This presentation was created for The Digital Museum at University of Toronto and presented to staff from the Ontario Science Centre.
As part of a group project we conceptualized a digital experience the Ontario Science Centre might include in an upcoming exhibit about flying. I took the lead on audience engagement, creating a series of visitor personas to ensure we were serving our target audiences.
The text below includes further description of the talking points presented.
Concept Description
We are designing an interactive, projection-based interactive experience in which visitors will match the various forms of biological flight structures with their matching animal. The purpose of the exhibit will be to educate visitors on the evolutionary and biological complexities of flight in the animal world. The target audience is children aged 7-12 and their families.
The digital experience will explore the function of various natural flight systems in the animal world. The experience will be accompanied by educational material including videos and animations of various animals and insects in flight and explain how their flight systems evolved and how they function. The goal of the exhibit will be to impart knowledge and wonder of the power of flight in nature.
The game will be based on a reward system in which successful visitors will be rewarded with an opportunity to pose with a set of animal/insect wings projected on a screen, which they can take photos with. These photos, along with a comprehensive social media campaign and hashtag, will be used to advertise and draw attention to the Ontario Science Centre.
The exhibit will make use of various forms of digital technology to bring the wonders of natural flight to life. Such technologies will include motion tracking cameras, interactive projection and screens, and computers to run software. The software will include 3D rendering, video editing and rendering, and interactive 3D programming.
Persona Justification - Avi
Ages 7-11 fall into Jean Piaget’s third stage of cognitive development: concrete operational. During the concrete operational stage children begin to think logically about the world around them, but still focus most of their attention on the concrete rather than the abstract. A hands on wings exhibit allows them to learn through watching and doing, ideal for children in this stage. Concrete operational stage is also when children begin to become less egocentric, able to consider other people’s perspectives and emotions. For children in younger stages, imagining themselves as a bird may be more difficult as they have trouble understanding that other people or animals experience the world differently from them. However, during this stage children begin to comprehend and appreciate that there are perspectives outside of their own. Children in this stage are also highly curious about the world around them, seeking to understand the things they see. (https://www.verywellmind.com/piagets-stages-of-cognitive-development-2795457)
With regards to ages and stages, this group spans the middle childhood (7-9) and preteen (10-12) years. During middle childhood, children are developing their own unique skills. They are concerned with pleasing their peers and role models. The matching game in the exhibit can help give them an opportunity to show off their skills to these people. However, it is important that harsh failure not be an option since it may serve to embarrass them instead. For this reason, an incorrect answer will not be a game over. It simply makes a brief “incorrect” sign and noise and encourages them to try again from among the remaining options. Children in middle childhood also enjoy discovering new environments, such as the simulated reality of the digital exhibit.
Preteens tend to be particularly concerned with finding their identity and relating to peers, which this exhibit is less relevant for as it is individually focused due to the nature of motion sensing technology. However, the exhibit does draw on preteens' desires for independence by offering an experience they may be able to attend without their parents’ guidance. In fact, the more digitally aware preteen may even find an opportunity to explain the digital exhibit and technology to their parents if they have prior experience with video games and virtual reality. The peer relation component is introduced by the photo at the end of successful completion. Children this age are often beginning to use social media to share photographs from their lives with their friends. This also functions as a form of marketing for the exhibit as a preteen may be more interested in attending the exhibit if they saw a friend went and enjoyed it. (https://www.camps.ca/camp-ages-stages.php)
Younger guardians in their 20s or 30s are often highly technologically experienced. They will often be able to guide their children through the interactive exhibit and may already be comfortable with using digital and motion sensing technology. This is not universally the case, but clear written instructions will still help these guardians understand how to use the interactive and deal with any confusion from younger children. These parents often hope to share images of their children with friends and family and so they are likely to appreciate the photo option. However, many of them will have significant privacy concerns, having grown up in the internet age, and so we will make it clear that the images are sent to the email provided and then deleted within the next 24 hours and not used for any other purposes. We will also include an option to consent to or opt out of being added to the Science Centre's mailing list with the email provided. These parents may also be tired of their kids being constantly glued to screens, so highlighting the active (“bodies on”) parts of the interactive will help grab their attention and build enthusiasm for using the flight interactive.
Guardians over the age of 40 such as older parents and grandparents are likely to be much less experienced with technology (although of course this varies based on their own professions and interests). They may struggle to understand the nature of the digital exhibit, or feel anxiety over using it “incorrectly”. To assist these guardians in bringing their children to the flight exhibit we have made the design as simple and user friendly as possible. We will also have clear instructions on how to use the Kinect technology posted at the entrance to the exhibit. To further ensure a pain free process, while we do not believe the exhibit needs a permanent technician working there, we would aim to have someone in the exhibit trained in how to answer basic use questions. These older demographics (particularly grandparents) tend to very much enjoy having photographs of their outings with their children/grandchildren. For this reason, they will likely be drawn in by the photo component and wish to receive a copy.
Creative Brief - Romina
Project Name: Taking Flight Digital Experience
Background: This project proposes a key digital component of the Above and Beyond exhibition at the Ontario Science Centre. The exhibition is an interactive experience that explores the concept of flight in its various forms.
Objective: To engage young audiences in learning about the various types of animal and insect wings through simple, interactive, and fun gameplay. The project will relate to the exhibition’s theme of flight by exploring the biological construction of different types of wings and how they are used to achieve flight.
