Overview

Problem

Nowadays, people are too absorbed in the hustle and bustle of city life which weakens their relationship with nature. At some point, people will feel that they are trapped within a cycle.

Response

Focusing on the narrative element, I took an approach to bring out emotion through storytelling. Instead of presenting the user with a digital nature, I want to take a look at the future and the past and how nature persists in our current society.

Goal

Trigger people's fascination towards nature.
Relate people to the past of time and nature.
Understand that everything from nature will come back to nature.

Approach

In Japan, there is a term called “Haikyo” which means the combination of abandoned places and urban exploring. This being said, there are people out there who refer to themselves as “Haikyo Hunters” with the objective to explore the wonder of ruins.

In this project, the mobile website will take place in Ikeshima, a ghost town on a small island in Japan. What can you expect from this website?

A narrative from the user’s point of view to experience being a haikyo hunter
Learning some facts about the Ikeshima island as you explore it
Guide the user’s emotion to relate with the haikyo experience
Reflect on why abandoned places makes us feel a certain way

UI Element

The overall aesthetic for the website is similar to that of a collage. In order to preserve the uniqueness and realistic feeling of the Ikeshima, I simply added a few strokes of a paintbrush on Procreate to the original images and blend them with illustrations for the website background.