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01

Pollinators

The Project 

The project is designed to educate people about pollinators through a virtual reality experience and help people design features to support pollinators in urban spaces such as gardens and balconies through a hands on toolkit, both conducted through a participatory workshop. The workshop participants were members of community gardens in London including the Hammersmith Community Gardens Association, and the Phoenix Community Garden.

" Working with community gardens shaped the project in ways I didn’t expect. Their feedback helped me understand what people truly wanted to learn about pollinators and pushed me to refine the VR experience to be both educational and practical."

My Role 

I worked with another person to realize this project, their role was to create the hands-on toolkit. My role in the project involved designing and developing the virtual reality (VR) experience and coordinating the workshop event in collaboration with community gardens. I was responsible for selecting assets, building the virtual environment, and adding animations and interactions. I also optimised the VR performance to ensure it ran smoothly on headsets during the workshop. On the coordination side, I reached out to community gardens, planned event logistics, and adapted the workshop content based on their feedback and suggestions. 

My Outcome  

The virtual reality (VR) experience I designed simulates a community garden where participants get to observe different pollinators up close and add habitats in the garden space to help support them. The aim of the VR experience is to educate people about the different types of pollinators, their specific needs, and the threats they face. 

Workshop 

These are photographs of the workshop  with the Hammersmith Community Gardens. 

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Virtual Reality Experience 

These are photographs of the virtual reality experience depicting different scenes, habitats and pollinators within the environment. 

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The VR environment before the participants conduct the activities to add pollinators habitats in the spaces.

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The VR environment after the participants conduct the activities to add pollinators habitats in the spaces.

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These are close up photos of two of the seven habitats featured in the VR experience, the pond habitat which is home to the hoverfly and the deadwood which is home to the beetles.

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Community Garden Suggestions 

Before designing the virtual reality experience and planning how we were going to conduct the workshops, my team member and I spoke to the community gardens who we were going to run the workshops with to get their ideas and suggestions. 

1

Seeing Pollinators Up Close

“It would be great for the volunteers to see different pollinators because a lot of them don’t get the opportunity to see them in the garden.”

2

Pollinator Habitats

“It would also be great to know where you can find different pollinators. Where do they live?"

3

New Opportunity

“Many community garden members are aged 60 and up, and for a lot of them it’ll be their first time using VR which is an exciting opportunity.”

4

Clear Instructions

“There needs to be clear instructions on how to navigate the VR as typically when we run workshops with the members a lot of them need to be given a lot of guidance.”

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Initial Sketches of Virtual Reality Experience

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These are initial sketches of the virtual reality experience, where I envisioned different scenes, one of them being a community garden featuring various habitats for different pollinators. I also explored two additional scenes imagining a world without pollinators: one showing a deserted supermarket with empty shelves, and another depicting barren farmland. However, I ultimately chose not to include these two scenes, as they introduced a more negative tone that didn’t align with the main goal of the experience. I also wanted to reduce the complexity of the VR environment to ensure it remained simple and intuitive for users to navigate. In the final version, I simplified the community garden as well—while the sketched version was more detailed, I needed to optimise the scene for better performance on VR headsets.

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Feedback from Workshop 

During the workshop, I observed how participants responded to both the virtual reality experience and the overall event. At the end, they completed a survey to provide feedback on their experience. The insights shared below are based on their survey responses, in-person observations made during the session, and informal discussions with participants.

Positive Reception 

  • Overall, participants found the experience highly engaging and informative.
  • The immersive nature of the experience, especially with the wildlife and habitats, was a highlight.

Quotes: 

"The text was very informative, and the visuals + navigation process helped embed it in my memory." 

“It was so nice to actually see them in their own habitats.”

“I liked the variety of wildlife habitats.”

“I thoroughly loved the experience; it got me thinking about how a small effort can benefit our wildlife.”

 “I liked the virtual reality experience and wanted to stay there.”

 

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Challenges

  • Some participants found the navigation and controls challenging, especially those not familiar with VR.
  • One person thought the workshop would work better with new gardeners and children. The person being a professional gardener felt they already new all the content of the workshop.

Quotes: 

"Perhaps a better experience if one is accustomed to navigation, it can be a bit disorientating." 

"Found the VR controls a bit tricky"

"Found it difficult to use and get the hang of." 

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Improvements based on Workshop Feedback

1

Perspective Change

“It would be cool if you could click on the insect and then see the garden from their perspective."

Add a feature in the VR where people can click on the pollinator and they can see the garden from that pollinators vision.

2

Activity Tracking

“It would be good if in the VR experience there was some way of keeping track and making people were completing all the activities.”​

Add a system in the VR to keep track of people's progress and make sure they have completed all the activities.

3

Video Tutorial

"Perhaps a better experience if one is accustomed to navigation, it can be a bit disorientating." 

Have a video tutorial of someone doing the VR experience as an example before they try the VR themselves.

4

Controller Issues

"Found the VR controls a bit tricky"

"Found it difficult to use and get the hang of." ​

Make the controls to navigate the VR simpler by only having one trigger button and the joysticks on both controllers having the same function.

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Virtual Reality Asset Credits 

All assets used in this project are either under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) or Unity Asset Store licenses. Full details available here: Creative Commons License Information

Sketchfab  Assets:

Unity Asset Store Assets:

  • Honey Bee Animated by WDallgraphics, Used under Single Entity License

  • Bumblebee by WDallgraphics, Used under Single Entity License

  • Wasp by WDallgraphics, Used under Single Entity License

  • Rock by Unity Technologies, Used under Extension Asset License

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