Noondawind

Noondawind is a data platform co-designed with Ojibwe partners to help Tribal communities and staff interpret and act on environmental data tied to Manoomin (wild rice), a plant central to Ojibwe culture, food sovereignty, and treaty rights across the Great Lakes region. The platform brings together sensor data on water quality and wild rice conditions with a curated set of relevant policies, laws, and regulations, so that communities can more easily monitor Manoomin health and use that data to support environmental governance and treaty rights enforcement.

The project followed an adapted Double Diamond design process, with relationship-building as a constant thread rather than a single phase: listening sessions, co-design workshops, and an ongoing feedback collective with Tribal and inter-Tribal partners shaped everything from the platform's core features to its visual design, which draws on Ojibwe art and design references. The resulting tool is a React-based dashboard with an interactive map, sensor data visualizations, and a searchable policy repository, built with data sovereignty as a core design constraint throughout, not an afterthought.

A user study with Tribal and inter-Tribal partners found the platform easy to use (a System Usability Scale score in the top 30% of platforms) and particularly valued its consolidated policy resources and simple, intuitive design. Partners also surfaced clear next steps, including deeper integration of Indigenous Knowledge, better linkage between the map and dashboard views, and more support for understanding data quality and gaps.

Noondawind contributes to the growing field of Indigenous HCI, offering a case study in what it looks like to center data sovereignty and community relationships throughout a design process, rather than treating them as one-time checkpoints. The platform continues to evolve alongside its community partners.