A Study on Climate Change Communication on Websites Sofia Ledin

LiU-ITN-TEK-G--21/029--SE

Over the Barriers - A Study on Climate Change Communication on Websites Sofia Ledin

2021-06-04

Department of Science and Technology Institutionen för teknik och naturvetenskap Linköping University Linköpings universitet SE-601 74 Norrköping, Sweden 601 74 Norrköping LiU-ITN-TEK-G--21/029--SE

Over the Barriers - A Study on Climate Change Communication on Websites The thesis work carried out in Grafisk design och kommunikation at Tekniska högskolan at Linköpings universitet Sofia Ledin

Norrköping 2021-06-04

Department of Science and Technology Institutionen för teknik och naturvetenskap Linköping University Linköpings universitet SE-601 74 Norrköping, Sweden 601 74 Norrköping Upphovsrätt

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© Sofia Ledin Abstract This study examines communication about global warming with an emphasis on encouraging a change in a viewers behavior, and how this can be practically visualised on websites. The study first gathers research from the fields of climate change communication, marketing and psychology, then a survey is sent out and an overview of websites about global warming is made. The findings from all this is then applied to a Hi-fi prototype of a website. The study aims to answer the question: How could visualized messages and information about global warming encourage change in a viewer’s behavior? User tests of the finished prototype gave mixed results. The results suggest that the site succeeded in creating a positive tone and emotional impact, but were not as successful at encouraging change and raising perceived self-efficacy. It may have been successful at encouraging hopefulness, and informing, but it is a bit unclear due to contradicting results from quantitative personal ratings and qualitative interview answers.

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Table of contents Glossary ...... 4 1. Introduction ...... 5 1.1. Research question and Purpose...... 5 1.2. Limitations ...... 5 2. Theoretical framework ...... 6 2.1. Psychology ...... 6 2.1.1. The dragons of inaction ...... 6 2.1.2. Doom vs Hope ...... 6 2.2. Climate change and marketing ...... 7 2.3. Climate change communications (CCC) ...... 7 2.4. Visualising information ...... 7 2.4.1. Visualizing climate change ...... 8 3. Method ...... 9 3.1. Pre-study ...... 9 3.1.1. Survey ...... 9 3.1.2. Overview of similar websites ...... 9 3.2. Design process ...... 9 3.2.1. Revisions phase ...... 9 3.2.2. Detailing phase ...... 10 3.3. Results & Evaluation ...... 10 4. Pre-study ...... 11 4.1. Survey ...... 11 4.2. Overview of similar websites ...... 12 4.2.1. Visual design ...... 12 4.2.2. Calls to action ...... 12 4.2.3. Structure ...... 12 4.2.4. Miscellaneous ...... 13 5. Design process ...... 14 5.1. Revisions phase ...... 14 5.1.1. Specification of requirements/Brief ...... 14 5.1.2. Initial sketches ...... 15 5.1.3. Sitemaps ...... 16 5.1.4. Gathering of content ...... 17

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5.1.5. Lo-fi Prototype ...... 17 5.2. Detailing phase ...... 18 5.2.1. Creation of additional content ...... 18 5.2.2. Coding of Hi-Fi Prototype ...... 19 5.2.3. User tests ...... 19 5.2.4. Adjustments based on feedback from user tests ...... 21 6. Results & evaluation ...... 22 6.1. The final design ...... 22 6.2. Evaluation of the final design ...... 26 6.2.1. Perceived inequity and Solutions ...... 26 6.2.2. Technosalvation & Mistrust ...... 27 6.2.3. Future developing ...... 27 7. Conclusion ...... 28 8. Discussion ...... 30 8.1. Validity ...... 30 8.1.1. Method ...... 30 8.1.2. Sources...... 30 8.2. Results and analysis ...... 31 8.2.1. Evaluation of the final design ...... 31 8.3. Reflections about the design process ...... 31 8.4. Reliability ...... 31 8.5. Internal relevance ...... 31 8.6. External relevance ...... 31 8.7. Recommendations for future studies ...... 31 9. References ...... 32 Appendix 1 - Pre-study survey ...... 34 Appendix 2 - Questions for user tests ...... 39 Förintervju ...... 39 Test ...... 39 Avslutande frågor ...... 39 Appendix 3 – Final design ...... 40 Appendix 4 – Questions for selecting of user test participants ...... 41

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 Glossary Hi-fi (High Fidelity) prototype: An interactive computer-based prototype which looks like the real product (Arvola, 2020). Climate change mitigation: Climate change mitigation means to counteract or ease climate change, to act in an environmentally friendly way (NASA, 2021c). The value action gap: The value-action gap refers to the often big difference between what a person feels about an issue and what they are actually doing about it (Wibeck, 2014, 397).

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 1. Introduction The great challenge of our era can be said to be the environmental issues the world is now facing (Wibeck, 2014). Global warming, pollution, and deforestation, to mention a few. To help our planet big changes need to be made, but first information and persuasion need to reach the masses. For many, information of this type can feel overwhelming and depressing (see Appendix 1). To inform about environmental issues in a constructive way, which gives an actual effect, carefully thought through communication is needed. One possible format this could be done in is on a website. A website can be interactive and contain moving elements, which among other things means that it can include a certain amount of entertainment. A survey performed in relation to this study found that if information about environmental issues is presented in an entertaining way people are more willing to look at it (see Appendix 1). There are many kinds of barriers which may prevent an individual from taking climate change mitigating action. Climate change communication literature suggests barriers such as scientific illiteracy and socio- cultural factors (Wibeck, 2014). In the field of climate psychology there are what is referred to as psychological barriers to information about or taking action on climate change. Robert Gifford (2011) compiles a categorized list of them which he calls “The dragons of inaction”. Out of the many environmental issues, this essay will focus on global warming. This topic has been chosen because it is a) a global issue and b) the root of many other issues such as for example extreme weather patterns and wildfires (NASA, 2019). The study will first gather research and knowledge about communication, marketing and psychology which can affect an individual’s behavior in relation to the environment. Then this knowledge will be applied practically in a Hi-Fi prototype of a website.

1.1. Research question and Purpose The purpose of this essay is to research how messages and information about climate change, specifically about global warming can best be formulated to encourage climate change mitigating action in individuals, and create an example of how those findings can be applied in practice in a prototype of a website. -How could visualized messages and information about global warming encourage change in a viewers behavior? 1.2. Limitations This study will focus on visualizations of global warming on websites, specifically desktop websites. The study will not include climate change deniers in the target audience, since I believe that it is a big issue in itself which warrants studies, strategies and solutions of its own. The target audience for the website which will be made in this study is people who have a value-action gap (see Glossary). In other words: people who have values that do not correspond with their actions, people who may want to act climate friendly but do not.

