Gaia
/ INDUSTRY
Nature
The Insight
iNaturalist lets people photograph an organism, receive an AI-assisted identification, and contribute research-grade data used by scientists to combat a global extinction crisis.
Strategy
Three goals shape every decision: increase access, increase motivation, increase meaning. Across the arc from wonder to stewardship, noticing becomes a habit of care.
iNaturalist asks you to be a naturalist first. For most people, that is a title they never claim. Gaia preserves the same scientific rigor while opening the platform to a broader audience.
Visual Identity
The mark grows from a branching, living form. Inspired by Werner's Nomenclature of Colours, the palette draws from moss, paper, soil, and sky. New Spirit carries the expressive moments; Neue Haas Unica handles every working word.
Brand in the World
Gaia reaches people where they already meet the living world: botanical gardens, museums, trailheads, and community bioblitzes.
Interface
A custom icon system pairs with botanical illustrations drawn in a nineteenth-century naturalist style, keeping the interface scientific in structure and warm in tone.
The map invites before it asks. Plain language and an obvious way in lower the barrier to a first observation.
A single observation becomes part of something shared, joining a community record that gives each find meaning beyond the moment.
Every find is met with a small moment of pride, turning a single observation into a reason to look again.
Designed to Ship
The work was pressure-tested against real constraints, not presented only as static screens. Core interactions, including map clustering, the bottom sheet, the observation flow, and the detail tabs, were built in SwiftUI, with a live prototype running on Mapbox GL. Midjourney supported directed image generation, while Claude Code accelerated prototype testing and token management.
