere of these sessions. 

Through the buttons on the sub-page, viewers can access workshop documentation in various formats: listen to audio recordings, experience the workshop through immersive 360° video, or browse photographic archive. 

A view of the workshop table with a map, post it notes and a few pens laying around. The subpage includes interactive buttons like audio recordings, 360 video camera, photographs, worksheets and poster.

Story pages

4 story page buttons: a wheelbarrow with produce for Grow Your Own page, a young tree in a bag for Tree Network page, People on bikes for Eco-Living Travel and a plate with tomatoes and spring onions for Closing the Loop page.

Four remaining sub-pages were dedicated to the participants’ stories: Grow Your Own, Tree Network, Eco-Living Travel the Loop. Similarly to the workshop sub-page, these story sub-pages were built around participants’ own scenarios.

We placed them directly into their story environment in order to demonstrate how tangible their visions were. In addition, each sub-page had
a complimentary soundscape, reinforcing the realism of these stories. 

An interactive button displaying wheelbarrow with yellow and red produce for Grow Your Own page.

Grow Your Own

A scene of a community garden with raised beds where people are watering tomatoes, picking weeds and selling fresh produce. This subpage also includes interactive buttons for resources, scenarios, animation and interviews with the participants.

Grow Your Own tells the story of how a family dinner conversation about food production sparks the creation of a school-led community food hub. 


A story button displaying a young tree in a blue bag for Tree Network subpage.

Tree Network

This story is about two friends Abdul and Zara who become street tree wardens as South Yorkshire faces worsening heatwaves.

A tree network subpage illustration displaying a group of people posing next to a few young trees they planted. They are all dressed in gardening attire and earthy colours, wearing gardening gloves, boots and holding shovels.
A button for Eco-Living Travel story page, displaying two people dressed in yellow and orange traveling on bikes.

Eco-Living Travel

An illustrative drawing for Eco-Living subpage, showing six people waiting for a tram, one of them is holding a yellow bike. There is a picturesque scene of the hills and a cyclist in the background.

This story follows a couple, who move to Hoyland's car-free eco-village, where they use environmentally friendly transport solutions like e-bikes and trams to get to work. Their story emphasises how a combination of active travel and public transport can contribute to a healthier lifestyle for all. 

A button showing a decorative beige plate with tomatoes, carrots and spring onions for Closing the Loop subpage.

Closing the Loop

Closing the Loop story presents a transformative vision where a social enterprise would transform household waste into compost. 

Group of people are on a composting site, where two people are sorting the compost waste in the bins and three people are spreading healthy soil from the compost on a raised bed layed with carton. There are bushes and trees behind them.

Impact

The project has supported the citizens of South Yorkshire and grassroots organisations working towards climate action through a series of public engagement events.

The i-doc was also used for staging regional and national roundtable discussions related to climate action with policymakers.

The i-doc was shown across these events in England and Findland:


1 May 2024 - Design Tools for Social Sciences Workshop 3: Design & Futures, DesignLab, ALA, University of Sheffield
18 September 2024 - PRN Project Showcase Event, PRN Network, University of Sheffield
3 October 2024 - Live Project Introductory Meeting, St Paul’s Church, UoS
15 November 2024 - Climate ReAssemblies i-Doc Evaluation Event and Live Project Handover, Live Works
21 November 2024 - AHRA Body Matters Conference, Norwich University of the Arts
17 January 2025 - SYSC meeting with SYMCA representatives
3 March 2025 - SYSC Annual Event, Lightning Talk, University of Sheffield
20 February 2025 - Stornaway School, online event
24 February 2025 - Culture and Climate Change, ALA Lunchtime Seminar, University of Sheffield
28 February 2025 - Arts-based Research and Research-based Art in Global Climate Politics, Development Days Conference, University of Helsinki / Online
14 March 2025 - Reassembling Our Climate Future: What’s next for solar in South Yorkshire?, LightFest 2025, SYSC

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