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 2. Theoretical framework In this chapter the theoretical framework used for the study will be presented. 2.1. Psychology The study will touch upon how people react to information about global warming and climate change as a whole. Psychological aspects are much at play, and therefore research from the field of psychology becomes relevant. When explaining psychological reactions to climate change much of mainstream psychology places emphasis on psychological barriers as the reason for inaction toward climate change (Adams, 2021). 2.1.1. The dragons of inaction Robert Gifford writes about “The Dragons of inaction” (2011), a categorized list of psychological barriers which can prevent or limit a person from acting in an environmentally friendly way. These barriers apply to those people who have the possibility to make these changes, and are not prevented by things such as geographical location or not having sufficient finances. The categories of “dragons” Gifford presents are: Limited cognition, Ideologies, Comparisons with others, Sunk costs, Discredence, Perceived risks and Limited behavior. Gifford acknowledges that these barriers sometimes overlap and combine. Some notable barriers relevant to this study in these categories are:

• Environmental numbness (Limited cognition). It can be one of two kinds: 1) The person does not notice environmental issues. They are not paying attention to climate change because it is not affecting them and causing any immediate personal difficulties for them. 2) The person has heard about climate change too often and has become numb to it. • Perceived behavioral control and self-efficacy (Limited cognition). The person believes that they themselves cannot make a difference, they do not feel like they have any power. This is related to fatalism; believing that nothing can be done, neither by an individual nor by humans or all of society working together. • Technosalvation (Ideologies). An overly optimistic belief that technological advances will on their own solve climate change, and that no other actions need to be taken. • Perceived Inequity (Comparisons with others). Fearing (or knowing) that others will not contribute and act environmentally friendly, and therefore not wanting to do so themselves. ”Why should I make an effort when others don’t?” • Mistrust (Discredence). Trust in the sources informing about climate change is very important. The smallest disruption in trust can do much damage, and in turn lessen the chances of a behavior changed for the better of the environment. Gifford also took part in a study which showed that empowering messages were more efficient in encouraging climate-friendly action than so called sacrifice messages (Comeau, L., & Gifford, R., 2011). 2.1.2. Doom vs Hope Climate psychologist Per Espen Stoknes (2015) points out that messages about the climate often has a feeling of doom and disaster which most often does not lead to any action or change, and argues that communication about climate change should instead have a more positive tone to attempt to create hope and action.

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 2.2. Climate change and marketing The National Endowment for Science and Technology Association, or NESTA (2008), suggests that campaigns which seek to influence individuals to be more environmentally friendly should learn from marketing and advertising, and borrow techniques and strategies. They should for example think more about the importance of emotions – particularly positive emotions – in marketing. Positive feelings associated with a brand often leads to the behavior of a consumer buying a brand. In other words: positive emotions associated to a behavior encourages that behavior. NESTA suggest this can be applied to communication prompting pro-environmental behaviors, by focusing on for example the positive emotions a person may experience after doing something environmentally friendly. Maibach, Roser-Renouf and Leiserowitz (2008) recommends that when messages about environmental issues are based on fear, it should be accompanied by strong efficacy-enhancing messages. In other words, if a message contains or is about something fearful it should be followed by a message which encourages the reader to know that they have the power to make a difference. 2.3. Climate change communications (CCC) Within climate change communication there are two main approaches. The first includes the thought that when the public does not act for the good of the environment it is due to an “information deficit”; the public does not understand the scientific matter of climate change, and that is why they do not act to mitigate it. The goal of this line of thinking is to educate the public to improve their scientific understanding of climate change (Wibeck, 2014). The other approach is to focus on encouraging public engagement instead of improving public understanding. These two approaches tend to go together and coexist (Trench, 2008). During the past two decades there has been a noticeable shift of focus in much CCC literature from a public understanding approach to a public engagement approach (Wibeck, 2014). Literature on CCC present three ways for the public to respond to climate change: lifestyle change, political influence and participation in climate science and policy dialogue (Wibeck, 2014, 394). Maibach et al. (2008) further proposes four areas in which individuals can make lifestyle changes to mitigate climate change. These areas are: “reduction of household energy use, recycling, surface transportation behavior and “green” consumerism”. Wibeck (2014) states two roles that individuals acting together as a collective play in climate change mitigation. The first is to exert influence via consumption patterns as consumers, and the second is to exert political influence by supporting environmentally friendly policies. Like the psychology discussed in chapter 2.1, CCC literature also discuss barriers that prevent individuals from taking climate change mitigating action. Some of these barriers are scientific illiteracy (lay people not understanding the science of climate change) (Wibeck, 2014, 396) and socio-cultural factors such as: social norms, political orientation, worldviews, religious views as well as a sense of agency or lack thereof (Wibeck, 2014). A sense of agency is reminiscent of Giffords psychological barrier of perceived behavioral control and self-efficacy (see 2.1.) .A few other barriers, presented by Susanne Moser (2006), are disinterest, apathy and filters against too much information. Adriane Lam et al (2019, 1) points out that digital media which attempts to explain climate change often either do so in a too complex and scientific manner, or oversimplify it so much that the scientific meaning is lost. Lam et al emphasizes the importance of providing digital explanations of climate change which are reader-friendly and free from scientific jargon. 2.4. Visualising information Visualizations of information have many benefits. One of those is that a well made data visualization can convey and make a viewer understand a very large amount of information. They can also help people solve problems faster, as well as see patterns and changes (Ware, 2021, 3).

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 2.4.1. Visualizing climate change Many perceive climate change as far away, both in time and space (Poortinga et al. 2011, 1016). Both the consequences and solutions to climate change are experienced this way: “the issue is too far away to affect me” and “the issue is too far away for me to do anything about it” (Wibeck, 2014, 399). Combined with the complicated and sometimes abstract nature of climate change, there is a need for visualizing the issue. Visualizations can serve the purpose of making the perceived abstract concept of climate change concrete and specific; it can explain the issue and it can also make the viewer feel “closer” to the issue (ibis). The color green is associated with nature and the environment (Adams, 2017). The word “green” is sometimes used as a synonym to “environmentally friendly”. Red and blue have been used a bit in climate change communication to symbolize going from a colder (blue) temperature to a warmer (red) temperature, but Birgit Schneider and Thomas Nocke (2018) argue that it is not optimal to do so. They write that although red may help to effectively communicate the severity of the situation it can also make people feel helpless and paint a picture of catastrophe, which does not lead to anything constructive.

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 3. Method This chapter describes the method which will be used for the study. This method is loosely based on the three phases of a design project described by Mattias Arvola in Interactiondesign and UX – about creating a good user experience (2020). These three phases are: The concept phase, The revisions phase and the detailing phase. It is foremost the structure of the design process which will be based on Arvola’s methods. This method is a simple and clear method made for designing apps, websites and the like, which makes it suitable for a website such as the one in this study. 3.1. Pre-study This part of the work falls into what Arvola (2020) describes as the Concept phase. It is chiefly research (literary and a survey) and analysis. At the start of the concept phase there is only a problem, a situation which needs some kind of a solution, and during the phase the designer or designers figure out a concept which should attempt to solve the problem/situation. The phase is mostly research and analysis from which insights come that in turn lead to possible concepts, from which one is later chosen(ibid). 3.1.1. Survey The pre-study will begin with a quantitative survey (see Appendix 1). The aim of the survey is to investigate how people feel and act related to information about environmental issues, and also includes some questions about websites and what people feel makes them enjoyable. The survey will be shared on Facebook in several groups as well as on the author’s private page. All questions will be in Swedish because that is the main language of the survey target group. 3.1.2. Overview of similar websites A general overview will be done about similar websites on the topic of climate change. The overview will focus on design and structure, for example how a site explains climate change and connects it with calls to action. The websites surveyed will be: greenpeace.org/sweden (2021), WWF (n.d.), timescavengers.blog (n.d.), ipcc.ch (n.d.), fridaysforfuture.org (2021), 350.org (n.d.), climate.nasa.gov (NASA, 2021a) and edf.org (2021).

