“Sergio” — A service design concept for sea turtle conservation projects

This project was done as part of a 3-week service design course in a team of 4 in collaboration with COPROT as part of Interaction Design Programme at CIID.

About IxD at CIID

CIID (Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design) started in 2008 in Copenhagen by Simona Maschi and Alie Rose. CIID has 3 arms, one the interaction design programme, two a in-house design consultancy, and three an incubation center.

In 2020, they shifted their IxD programme to Costa Rica from Copenhagen. In order to shift the focus from human-centred design to life-centered design, they shifted to Costa Rica owing the rich biodiversity.

http://ciid.dk/education/interaction-design-programme/

Project Brief

This was a 3-week Service Design course with the focus on redefining tourism for Costa Rica to be resilient and sustainable.

Volunteer for Resilient Tourism

COPROT

https://tortugasdeosa.org/

COPROT is a non-for-profit community conservation project. They focus on conserving the local sea turtle nesting population with the help of the local community. It is located in the Southern Pacific beaches of the Osa Peninsula in Carate, Costa Rica.

2 hours of drive from Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica

Entrance of the Camp

Why sea turtles are important to Costa Rica?

• All species of sea turtle are now classified as endangered, with three of the seven existing species being critically endangered.

• Costa Rica is a haven for sea turtles. 5 of the world’s 7 species come to its coast for hatchling.
• Sea turtles lay eggs on beaches on both the Pacific and Caribbean shores of Costa Rica every month of the year.

Research Phase

• Interviews: We conducted over 20 direct interviews over the course of 2 weeks. Some online, some in San José, and remaining in COPROT base in Carate, Peninsula de Osa.

From Left to Right: Ana, 68 (Painter & Conservationist); Vet Students; Fin, 22 (Wildlife Photographer); Ben, 26 (Conservation Sciences Student)

• Immersion: We attended their weekly meetings, data logging sessions, and joined for a 6 hour night walk walking over 10 kms on the beach. We were extremely lucky to find eggs, baby turtles hatching out, and most beautiful of all — seeing a sea turtle in trance while she was laying down the eggs.

From Left to Right: Weekly Meeting at COPROT; A Sea Turtle Laying Eggs; Team for Night-Watch; A Turtle Egg

• Co-creation: The most important and useful part of a design process is to co-create with the people you are solving. We did collaborative emotional journey, made the customer journey map, did card-slots, and ideated on possible solutions through crazy-8s.

From Left to Right: Emotional Seismograph; Presenting Ideas; Customer Journey; Crazy 8s.

Deliverables

How Might We

Make the volunteering experience of turtle conservation in Costa Rica captivating while matching expectations to attract relevant volunteers consistently?

Customer Journey Map

Service Blueprint

A service blueprint is the most crucial document to summarize the entire service.

A service blueprint is the most crucial document to summarize the entire service.

Prototype Demo

Concept Video

Links & Supporting Reads

• 15 principles of good service design. (2018, June 14). Lou Downe. https://blog.louisedowne.com/2018/06/14/15-principles-of-good-service-design/
• Downe, L. (2020). Good Services: How to Design Services that Work (1st Edition). BIS Publishers.
• https://medium.com/capitalonedesign/service-design-tools-methods-6e7f62fcf881
• https://www.nngroup.com/articles/service-blueprints-definition/ — An excellent article explaining the service blueprint.