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Project Name

Tūhura

Digital & Print
2025

This university project, developed in collaboration with Ruby, explores ways to encourage everyday connection with nature through a simple, accessible mobile app. The app helps users identify plants in their surroundings and keep track of discoveries over time, turning casual encounters with nature into an ongoing, personal record.

Rather than focusing on speed or accuracy alone, the project centres on slowing down, noticing, and building awareness of te taiao through repeated engagement. A tracking and achievement system allows users to log plant encounters, unlock milestones, and reflect on their growing knowledge, framing learning as a gradual and rewarding process rather than a task to be completed.

Alongside the digital experience, we designed a series of tangible objects to help encourage people to get outside and engage with nature in a more intentional way. These included physical viewfinders and small printed pamphlets that highlight curated walking routes around Wellington. The viewfinders act as prompts for observation and framing, encouraging users to pause, look closer, and notice details in the landscape, while the pamphlets provide simple guidance and context for local walks.

These physical elements can be purchased as a bundled kit, designed to be used alongside the app. The pack encourages users to combine digital tracking with physical exploration, reinforcing the idea that nature connection can be supported through both analogue and digital tools working together. By pairing the app with tactile objects and place-specific walks, the project aims to lower the barrier to engagement and support small, meaningful interactions with the environment during everyday moments such as walks, commutes, and outdoor downtime.

Overall, the project positions technology not as a distraction from nature, but as a companion to attentiveness, curiosity, and long-term relationship-building with the natural world, grounded in local context and everyday experience.