3.2. Design process The lessons findings from the pre-study will be used as a foundation during the creation of a website. The process will be as follows: 3.2.1. Revisions phase The revisions phase starts when the designers know what to do, and starts deciding how the product should be made and designed. The designers adapt the concept to be more practically workable. (Arvola, 2020).

• Specification of requirements/Brief o Based on the research done in the pre-study a brief will be compiled for the website. This brief will lay the foundation for the site. • Initial sketches • Sitemaps o Sitemaps will map the structure of the website. They will be based on the research made in the pre-study. • Gathering of content o Copy, data, video etc. will be gathered from various open-source sources. • Lo-Fi (Low Fidelity) Prototype o A very simple, non-interactive prototype will be made in Adobe InDesign, to be used only as a support in the work.

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 3.2.2. Detailing phase Last there is the detailing phase. Here it is decided in detail, concretely, how the product should be designed. Now a detailed as well as realistic prototype is made of the product (Arvola, 2020).

• Creation of additional content o Copy(text for the website), illustrations etc. will be created. • Coding of Hi-Fi prototype o A prototype of a website will be made, using code. • User tests o Qualitative user tests, with a quantitative section, will be used to evaluate the Hi-Fi prototype of the site. For more details, see 3.3. • Adjustments based on feedback from user tests.

3.3. Results & Evaluation The Hifi prototype of the website will be evaluated using qualitative user tests. The participants of the tests will be chosen more consciously than the participants of the survey and will be part of the target audience (people who have a value-action gap concerning climate change). Potential participants will be asked to agree or disagree with two statements, on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 is do not agree at all, 10 is agree completely). The first statement is about how environmentally friendly they consider themselves to be, the second is about how environmentally friendly they would like to be. Those with differentiating answers between the questions – which suggests they have a value-action gap – will be asked to participate. To see the questions in full please see Appendix 4. It should be noted that the self-evaluations the possible participants are asked to make are purely subjective – one person may consider themselves environmentally friendly but not be, while another person who may be very concerned about climate change may not think that they are doing enough and rate themselves lower, even though they are in fact more environmentally friendly than the first person. Another thing that should be taken into considerations is norms: it may be difficult to be completely honest about ones feeling concerning the climate and a person may say that they care more about the environment than they in fact do. The user tests (see Appendix 2) start with a short, semi-structured pre-interview, then the user gets to look around on the page while thinking aloud, and the test ends with another short interview. The tests will evaluate the user’s willingness to make changes in their behavior in favour of the environment, before and after looking at the website. This will be done both by the qualitative semi-structured interviews and by asking the participants to agree or disagree with a set of statements on a scale from 1 to 10, which gives quantitative data. The interviews will also include questions which will focus on liking, emotion, and perceived self-efficacy in relation to climate change.

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 4. Pre-study This chapter presents the results from a quantitative survey and from a short overview of some similar websites. 4.1. Survey A short survey was sent out. It was shared in Facebook groups as well as on the authors private Facebook page. The survey had 12 questions and received 57 answers. The survey starts with some demographic questions, then it goes on to ask about how dedicated and interested the respondents are about environmental issues. After that the survey investigates attitudes towards information about environmental issues, and what kind of emotional impact this information usually leaves. The last question is more general and asks about what the respondents think makes a website entertaining (the full survey is available in Appendix 1). A majority of the respondents were in the age group of 19-28 and were women. When asked to agree or disagree on a scale from 1-5 with the phrase “I care a lot about the environment” all the respondents replied 3 or higher, with higher and higher percentages the stronger the agreement. This suggests that the respondents care much about the environment. The next phrase for the respondents to agree or disagree with was “I feel motivated to make changes in my behavior for the sake of the environment”, and on this one there was less of a tendency to agree. The answers were almost evenly split in three between 5, 4 and 3. 3,5% (two persons) responded 2. This suggests a difference in how much respondents care about the environment and if they are motivated to actually help the environment. This is an example of the value- action gap (see Glossary). The next few statements for the respondents to agree or disagree with concerned how the respondents feel about seeing information about environmental issues. On “I don’t like seeing information about environmental issues” most responded that they fully or mostly disagree and a little less than a fifth said 3 (neutral). Only 5,3% said 4 (mostly agree). This contrasts how the majority of the respondents said they care much about the environment, they care but there are also some who do not want to see information about the issue. A similar but not as strong trend can be seen in the answers to the next statement – “I get annoyed when I see information about environmental issue”. The majority stated that they fully or mostly disagreed, 8% responded that they were neutral and 5,3% responded that they mostly agreed. When asked to agree or disagree with the phrase “I am willing to take in information about environmental issues” a majority agreed fully or mostly (52% said 5, 35% said 4). 12% stated that they were neutral. When those who did not agree fully were asked why, 73% responded that it was because it was depressing. A hypothesis I had before the survey was that if content about environmental issues is wrought in an entertaining way people would be more willing to look at it. The survey results somewhat confirmed the hypothesis, but not as strongly as I anticipated. 61% responded that they fully or mostly agreed, but 21% said they were neutral, 10,5% said they mostly disagreed and 7% even said they fully disagreed. This shows that while many may be more receptive to content made to be entertaining about the environment, not everyone are. A majority of the respondents agreed that if a message or information about environmental issues was followed by a concrete suggestion of what they could do about it, they felt more positively inclined toward that message (see question 10, in Appendix 1). 73% of the respondents said they felt Helpless/Powerless after seeing information about environmental issues. The psychological barrier of Perceived behavioral control and self-efficacy is about not believing that you as an individual can make a difference (see chapter 2.1), and these survey results show that this barrier is common in the respondent group. When asked about what makes a website entertaining the respondents replied with a variety of things. 71% said “exciting layout”, 63% interactive elements and 42% said moving elements. Other suggestions

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 were videos, good interaction design, not too much text, easy to read and navigate, clear and stylish, the website working the way it should, giving clear information and sources as well as no pop ups. One respondent pondered whether a website could actually be entertaining.

Several respondents noted a frustration with how they experience that blame and responsibility is put on individual civilians when they felt that the majority of climate change is caused by corporations. However justified, this is the kind of frustration which may trigger the barrier of Perceived inequity (see chapter 2.1), and cause individuals not to take action of their own.

