Applying user-centred design to climate and environmental tools

IF 4.8 2区环境科学与生态学 Q1 COMPUTER SCIENCE, INTERDISCIPLINARY APPLICATIONS

Environmental Modelling & Software Pub Date : 2025-05-11 DOI:10.1016/j.envsoft.2025.106519

Joske Houtkamp, Sander Janssen, Rob Lokers, Hugo de Groot

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Abstract

The number of web portals and online tools to support or inform decision-making on environmental and climate issues has grown steadily in recent decades. This paper explores the benefits and challenges of applying user-centred design (UCD) in environmental tool development, drawing on three case studies at the science-policy interface. We examine the roles and perspectives of scientists, funders, software developers, and end-users, highlighting how their often conflicting objectives can lead to a lack of focus. Active management is essential to align tool development with user needs.

To increase the credibility and usefulness of environmental tools, we argue for stronger adoption of UCD, greater attention to post-creation tool use, and better integration of tool development into broader project lifecycles. Finally, we recommend building on or improving existing tools and platforms rather than developing new ones for each project, fostering greater continuity, efficiency, and long-term impact in the science-policy interface.

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将以用户为中心的设计应用于气候和环境工具

近几十年来，支持或告知环境和气候问题决策的门户网站和在线工具的数量稳步增长。本文探讨了在环境工具开发中应用以用户为中心的设计（UCD）的好处和挑战，借鉴了科学-政策界面的三个案例研究。我们考察了科学家、资助者、软件开发人员和最终用户的角色和观点，强调了他们经常冲突的目标是如何导致缺乏重点的。主动管理对于使工具开发与用户需求保持一致是必不可少的。为了增加环境工具的可信度和有用性，我们主张更强有力地采用UCD，更多地关注创建后工具的使用，以及更好地将工具开发集成到更广泛的项目生命周期中。最后，我们建议建立或改进现有的工具和平台，而不是为每个项目开发新的工具和平台，从而在科学-政策界面中培养更大的连续性、效率和长期影响。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Environmental Modelling & Software 工程技术-工程：环境

CiteScore

9.30

自引率

8.20%

发文量

241

审稿时长

60 days

期刊介绍： Environmental Modelling & Software publishes contributions, in the form of research articles, reviews and short communications, on recent advances in environmental modelling and/or software. The aim is to improve our capacity to represent, understand, predict or manage the behaviour of environmental systems at all practical scales, and to communicate those improvements to a wide scientific and professional audience.