Snakes and smartphones: exploring transdisciplinary design collaborations for the governance of snakebite

Abstract

Snake Awareness Rescue Protection App (SARPA) is a digital platform used in Kerala, India, to prevent snakebites. SARPA connects users with local snake rescuers who are on hand to safely bag and translocate snakes that enter homes. This article reflects on the ‘doing’ of digital ecologies while researching SARPA, narrating my fieldwork and collaboration with SARPA’s developers to show how my research supported the platform’s design and implementation. Through this reflection, I demonstrate how collaboration with software designers and developers may provide a means for cultural geographers to put their scholarship into practice, enabling them to contribute to improving the usability, accessibility or environmental sustainability of digital technologies.