4.2. Overview of similar websites A simple overview was made of 8 websites which all cover the topic of climate change. The websites ranged from international NGOs (Non Governmental Organisations) focused on activism to governmental agencies like NASA to purely educational websites (for example timescavengers.blog). 4.2.1. Visual design A few trends could be noticed. First: design-wise several of the sites had similar start pages. They had either a header of changing images or a soundless video overlapped by a title and preamble in white text (sans serif). This similarity is most likely due to current website design trends in general. Most of the websites had modern looking, bright websites with much white (for example most backgrounds were white). Surprisingly, the color green was not as common as I expected, even though it is a color very associated with nature (Adams, 2017). Among the selected websites it was still the most common, but other colors appeared as well. Blue was recurring. Green was most common in websites focused on the environment, and sites focusing on activism or education were less likely to use green. However, even some of the sites which did not have green in backgrounds, accents, text or the like had green as a very common color in the photographs on the site. Photographs were common in general, especially in sites focused on activism. The tone of the photographs was much in line with the tone of the website; those websites pushing a self-efficacy message (which was common) had many hopeful images of nature, children and technology. A self-efficacy message was very often combined with a prompt to donate to the organization in question. Red was used sparsely on most sites, which is wise if one considers Schneider and Nockes article The Feeling of Red and Blue—A Constructive Critique of Color Mapping in Visual Climate Change Communication, discussed in 3.5.1.. It was mostly reserved for “Donate now”- buttons. 4.2.2. Calls to action Most of the NGOs reviewed presented supporting their organization as the most important, or only, solution to climate change for an individual. Some websites did not involve any call to action to the individual and merely presented facts, including informing about what was being done by their organization or government about climate change (for example NASA, 2021b). There was a lack of websites which combined messages to get involved politically or via supporting an organization, with messages about lifestyle choices individuals can make, such as eating less meat or using public transportation more. In many websites it was just one or the other. An exception was WWF.se (2021), which did both. 4.2.3. Structure Some websites followed a similar trend in the structure of their explanation of climate change:

• “It’s warming. It’s us. We’re sure. It’s bad. We can fix it.” – (350.org, n.d.) • “Evidence, causes, effects, solutions” – (NASA, 2021a) • “What is the climate crisis? The climate crisis in numbers. What we’re doing. What you can do” – (WWF, n.d,)

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In a somewhat simplified version, my interpretation of the pattern which appears is:

• What is happening? Presenting what is happening. • Why is it happening? Explaining and proving that it is due to human activity. • What effects will it have? Showing the effects it will have (e.g. rising sea levels). • How do we fix it? Solutions, on a global and on an individual scale (What can I do?). These separate points either appear together one after another on one page (350.org, n.d.), or on separate pages for each point (NASA, 2021b & WWF.se, n.d.). Most of the sites presented only either solutions on a global level or on an individual level, and not both. 4.2.4. Miscellaneous Most of the websites contained news articles or blog posts of some kind. It varied how many and how emphasized they were. The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) have a page with interactive graphics which give an overview of the causes, effects and solutions to climate change, as well as descriptions of what EDF is working on for the issue (Environmental defense fund, 2020). EDF divides solutions to climate change into three categories: Reduce (reduce emissions), Remove (for example by storing carbon in forests, and new pollution removal technologies) and Resilience (preparing communities and nature for the effects of climate change which may already be inevitable, for example by preparing for flooding). The symbol or icon of a globe (the Earth) was a recurring motive on many sites, appearing for example on the websites of NASA and the Environmental Defense Fund (2020).

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 5. Design process This chapter is about the process of designing the Hi-Fi prototype of the site. It starts with a brief for the work and ends with the user tests and the changes which will be made based on the feedback from the user tests. The final design (including changes made after the user tests) will not be presented in this chapter but instead in Chapter 6. Most specific connections to the theoretical framework in the different sections of the website will also be in Chapter 6. 5.1. Revisions phase 5.1.1. Specification of requirements/Brief 5.1.1.1. The objective The website attempts to encourage individuals to take climate change mitigating action. 5.1.1.2. The target audience This website is aimed at individuals and not organisations or governments. It is aimed at the general public, and mostly at those who already do feel some desire to act climate friendly but for some reason do not, in other words: people who have a value-action gap. As previously stated the target audience excludes climate change deniers. 5.1.1.3. Structure I have modified the pattern in structure of the presentations of climate change found on similar websites in the pre-study (see 4.2.3), this is the result which is used on the website:

• What is happening? This section presents the basics of climate change: rising temperatures, melting ice caps and rising sea levels, extreme weather patterns etc. • Why is it happening? This section explains that climate change is due to human activity. Shortly explains how emissions of greenhouse gases affect the climate. • How do we fix it? Presenting solutions to climate change on a global level. Here I will borrow the EDFs structure of Reduce, Remove and Resilience (see chapter 4.2.4 for more on this). • What can I do? Presenting solutions to climate change on an individual level. This section will split into three sections: Donate (includes a list of organizations to donate to), Get involved (about activism and politics) and Lifestyle change (includes a list of changes an individual can make to their everyday life). 5.1.1.4. The message theme The message theme attempts to be positive and encourage self-efficacy, or a stronger sense of agency. Too much of the conversation around climate change has a negative tone (Wibeck, 2014), and as NESTA (2008) points out, associating positive emotions with a behavior reinforces and encourages that behavior. This is an important part of marketing, but it can also be applied to climate change communication. 5.1.1.5. Design and tone Design wise I attempt to follow current design trends. In a website about climate change many use green, but it may feel too expected and other colors can add some interest. I use green and some accenting colors such as yellow, pink and blue. A trend found in the pre-study was websites which used a white background with most of the color of the site on photographs, illustrations, and sometimes text. I do something similar. Since a strong self-efficacy message is to be used, the tone of the photographs are a hopeful one, since this was a correlation found in the pre-study. 5.1.1.6. Language Websites should try to explain climate change in a reader friendly way, and avoid scientific jargon (Lam et al, 2019). One should remember that scientific illiteracy may be a barrier preventing some from understanding and mitigating climate change (Wibeck, 2014, 396), you cannot expect all readers to be familiar with the science.

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 5.1.2. Initial sketches Below are some early sketches of wireframes for the site.

Figure 1: Early sketch of structure and layout of the site

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 5.1.3. Sitemaps For a more detailed description of the structure please see chapter 5.1.1.3.

Figure 2: Site map – simple version

Figure 3: Site map – detailed version

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 5.1.4. Gathering of content Photographs and short videoclips are collected from online stock providers such as pexels.com and pixabay.com. Data for the site is collected from various places; for example for a graph which compares temperatures through the years since before the industrial revolution data is collected from NASA (2021). The copy – the text – on the website is mostly written by the author. 5.1.5. Lo-fi Prototype A simple Lo-fi prototype is made in InDesign. At the same time preliminary colors, fonts and style were chosen. Red is not included in the color palette, because it can communicate a sense of catastrophe and make people feel helpless (Schneider & Nocke, 2018).

Figure 4: Style guide The colors of the site will be bright, happy and calm. As often as possible, the shapes and corners on the site will be rounded (not implemented yet on the Lo-Fi prototype below).

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Figure 5: Lo-fi prototype 5.2. Detailing phase 5.2.1. Creation of additional content A video clip is put together from stock footage, to be used as a looping video in the header of the site. Illustrations are also created. They are made in a very simple style. In the overview of similar websites (see 4.2) it was found that an illustration or picture of the Earth was common. Therefore an illustration of a small earth will be used in the navigation bar to replace the start button which otherwise often is the logotype of the organisation which runs the website.

