Making Climate Impact Tangible Through Haptics
Designing a Sensory Interface that lets Users Feel the Carbon Cost of Everyday Choices.
The Opportunity
Although sustainability data is increasingly accessible, its abstract nature often fails to motivate behavior change. CO₂ emissions remain intangible and difficult to relate to personally.
CarbonGripe addressed this disconnect by exploring whether physically experiencing the environmental impact of travel choices could foster deeper awareness and action.
The Insight
Through experiments and follow-up interviews, we found that people struggled to accurately perceive or differentiate emissions between transport modes when relying only on numerical or visual information.
However, when these emissions were translated into tangible weight, users immediately and intuitively understood their environmental choices.
Which triggering a powerful sensory response that rational arguments alone couldn't achieve.
The Approach
Our team designed CarbonGripe, an interactive system that physically represents the CO₂ emissions of different transportation methods through tangible weights.
Key Design Features
Tangible Representation
Haptic Provocation
Multisensory Feedback
User testing
Using a “Wizard of Oz” approach, we created an interactive prototype allowing users to physically feel the carbon impact of their choices.
The results demonstrated a clear behavioural and perceptual shifts.
Engaging with physical weights as representations of travel emissions led users to internalize their environmental impact deeply and personally, prompting reconsideration and commitment toward sustainable practices.
