Ecocultural Design Working Group

Before initiating the Ecocultural Design Working Group, a community meeting was held to review existing materials and set objectives for the creation of a minimal viable prototype on the timeline of Phase II.

All project participants convened to orient to the overarching goals of Phase II, forming teams based on specific objectives identified during the community meeting. The Ecocultural Design Working Group was formed to see through the design and technical implementation of the ecocultural mapping prototype.

Design priorities

The Ecocultural Design Working Group began by identifying key dimensions of the mapping framework to be developed, thematized around essential mapping classifications and features of the landscape that had been identified as holding cultural and ecological values (Figure 1). Interactive design elements were proposed, considered and prioritized based on the following criteria:

1. bringing forward and respectfully representing Indigenous cultural content
2. optimizing inclusive and intuitive interactions with the GUI
3. ensuring the fidelity of both ecological and cultural content

We prioritized design elements and functions that we identified as being key to achieving a minimum viable prototype in the short term, while also taking note of any desired feature requests that could not be delivered on the timeline of Phase II.

Table 12 summarizes the tasks completed by this working group.

Table 12. Phase II: Design Working Group Tasks

Task	Start	End
Set objectives to create “minimal viable prototype” on timeline of Phase II	January 2022	January 2022
Identify dimensions of mapping framework (e.g., land classifications) that can be Indigenized with Hul’q’umi’num’ names and perspectives	January 2022	March 2022
Continue tabulation of ecological and cultural attributes and values based on ongoing field work and cultural mapping exercises	January 2022	March 2022
Digitize new features (marine, shoreline) based on drone-based ortho-imagery collected in 2021	January 2022	January 2022
Thematize / simplify GIS to frame map in terms of ecological and cultural regions of interest	January 2022	February 2022
Update GIS and export to GeoJSON format for javascript-based digital map creation and data visualization	February 2022	March 2022
Design map tiles to reflect ecological communities	January 2022	March 2022
Organize alternating design and community meetings to refine vision and design of GUI with input from project participants	January 2022	March 2022
Implement design concepts into GUI	February 2022	March 2022
Weave ecological and cultural multimedia content into GUI	March 2022	March 2022

Weaving content together

The Design Working Group collaborated closely with the Cultural Learning Working Group and Ecocultural Mapping Working Group to ensure any content generated by these working groups had a place reserved within the evolving ecocultural mapping framework. Parameters and data standards were set for multimedia content generated by the latter working groups (e.g., audio, video, textual, and tabulated data).

This working group also workshopped its own content, such as the design and implementation of map tiles and symbology to reflect ecological communities and cultural values of species (Figure 3).

Indigenous participants were consulted in all aspects of the ecocultural mapping framework design, including map tiles (e.g., camas bulbs to represent woodlands) and icons to represent the values of culturally important species.

Community meetings were scheduled to bring together all project participants to review progress being made at regular intervals, and input was also sought from key project stakeholders.

Finally, this working group was charged with the task of weaving together the ecological and cultural multimedia content generated by the other working groups into the online map.