Figure 6: Illustrations for the “How do we fix it?”-section

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Figure 7: Illustrations for the “What can I do?”-section 5.2.2. Coding of Hi-Fi Prototype The Hi-Fi prototype is coded from scratch using HTML, CSS and Javascript. First a structure is created, then design as well as interactive and moving features are added. A chart on the site is coded using the Javascript library charts.js. Making of animated versions of the illustrations are begun, but not finished before the user tests due to time constraints.

5.2.3. User tests 6 people participated in the user evaluation tests, where they got to answer some questions and look through the Hi-Fi prototype of the website (see Appendix 2). Most of the participants considered themselves to be a little bit more invested and familiar with environmental issues than the average person. 5.2.3.1. Emotional impact The participants said when they experience climate change communication they often feel sad, scared, despair, hopeless, guilt tripped and frustrated about how they experience that guilt is placed on individuals and not organisations, businesses and governments. In general, the participants had a positive impression of the website. The participants described the website as hopeful, happy, calm, clean, fresh, simple, stylish, modern, informative, serious and very structured. One participant said that the site did not have any surprising or dramatic elements and requested moving and animated content. After looking at the site the participants said that they felt hopeful and informed. One participant said that they felt a bit mournful, and that they always felt that way when seeing things about the climate. But the same person also said that the website felt hopeful and ended on a positive note. One participant pondered if the site was a bit too optimistic – “Can we actually fix climate change?”. 5.2.3.2. Self-evaluation before and after the test Before and after the test the participants were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with the following statements on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is completely disagree and 10 is agree completely (the statements have here been translated from Swedish): 1. I feel motivated to make changes to my behavior for the sake of the environment. 2. I am willing to make changes to my behavior for the sake of the environment. 3. I know what would need to be done to mitigate global warming. 4. I do not personally have power to mitigate global warming. 5. It feels hopeless to try to mitigate climate change. Below is a comparison of the participants’ answers before and after seeing the website.

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Participant Participant Participant Participant Participant Participant no 1 no 2 no 3 no 4 no 5 no 6 Statement 7/8 8/8 8/8 8/10 5/6 10/10 no 1 Statement 8/8 8/7 7/7 9/9 8/8 9/9 no 2 Statement 6/7 5/5 4/6 7/6 5/5 5/5 no 3 Statement 6/7 3/3 8/7 5/6 9/8 10/9 no 4 Statement 7/7 6/2 1/1 4/4 7/8 1/1 no 5 Table 1: Quantitative self-evaluations before and after the test

The answers before and after the test do not change much, and there are only some small changes. 5.2.3.3. Solutions Participants said that they liked that the solutions were split into two sections, one section about what society as a whole can do and one section about individual action. Under “What can I do?” the participants appreciated that three kinds of actions were presented. They said that it felt balanced. Some of them were tired of seeing only one of these options presented in climate change communication: some felt it was good that Lifestyle change was presented as an option because not everyone can afford to donate or have time to get involved, and others felt it was important that Donate and Get involved were presented as options, since they felt this was the only way to actually have a big effect. 5.2.3.4. Subpages, trust and credibility Many of the participants expressed a desire to be able to read more about a section or topic, and suggested “read more”-buttons or a link which would send them to a separate subpage. These participants said that they had a hard time judging the site without these more in-depth pages, since the site did not feel complete without them. A couple of the participants felt that they were missing sources for the information in the text, and stated that this was something they felt to be important. Most participants did not notice that there were links to the sources for the information in the text. These would become bolded text when hovered over, but the participants did not notice them or did not realise they were links and not just effects. On a similar note, one participant mentioned that they were missing a sender for the page, an organisation who could stand behind it and for example have contact information in the footer. The participant felt that this was important for credibility. The need for sources and a reliable organisation to stand behind the site seems much like the psychological barrier of Mistrust (see 2.1). 5.2.3.5. Critique of the design Two of the participants were confused about the illustration for Remove, and wondered if this meant “Remove trees” instead of the intended “Remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by planting trees”. This was perhaps not very surprising, since I had also had this concern. This further clarifies the need to animate this illustration. A couple of the participants noted that they were not fond of the graph at the beginning of the “What is happening”-section. They expressed that they felt numbers and graphs to be a bit boring or numbing, and did not contribute much to either visual aesthetic or emotional stimuli. It was also expressed by a participant that it was unfortunate that the first two steps were indeed first, since they were not the most interesting or engaging. Some participants felt that the two first sections (which explain climate change and its causes) were not thorough and strong enough, and they were concerned that they would not convince someone who does not believe in climate change.

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 5.2.4. Adjustments based on feedback from user tests • Some of the illustrations will be animated. • The video in the header will be slowed down a bit (one participant said that the video gave them motion sickness). • The globe in the header will be replaced with the word “Start” (a participant confused this with a button to change languages). • The graph in the first section will get a redesign with a bolder color • “Read more” buttons or a link to (hypothetical) subpages will be added to more sections to provide a chance for the visitor to read more in depth about a topic. • The sources will be spelled out and made more noticeable • The navigation menu will be made less transparent for better readability • A live link to a list of lifestyle changes – possibly from an external site – will be added under “Lifestyle changes” in “What can I do?” • Fictional contact information will be added to the Footer

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 6. Results & evaluation In this chapter the final design is presented along with a final evaluation of the website. The design has been updated after feedback from the user tests. This chapter will present the design section by section, and include some specific connections to the theoretical framework. In Appendix 3 the final design of the website can be seen as a whole. 6.1. The final design An important barrier that was considered throughout was Environmental numbness: a viewer may have heard about climate change too often and has become numb to it. An attempt to counter this is made by attempting to make the website enjoyable in other ways, such as a pleasing, happy aesthetic and entertaining features such as moving elements (these were things respondents to the pre-study survey found made a website enjoyable, see 4.1 or Appendix 1). These things also attempt to counter the barriers of apathy and disinterest from climate change communication literature (Moser, 2006). The site will attempt to focus on encouraging public engagement instead of improving public understanding, in line with current climate change communication literature (Wibeck, 2014). However, aiming to improve public understanding and public engagement often go together (Trench, 2008). 6.1.1. Start

Figure 8: Start The site starts with a header with a looping (muted) video. It has a white title on it with the words “A world worth protecting”. The start of the page follows current design trends observed in the overview of similar sites (see 4.2) The video is mostly made up of calm nature scenes but also includes symbolic motifs such as ice and a fire burning. These parts of the video are not of a frightening nature, but holds subtle messages. The ice could symbolize melting ice caps and the fire could symbolize wildfires, but the footage itself is not of a dramatic nature and it is more up to the viewer to make those connections. All footage and pictures on the site are intended to not be frightening or push a “catastrophic apocalypse narrative”.

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6.1.2. What is happening?

Figure 9: What is happening? This section is just made to in a short and simple manner present climate change and a few of its consequences. It is made up of two subsections, one of which has a graph and one of which has a picture. The chart is of the global temperatures from 1880 to present day. The data is retrieved from NASA (NASA, 2021b). Data visualization like this can help a person understand a large amount of data and help them see patterns (Ware, 2021), here the pattern which is shown is the substantial temperature change. Visualizations can also make a viewer feel closer to the issue of climate change (Wibeck, 2014) and here the graph brings the temperature change closer to the viewer time-wise.

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6.1.3. Why is it happening?

