Designing Stillness: A Tribute to Earth Day

Kristóf Szever throws traditional course structure out of the window and talks us through the creation of his Articulate experience.

Let me just start by saying: I totally missed Earth Day.

Not in a “forgot it existed” kind of way. I was right there, obsessively refreshing my LinkedIn drafts, wondering when to hit post, mentally battling over the perfect thumbnail crop. I had this noble little idea in mind: build a simple interactive Earth Day experience. One slide. A few clicks. A nice clean tribute.

Spoiler: that didn’t happen. Because as I started building it, I stopped giving a … I stopped worrying about deadlines and posting strategies.

From Stress to Stillness

The original idea was pretty classic: maybe an isometric eco-builder game. Or a “green shooter” where you vaporise plastic bottles (good old guilt-based dopamine). I even sketched out some block mechanics like build your ideal green future, one voxel at a time. Corporate-safe and conceptually sound.

But the more I noodled with it, the more it started to feel like everything else out there: do more, fix more, stress more… adhere to the standard.

That’s when I stopped. It was 2 AM, and I just leaned back in my chair and stared at the ceiling (half asleep, mind you).

No music. No narration. Just quiet. Suddenly I realised: this is the feeling I want to convey. So I changed direction. Fully.

I threw away the urgency, the learning objectives, the “save the Earth before slide 6” pacing. Instead, I started building something slower. Gentler. A little piece of interactive calm.

Designing Calm on Purpose

What emerged then became “Calm the Climate.” It’s not a course, really, more like a visual meditation made in Articulate Storyline. I used soft palettes, smooth transitions, and audio that you don’t hear, you feel. The interactions are dead simple. You click glowing wisps. Shapes appear. The world breathes a little.

It doesn’t teach much. There’s no quiz. And there’s absolutely no badge waiting at the end. But there’s something there. A feeling, maybe. One I tried very hard to preserve.

The Sound of Nothing

Now here’s the part I didn’t expect: I spent hours on sound design. Like, “3AM listening to a single leaf-rustle SFX on loop for 40 minutes” kind of hours.

I didn’t want sharp UI zings or overproduced ambience. I wanted something subtle. The kind of subtle you just vibe with, but don’t necessarily notice it. Every chime, click, and wisp noise had to sit in the mix like it had always been there, not pulling attention, nothing sharp, just letting you enjoy the moment.

All in all, the visuals took a day. The SFX took double time - and I still could play with it, improve it if time would allow.

This Was Supposed to Be a Post

I shared it late. Earth Day had passed. I figured 12 people would see it and maybe 2 would finish it.

Instead, it became my most-liked post ever. Of course, the initial post reached about 50 people, no reactions, but then I wrote a follow-up article about it. I think what people liked there is that finally this is something that doesn’t speak about a newly acquired certificate or world-breaking technology.

And I think I know why. People are tired. We’re constantly being told what to fix, what to worry about, what not to forget and how to compete constantly. This wasn’t that. It didn’t demand anything. It just… gave them a few minutes to breathe.

One More Quiet Gesture

To extend this spirit of giving, I offered to create a similar experience for a cause needing visibility. No strings. No funnel. Just something that helps. Unfortunately, nobody really caught on this, but maybe it would’ve just lowered the art into a pitch.

Final Wisdom of the Lake

Sometimes the most powerful thing you can design isn’t a breakthrough or a brilliant model. Sometimes it’s just the moment someone finally exhales.

If you want to experience this moment yourself, you can do it by visiting https://educatingmedia.com/tribute-for-earth-day

Thanks for reading.

Kristóf Szever Freelancer self titled “Gamifior”. Daydreamer. eLearning Wizard. Creator of Educating Media.

Kristóf builds eLearning experiences that are outside of the norm. Usually the weird one in the room.

Connect with him here: www.linkedin.com/in/kristofszever