About

Wildfires have been a constant and growing worry in the near past in many areas of the globe. Portugal has been one of the affected countries with some tragic events left behind, where communication was affected and where population voluntarily joined forces to help.

The Problem

Communication and overall organisation lacked the necessary structure to quickly act and put together an action plan for those willing to help. Tech-savvy people would use Facebook and Instagram to share the calls for help through hashtags and gather goods and other needed supplies, without having a full overview of how much help they would get.

Solution

Firecatcher is both a real-time wildfire meter and a team-organisation tool, for an easy task distribution and orientation among locals who don’t know each other but could use nearby help, using gamification as a trigger.

Generative Research

Curiously, people — specifically younger and more tech oriented people — focused on Facebook or Instagram to quickly share how they were planning to help the affected ones, where to meet and what to do. Interestingly, some were even relying on Uber services to transport goods to the affected locations and Firefighters. So, how do we get people to quickly organise in teams and provide help in whatever way they can to affected communities, considering the delays there may be in communication and the difficulties associated with it?