Figure 10: Why is it happening? This section focuses on showing the connection between human emissions and climate change.

6.1.4. How do we fix it?

Figure 11: How do we fix it? This section presents solutions to climate change on a societal, global scale. There was concern both from user test participants and myself that the illustration for Remove (see above) would be misinterpreted as “we should remove trees” and not as the intended “plant trees to remove carbon from the air”. ”. At the same time, it may be necessary to include a tree here, in order to not run into the barrier of Technosalvation (see chapter 3.1). Technosalvation may convince a person that technology on its own will solve climate change. There is new technology which can pull carbon dioxide from the air and store it in solid form (Doyle, 2021), but it is very expensive, and critics point out that planting and protecting forests are a more effective, viable and cheap option. Therefore including a tree in this illustration seems necessary. To avoid confusion this illustration and those beside it are animated.

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6.1.5. What can I do?

Figure 12: What can I do? This section presents solutions to climate change on an individual level. The section combines presenting becoming active politically or via an organisation, as an activist or by donating, and making a lifestyle change. This was found to be rare on websites in the Pre-study. The barrier of Perceived behavioral control and self-efficacy has been considered throughout the page. Lack of a belief in self efficacy was a common issue among the respondents to the survey (see Appendix 1), and among the participants of the user tests. This appears to be an important barrier to get over, therefore the website attempts to emphasize enhancing self-efficacy. This is for example done by presenting several ways for an individual to mitigate climate change, with specific examples available via a link. Presenting simple suggestions for specific actions to take like this is also an example of nudging, which Per Espen Stoknes (2015) presents as a way to overcome the psychological defense of Dissonance.

6.1.6. Footer

Figure 13: Footer The footer includes contact information for the company behind the page, to increase credibility and counter Mistrust (see 2.1). This was requested in the user tests, a participant said that the site would feel more trustworthy if there was contact information in the footer.

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 6.2. Evaluation of the final design The interview questions and the responses to the statements in the user tests reveal that the participants experience several of Robert Giffords psychological barriers (see chapter 2.1.1.). For example they show environmental numbness of the second kind; many spoke about how it is tiresome and depressing to hear about climate change over and over. The participants also said that they usually experience negative feelings after seeing climate change communication (as did the participants of the pre study survey). After looking at the site all but one participant said that they felt happy and informed. The participants did not experience the site as tiresome and depressing as they did other climate change communication, which suggests that the site did well concerning the barrier of Environmental numbness (mainly the second kind, which was the most common one among the participants). It also suggests that the site has a positive emotional impact. This is a good sign, since both marketing (NESTA, 2008) and climate psychology (Stoknes, 2015) argue for a positive tone and positive emotional impact in communication about climate change to encourage climate friendly behavior. Almost all participants of the user tests expressed a feeling of low perceived behavioral control and self efficacy. The two last statements in Table 1 (see 5.2.3.2.) refer mainly to this barrier. After looking at the website the participants only showed a very small improvement for this. In general there were only very small changes in how much the participants agreed with the statements posed before and after seeing the site. That suggests that the site did not have as big of an impact as hoped in the areas which the statements concerned. These were: the participants desire and willingness to act for the sake of the environment, their knowledge about how to mitigate climate change, their perceived self-efficacy/sense of agency and hope for mitigating climate change.

As stated above the site was not visibly successful in raising perceived self-efficacy, but it was however successful in inspiring hope. I would like to argue that hope and perceived self-efficacy/sense of agency can be related, and influence each other. Hope that something can be done may very well be the first step to thinking that something can be done by oneself. In two areas the answers to the quantitative self-ratings differ from the answers to the qualitative interview questions. For example, many participants stated that they felt informed after looking at the website, but only a minimal difference is seen in the participants rating of the statement “I know what would need to be done to mitigate global warming”. Many of the participants also said that they felt hopeful after looking at the site, but once again there is very little difference in how the participants rated the statement: “It feels hopeless to try to mitigate climate change”. This suggests that the ratings are not completely reliable, at least not on these two topics. As expected, the participants of the user tests did not feel that the explanations on the site of climate change and its connection to human emissions were quite strong enough to convince someone who does not believe in climate change, unless they were complemented by a more thorough sub-page. This is not a big problem though, since this study specifically excluded climate change deniers, and it also seems easily remedied by simply adding subpages. 6.2.1. Perceived inequity and Solutions Respondents to the survey expressed frustration over how they experience that climate change communication often put responsibility for causing, and solving, climate change on individuals. They felt that organisations and governments are more at fault for and have a bigger responsibility to mitigate climate change. This may be connected to the barrier of Perceived inequity, feeling that others are not doing their part may inhibit an individual’s own climate change mitigating action. Perceived inequity was common among the participants of the user tests as well. Perceived inequity is especially important in the last two steps of presenting climate change which deal with solutions to climate change (How do we fix it? and What can I do?). This is part of the reason I have made those two steps separate. If you see chapter 5.2, this is not something the other sites I looked at do. Instead they present all solutions in one go, which in my opinion can lead to emphasizing either

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 individual or societal collective action over another. If a set of climate change communication focuses on individual action individuals may feel that all responsibility is put on them, which annoys them. But if it instead focuses on collective societal action and speak mostly about what corporations and governments can do, individuals may feel less responsible to take action of their own. It may be easy to think that only governments and corporations can mitigate climate change but individual climate change mitigating action can also have a big effect. Wibeck (2014) writes about the two main roles individuals acting together can play to make a difference: influence via consumption patterns as consumers, and influence politically by supporting environmentally friendly policies. Therefore including a section on individual climate change mitigating action is important. Including this is also important to boost self efficacy, give the individual a sense of agency, as well as give them a chance to channel the negative emotions they may experience from seeing content about climate change into something constructive, and not just leave them feeling depressed about the situation. Both individual and collective societal action are important, and therefore I believe they should be separated into two equal sections and given equal weight. Splitting the solutions section proved effective in the user tests to not emphasize either individual or societal action and therefore did not frustrate the participants of the user tests and cause a feeling of perceived inequity. The participants reacted very positively to this. 6.2.2. Technosalvation & Mistrust Technosalvation has carefully been avoided on the site, and none of the participants of the user tests showed any sign of it. When it came to the barrier of Mistrust some improvements were requested during the user tests, for example more – and more noticeable – sources. After improvements have been made based on this feedback the site hopefully stands up better to this barrier, but it cannot be known for sure without more user tests. 6.2.3. Future developing If the site were ever to be further developed, a next step could be to add a news section with stories about ordinary people taking action for the environment. Stoknes (2015) presents this as a good way to counter the cognitive defense of Identity, in which a person’s values and identity may clash with the values of climate change communication.

