Brief description of the organization
EcoWeaver is an organization developing decision support tools for ecological restoration and conservation practitioners. We have created an open knowledge framework linking causal ecological evidence to restoration practice, built on the Causal Mosaic Schema (CAMO) — a schema co-developed with philosophers of causality for documenting not just that X causes Y, but how, and how confidently. It's developed out of a postdoctoral translational-ecology research program spanning the Bennett Lab (Carleton University) and DRAGEN Lab (University of Waterloo).
Problem area
Even trustworthy, evidence-grounded answers are only useful if a practitioner can act on them. Someone planning a restoration needs to know not just what the evidence says, but how confident to be, whether an intervention is reversible, and whether it actually fits their site — and most tools either overstate certainty or bury the nuance entirely.
Main objectives
- Design and prototype a decision-support interface for restoration practitioners, building on existing wireframes and evidence data from the EcoWeaver/CAMO ecosystem.
- Develop honest, clear visual and interaction patterns for representing confidence, uncertainty, reversibility, and site-fit — the four things practitioners actually care about.
- User-test the interface with real or simulated restoration practitioners and iterate based on feedback.
Scope of work
- Review of existing wireframes and CAMO-structured evidence data
- User research with restoration practitioners
- UX/UI design and prototyping
- Usability testing and iteration
- Final build and documentation
Deliverables
- Report
- Website
- Presentation
- Resources
- A delegate from the University of Waterloo will have the opportunity to present at an international conference in Germany in March 2027. (potential for travel subsidy; or virtual)
Team meeting frequency
Bi-weekly
Skills and training required
- UX/UI design
- Front-end development (React or similar, or design tools like Figma for earlier-stage prototyping)
- User research and usability-testing methods
- An interest in data visualization for uncertainty/confidence is a strong plus.
Resources required
- Design/prototyping software
- Access to CAMO graph outputs and evidence data (provided)
- The DRAGEN Lab Makerspace if any physical/interactive prototyping is desired
- Practitioner contacts for user testing (provided).
NDA or a commercialization agreement for this project?
Yes