Design in Branching Out: ChatGPTree and the 'Treescapes’ Mobile Game

We’ve been using design approaches within Branching Out as a way to try and bring together all the different areas and outputs of the project. 

To start with, we’ve run workshops with stakeholders and the general public, and conducted a series of interviews to explore the different ways in which our research is useful. These were also places where the project team and our participants could begin to think more creatively about how our work could be packaged and deployed for different audiences. 

Building on these beginnings, we also held a Design Jam and Design Sprint to develop our ideas further. These are different methods for bringing people together to rapidly generate ideas and prototypes. In our case, our Design Jam was a day’s work drawing upon the expertise of our interdisciplinary project team, while our Design Sprint was a week-long series of activities attended by a mix of interested people with skills ranging from urban planning and graphic design to software engineering and environmental education. 

We’ve got 2 key outputs from this part of the project: ChatGPTree, a system through which people can talk to AI-enabled tree characters, and a mobile game that has the working title ‘Treescapes’. We consider both of these outputs to be design probes - that is, early stage in progress tools or interventions that allow us to more deeply explore a problem and raise questions rather than necessarily solve problems.

ChatGPTree

ChatGPTree is a mobile website triggered by a person using their phone to scan a QR code that’s attached to a tree. The user can then have a conversation with the tree. The tree knows where it is, what other trees are nearby, and asks the user questions during their conversation. As the name suggests, it uses ChatGPT, as well as other data we’ve provided it with, to flesh out the tree’s character and provide a believable level of interactivity and response.

"I am an oak tree, the majestic king of all trees, gracing Dean's Park beside York Minster. My leaves, with their splendid shapes, gracefully adorn the ground. I stand with my delightful friends, a cheeky walnut and a wise old London plane. Nature thrives here, and so do I".

In test deployments we’ve observed people interacting with it in different ways: individuals talking to the tree, looking at and embracing the tree itself, groups learning chatting together, and even those who don’t scan the codes, but take the time to look at individual trees in more detail.

We are continuing to explore the potential uses of this intervention, but of course using Large Language Models like ChatGPT raises all sorts of ethical questions, particularly both privacy and their environmental impact. We hope to use ChatGPTree to explore some of these issues.

Mobile Game: Treescapes

Our second design probe is a mobile game that allows a player to simulate the creation of an urban treescape, such as a park. It prompts us to think about the impact of trees on an environment, changing the character of the place, providing canopy cover, etc. In short, it helps consider the range of values we associate with urban trees in a playful and engaging setting. 

Although the demo we’ve created is limited in scope - it’s a ‘vertical slice’ of the game - it does have sufficient functionality to see how the game could function if developed further. 

As it stands, the demo is designed to be used on a mobile device. It starts with a blank landscape, upon which you can plant a variety of species, selected as the most ones most frequently named in data from other parts of the project. 

Sliders indicate the level of canopy and biodiversity, and as these improve through your planting, bees and butterflies appear in the landscape. You can add some park infrastructure too, including lights. 

As time passes, we gradually move from season to season and year to year too, showing tree growth over time. And finally you can see some facts and figures about what you’ve planted, and info on individual trees.

There are so many ways in which this game can be progressed, focusing on different aspects of urban tree planting. The demo is just a starting point and we’re eager to explore where to go next.

If you are interested in ChatGPTree or our mobile game prototype, and particularly if you have ideas about how and where they could be used, please contact Debbie Maxwell at the University of York.

Thank you to the Work Package 3 team for their hard work: 

Howard Cambridge

Sarah Masters

Debbie Maxwell

Kate Morris

Asya Natapov

Toby Pillatt

Andi Setiawan

Daniel Slawson

and everyone that has attended any of our workshops or design events.