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 7. Conclusion Climate psychology (Stoknes, 2015) and marketing (NESTA, 2008) argue that visualized messages about climate change should have a positive tone and aim for a positive emotional impact. Creating a feeling of “doom” and catastrophe is strongly advised against (Stoknes, 2015). Communication about global warming should aim to associate climate change mitigating behavior with positive emotions (NESTA, 2008). Because of these things my website attempts to be happy and hopeful (and succeeds, see 5.2.3.) using bright and “happy” colors, rounded corners and non-threatening images. Having a happy tone is also good for attempting to counter the psychological barrier of Environmental numbness. Adding a visually pleasing aesthetic and attempting to entertain by use of for example moving elements also helps counter the CCC barriers of apathy and disinterest. This is one of the reasons why there are multiple moving elements on the site. In general the psychological barriers of the Dragons of inaction should be kept in mind when creating communication about climate change. For example one should consider mistrust and have sources which are reliable, visible and easy to notice. Cultivate trust, it is very important that the readers trust the sender of the information. Technosalvation is a barrier one should be careful of, and take care not to emphasize a “miracle-technology” as the only solution. Instead present a balanced set of solutions. One should also consider the barrier of Perceived behavioral control and self-efficacy, similar to what Wibeck (2014) discusses as a lack of sense of agency. Lack of a belief in self efficacy was a common issue among the respondents to the survey (Appendix 1) and the participants of the user tests. This appears to be an important barrier to get over, therefore it is important to encourage self-efficacy or sense of agency. My website attempts to do this both in how the text is written and in giving the solutions a relatively big portion of the page. It is also done by presenting several ways to mitigate climate change in both the section about societal global action and in the section about individual action and by providing specific examples. Communication about global warming could be visualised on websites using the structure described in 5.1.1.3., which is based on the findings from the overview of similar websites in 4.2.. I specifically want to emphasize splitting the solutions section in two (one for individual action and one for global societal action) since this was successful in the user tests at getting past the barrier of perceived inequity (see 6.2.1). Climate change communication literature differs between having an approach focused on improving public understanding and encouraging public engagement. Much of CCC literature in later years focus more on the latter. The site takes this into consideration by making the path to the sections focused on solutions relatively short; all sections are short with a hypothetical longer page available, so that the viewer does not have to read through long sections about what causes climate change before getting to the solutions. Including and highlighting solutions is important for a number of reasons. It is important to inspire hope, to prompt actual action, to encourage self-efficacy, and presenting specific concrete actions – which can also be a form of nudging (Stoknes, 2015). CCC literature presents three ways for the public to respond to climate change: lifestyle change, political influence and participation in climate science and policy dialogue. These things are reflected in the subsections of the section on individual climate change mitigating actions; lifestyle change gets its own subsection and the two latter ones are combined into a section called “Get involved”. The third section “Donate” draws from the overview of similar websites (see 4.2.) where buttons and calls for donations were common. Visualizations of information can according to theory help people see patterns and changes easier (Ware, 2021), and it can help people feel closer to issues (Wibeck, 2014), something which can be particularly helpful when communicating climate change, which many experience as far away in time and space (Poortinga et al. 2011). One specific data visualization on the site was a graph of rising temperatures.

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Unfortunately the participants of the user tests were not fond of the graph and expressed that data and numbers were “boring”. It appears data visualizations have conflicting traits: they are good at informing and have the aforementioned benefits, but they are bad at entertaining, something which has been established as important in previous paragraphs. The purpose of this essay has been somewhat fulfilled in that findings from the research about communication concerning global warming have been compiled and later applied to create a prototype of a website. The prototype was evaluated at user tests and the results suggest that the site succeeded in creating a positive tone and emotional impact, but were not as successful at encouraging change and raising perceived self-efficacy. It may have been successful at encouraging hopefulness, and informing, but it is a bit unclear due to contradicting results from the quantitative personal ratings and the qualitative interview answers. Since the research question – “How could visualized messages and information about global warming encourage change in a viewers behavior?” – specifically pertains to behavior it seems that further research would be beneficial to find more unambiguous results and answers.

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 8. Discussion 8.1. Validity 8.1.1. Method The pre-study survey was made with a different research question in mind. Therefore all the information gathered in the survey may not be relevant to the current research question, and some information which might be needed for the current research question is not in the survey. It should be noted that a small mistake was made with the survey. On the demographic question about age some of the options available were 18-28, 28-38 and 38-48. Unfortunately, this means that respondents who were 28 and 38 years old ended up in two categories. The mistake was noticed and amended (changed so that the ages do not overlap) too late, and no respondents answered after the changes. Respondents to the survey are likely to be more interested in environmental issues than the average person, and this may effect the data. A person with an interest in the environment may be more likely to be willing to take a survey about that. The same may be said about the participants for the user tests. For the user tests there is also the issue of whether or not the participants actually fit into the target group (having a value-action gap). It is possible that the statements in the user tests – which the participants were asked to agree or disagree with on a scale from 1 to 10 – were not the right way to investigate change in participants views after seeing the site. Many of the participants were concerned that they did not remember how they had rated the statements earlier, and wanted to be able to compare their ratings. Perhaps it had been better to rephrase these questions and instead ask if the participants felt any differently after seeing the site, but there is a risk that those would have been leading questions, and the participants would have just said what they thought I wanted to hear. It may also not have been suitable to use quantitative data this way in a study with so few participants, which was otherwise mostly qualitative. A T prototype could have been a more effective type of prototype for the tests. A T-prototype is a prototype of a website or system which looks complete on the surface, but is only in depth in one or a few sections, or functions. For example, a prototype of a website may have a complete landing page with a menu leading onto subpages, but only one or a few of those subpages are developed (Arvola, 2020). Developing one or two of the subpages of the site may have been helpful, since many participants requested being able to see more pages, and as previously stated I believe that a page for Lifestyle change in particular could have helped improve self efficacy. The site has not been tested on users again after the changes based on the feedback from the tests have been made, so it cannot be known how well the site improved or not after the changes. Another set of user tests could have been beneficial. 8.1.2. Sources Robert Giffords Dragons of inaction (2011) are quite central to the study. These may be from a – at present day – relatively old study, but the Dragons of inaction have since been developed and validated in a 2019 study (Lacroix et al). It should be noted that critical psychology argues that mainstream psychology places too much emphasis on internal psychological barriers, and instead argues the importance of external forces such as: “social situations, societal structures and more complex interpersonal relationships” as well as historical and geographical context (Adams, 2021).

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 8.2. Results and analysis The Results and evaluation chapter included some analysis and connections to theory. The site was analysed section by section, and connects the design choices of the site with the theory. Having the results and the analysis in the same chapter allows for this very connection to be demonstrated easier than if they were separated into separate chapters. 8.2.1. Evaluation of the final design The site appears as an index of a larger site, and without fully written subpages we cannot know completely how well the site as a whole would work. Many of the test participants pointed this out, and said that maybe they would feel differently if they could have seen more pages. I believe that in particular seeing a sub-page about Lifestyle changes could have been good to improve self efficacy, since it would provide additional concrete suggestion for actions an individual can take. 8.3. Reflections about the design process Overall, the design process has gone well. When coding the site there were some limitations due to my own coding abilities, which sometimes affected the design. At times time constraints have also affected the design, for example the animations of some illustrations were temporarily scrapped because I did not manage to finish them in time before the user tests. The user tests then proved that the animations and some other things were in fact necessary, so they were added later on anyway. 8.4. Reliability If this study were to be redone it would most likely not look visually similar due to how individual and subjective design choices are. Things like structure and tone would most likely be similar because of the connections these things have to theory and to similar websites online today. The method is very simple and easy to replicate, and it consists of commonly used and accepted elements like site maps and user tests. 8.5. Internal relevance The study and the website created alongside it is thoroughly connected to and shaped by Climate Change Communication, -psychology and -marketing. It also takes into account current trends in how similar websites and communication about global warming in general is made. 8.6. External relevance The results of this study are relevant outside of academia as well, due to the important nature of the topic of climate change. This study shows how theory about climate change communication and psychology can be applied in practice, and can therefore serve as an example and can be of help to people who are not very familiar with the subject. 8.7. Recommendations for future studies

