Empathise
Study bird behavior through literature, experts, and observation.
BirdLiving:
Designing Winter Shelter
for Sedentary Birds
An animal-computer interaction project exploring how physical shelter, sensing, and responsive technology can support small birds through cold Swedish winters.
Adapted design thinking
Project journey
Human-centered methods were adjusted for users who could not explain their needs or participate directly in conventional tests.
Define
Focus on winter warmth, energy, and predator protection.
Ideate
Generate and evaluate physical interaction concepts.
Build
Move from simulation to a wooden Arduino prototype.
Test
Validate functionality and refine through expert critique.
The design challenge
How do you design with users who cannot speak to you?
Small sedentary birds face cold, energy loss, and predator risks during northern winters. BirdLiving proposes a protected place to recuperate, while challenging the team to interpret animal needs without projecting human assumptions onto them.
01. Empathise
Research through evidence and expertise
Scientific reports, articles, observation, and interviews with bird enthusiasts built a picture of feeding, nesting, and garden behavior in northern climates.
The goal was to map established knowledge while making gaps and uncertain assumptions visible.
02. Define
Making the bird visible as a user
Affinity mapping identified winter energy and warmth as the core issue. A scenario around Peter the blue tit made the non-human perspective tangible and supported a user-centered problem frame.
Focused need
Maintain warmth and energy while staying protected.
03. Ideate
Exploring protective interactions
Brainstorming and How Might We questions expanded the design space. Sketching then made concepts concrete enough for team critique, feasibility discussion, and iteration.
04. Build
From Arduino simulation to physical shelter
A digital Arduino simulation allowed fast testing of components and logic. Once stable, the system moved into a wooden bird box that combined the physical shelter with programmed behavior.
05. Test
Validating behavior before animal trials
Direct testing with birds was not appropriate at the prototype's fidelity. The team instead verified code and component behavior, made small adjustments, and used weekly supervisor reviews to improve technical and design decisions.
06. Showcase
Communicating process and outcome
The final exhibition combined the working prototype with a selling poster, design-thinking poster, and brochure. Presenting the research alongside the artifact made the reasoning and ethical questions visible.
Reflection
Designing responsibly beyond the human
Animal-computer interaction requires greater humility about what designers can know. Without direct communication, observations, expert knowledge, and biological evidence must be interpreted critically to avoid human bias.
High-fidelity animal testing can also be costly, time-consuming, and ethically complex. The project reinforced the importance of considering unintended ecological consequences and adapting design methods to the realities of non-human participation.