• Research on climate change denial on its own. It is a concerningly big issue and solving it requires its own solutions and strategies. I believe it could be useful to separate it from the other barriers or defences, and study it on its own, to see which kind of communication and visualization would work best for the issue. • Explore how social media can be combined with websites on climate change to better encourage climate change mitigating action. • Studies on localized versions of visualizations of Climate change communication. Visualizations of climate change can make a person feel closer to the issue (Wibeck, 2014). They can show local effects of and solutions to climate change. It has also been noted that showing local effects and solutions to climate change can be effective (Wibeck, 2014, 398). If there is budget and possibility local versions of websites about climate change may therefore be effective.

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 9. References

350.org, n.d., Climate science basics, https://350.org/science/ [retrieved 8-05-2021] Adams, Matthew, 2021, Critical psychologies and climate change, Current Opinion in Psychology, Volume 42: 13-18, DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.01.007 Adams, Sean, 2017, The designer’s dictionary of color, Abrams Books Arvola, Mattias, 2020, Interactiondesign and UX – about creating a good user experience, original Swedish title: Interaktionsdesign och UX – om att skapa en god användarupplevelse, second edition, Studentlitteratur Comeau, L., & Gifford, R. 2011. Climate change: Message framing and perceived competence to act. Global Environmental Change, Volume 21, Issue 4, October 2011, Pages 1301-1307, Corner, A. & Randall, A., 2011, “Selling Climate Change? The Limitations of Social Marketing as a Strategy for Climate Change Public Engagement” Global Environmental Change 21: 1005–1014. Doyle, Alister, 2021, Iceland Is Sucking Carbon Dioxide From the Air and Turning It Into Rock, Global Citizen, https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/iceland-carbon-capture-emissions-into- rock/?utm_source=social_facebook&utm_medium=Global%20Citizen%20(GB)&utm_campaign=gener al&utm_content=traffic&fbclid=IwAR0io0a2bZb6pIdo4YVQmkJqWHNtEb1HfnyDMHvSHnAQdNR 0hlOFQydhNIo [retrieved 3-05-2021] Environmental defense fund, 2020, Where we are headed, https://climatesolutions.edf.org/ [retrieved 8-05- 2021] Environmental defense fund, 2021, https://www.edf.org/ [retrieved 8-05-2021] Fridays for future, 2021, https://fridaysforfuture.org/ , [retrieved 8-05-2021] Gifford, Robert, 2011, Dragons of inaction: Psychological Barriers That Limit Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, American Psychologist, May 2011, 66(4): 290-302), DOI: 10.1037/a0023566 Greenpeace, 2021, https://www.greenpeace.org/sweden/ , [retrieved 6-05-2021] IPPC, n.d., https://www.ipcc.ch/ , [retrieved 8-05-2021] Lacroix, Karine, Gifford, Robert, Chen, Angel, 2019, Developing and validating the Dragons of Inaction Psychological Barriers (DIPB) scale, Journal of Environmental Psychology, June 2019 63:9-18, DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.03.001 Lam, Adriane R., Bauer, Jennifer E., Fraass, Susanna, Sheffield, Sarah, Limbeck, Maggie R., Borden, Rose M., Thompson-Munson, Megan E., Fraass, Andrew J., Hils, Michael, Muskelly, Cameron E., Hartshorn, Kyle R., Bryant, Raquel, 2019, Time Scavengers: An Educational Website to Communicate Climate Change and Evolutionary Theory to the Public through Blogs, Web Pages, and Social Media Platforms, Journal of Stem outreach, DOI: https://doi.org/10.15695/jstem/v2i1.05 Maibach, Edward W., Roser-Renouf, Connie, Leiserowitz, Anthony, 2008, Communication and Marketing As Climate Change–Intervention Assets: A Public Health Perspective, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 35, Issue 5, November 2008, Pages 488-500 Moser, Susanne C., 2006, Talk of the city: engaging urbanites on climate change, Environmental Research Letters, 1 014006 NASA, 2019, A Degree of Concern: Why Global Temperatures Matter, https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2878/a- degree-of-concern-why-global-temperatures-matter/ , [retrieved 20-04-2021]

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Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 Appendix 1 - Pre-study survey The questions are in Swedish since that was the native language of the participants. Question no 1

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Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 Appendix 2 - Questions for user tests Below are the questions for the user test, including both the questions for the semi-structured interviews and the statements which the participants are asked to agree or disagree with. The questions are once again in Swedish since that was the native language of the participants. Förintervju 1. Hur insatt och engagerad i miljöfrågor känner du att du är? 2. Vad är din allmänna uppfattning om den globala uppvärmningen? 3. Hur brukar du känna när du upplever miljökommunikation av något slag? 4. Kan du beskriva hur du tycker att miljökommunikation brukar se ut visuellt? Liknande kontrollfrågorna du fick svara på innan intervjun kommer jag att ge dig ett par påståenden. Jag vill att du svarar på en skala från 1 till 10 hur mycket du håller med. 1 är håller inte med alls, 10 är håller med helt.

• Jag känner mig motiverad att göra förändringar i mitt beteende för miljöns skull • Jag är villig att ändra mitt beteende för miljöns skull • Jag vet vad som skulle behöva göras för att motverka den globala uppvärmningen • Jag har personligen inte makt att motverka den globala uppvärmningen • Det känns hopplöst att försöka motverka klimatförändringarna Test Deltagaren får här kolla igenom hemsidan medan de tänker högt. Avslutande frågor 5. Hur känner du i allmänhet nu? 6. Vad är din allmänna uppfattning om hemsidan? 7. Kan du beskriva hemsidan i 3 ord? Samma påståenden som ovan:

8. Tycker du att formspråket och designen (design, färg, typsnitt) passade ihop med ämnet miljö? 9. Vilken känsla får du av illustrationerna, bilderna och färgerna? 10. Känner du att det var något som saknades på hemsidan? 11. Känner du att det var någon del av hemsidan som skulle behövt vara längre/mer utförlig? 12. Var det någon del av hemsidan som kändes onödig? Det var alla frågorna jag hade, tack för dina svar. Har du något mer du vill tillägga som du inte känner har kommit upp? Tack för att du har medverkat!

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 Appendix 3 – Final design Here the final design of the website is presented as a whole.

Sofia Ledin, sofle714 VT21 Appendix 4 – Questions for selecting of user test participants The questions are once again in Swedish since that was the native language of the possible participants asked. Jag kommer att ge dig ett par påståenden, oh jag vill att du svarar på en skala från 1 till 10 hur mycket du håller med. 1 är håller inte med alls, 10 är håller med helt. 1. Jag upplever att jag brukar bete mig miljövänligt 2. Jag bryr mig mycket om miljön och vill vara miljövänlig