Audience: Children ages 7-12 and their families (expanded upon in personas). The proposed interactive will appeal to children through simple and colourful graphics and engaging gameplay that involves interaction through bodily gestures. The gameplay is designed to be fun and educational for children within the aforementioned age-range and rewards players with a winged photo opportunity after completing the game. Younger visitors may enjoy the flapping activity while the older ones may enjoy the more complicated matching game.
Experience: Before participating in the gameplay, visitors will learn about the various types of wing structures from educational text/photo panels in the queuing space ahead of the more interactive aspects of the exhibit. This text will describe wing and bone structures and highlight the separate evolutionary paths of Pteranodon, bat, bird, and insect wings. After familiarising themselves with the content, they will stand in front of a projection and choose between two activities. One is a matching game that uses body gestures to match images of various wing structures to the correct animal. The other activity is choosing an animal after which they will be prompted to flap their arms triggering a video of the animal on screen to move in the same way, accompanied by audio description of the mechanism of flight. This allows visitors to experience how wing movement works in real time. Once the activities have been successfully completed, visitors will be prompted to choose their favourite wing and will be given an opportunity to pose for a picture with them. The exhibit will use a Kinect which will capture the wing projection. Visitors will be prompted on an adjacent iPad to submit their email to have the picture sent to them, which they will then be able to share under #TakeFlight. Average gameplay time should be approximately 2-5 minutes.
Voice: The interactive will have a fun and positive tone, providing helpful and encouraging hints to visitors who make an incorrect match. It will indicate an incorrect answer with a fun fact (e.g. selecting a whale fin provided as a false option points out that swimming and flying structures may seem similar) and then remove that option and allow users to guess again until they choose correctly. This will avoid causing children excessive disappointment or shame for an incorrect guess. While the tone of the interactive is playful, its main goal is to be educational, with the aim that each participant will come away from the experience having learned about animal wing structures in a positive and enjoyable way.
Key Pillars of Engagement: Engaging audiences with this interactive will begin on social media, where the fun gameplay will be advertised, and “wing-wall” images of other visitors will be shared. When visitors participate in the interactive, they will have a unique, gesture-based gameplay experience with the reward of a fun photo opportunity when they are successful. When their experience at the exhibition is over, engagement may continue if they choose to share their wing photo on their own social media with #takeflight
Science content: Children will learn about the basic parts of bird, insect and mammal wings, comparing their functionality and evolution. They will also see how the construction of various animal wings compares to their own human anatomy.
Evaluation Brief - Marcel
Formative Evaluation: During design development, effective evaluations practices will be implemented. Booths will be set up as families are exiting the Science Centre – asking if they would be interested in bringing their family to see the Interactive Wing Exhibit, what they would like to see in the exhibit, ages of their children, and how large the family is. Brief prototyping of the exhibit will also be used. A display with information related to the interactive aspect of the exhibit will be used. Paper cut outs, simulating the digital experience, can be interacted with by the public. By watching how the public interacts with the exhibit – the team creating the exhibit can see which aspects work and which do not. Usability testing is important for the exhibit.
Those that interacted with the prototype will be asked to participate in a follow-up user interview. This will include questions such as: what worked, what would you change, what are the differences in the wings, do you remember any of the printed information related to the wings, would you see this as a digital experience, etc.
Front End Evaluation: During the early stages of the exhibit, front end evaluation methods will be in place. A booth will be set up after the exhibit with a stack of papers and pencils. The patron will be instructed to fill out the paper. They will be asked a series of questions: ages of the group, how large the group was, what they found challenging, what did they like about the exhibit, if they used the interactive elements of the exhibits, what they knew about the topics presented in the exhibit (structure of wings, how wings evolved, bone structures, etc) before they took part in the exhibit, what they found confusing, what they would change.
In order to develop deeper, meaningful content; the patrons need to be able to provide what they thought worked, what they wanted changed and how the exhibit can be made more engaging. If feasible, patron input would be taken into account when tweaking aspects of the exhibit to better engage the public. Front end interviews will also take place – the questions asked will be the same, with the evaluation team asking the guardians of the children/youths while they are engaged with the exhibit. The children/youths will be interviewed as well, asking what they know of the subject, if the exhibit was engaging and if they want to know more about the exhibit.
Summative Evaluation: The essential goal of summative evaluation is to test the patron what they learned from the exhibit. It is important to determine the educational quality of the exhibit. This provides the Science Centre with data on if the exhibit was effective and further allows evaluators, stakeholders and museum staff to know if the exhibit should be continued.
After the patron has left the exhibit and near to the exit of the Science Centre – evaluators will approach patrons (both guardians and children/youths) and ask a series of questions. These questions will be based on true false statements, what they know about different bones, how each wing differs – and ultimately why the species evolved for their specific wings. Utilising this information is important to see if the exhibit is effectively educating the public, what needs to change and what can be improved.
Marketing Brief - Marcel
Campaign Title: Interactive Wings Exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre.
Campaign Overview: The Interactive Wings Exhibit is an exciting new and interactive exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre. Starting Monday, April 4th – the Interactive Wings Exhibit will be an informative and engaging event for the whole family. The exhibit is designed for children and youths in mind, but parents and guardians are welcome to take part in the fun. The exhibit is bound to be a fun filled time for the whole family.
Campaign Objectives: To drive the target audience to not only visit the Science Centre, but to experience the Interactive Wings Exhibit. The exhibit will be marketed in four distinct ways; cable television, local radio, internet impressions, and through the Science Centre’s social media platforms.
Target Audience: Primary audience will be children and youths aged 7-12. Secondary audiences will be their parents or guardians.
Marketing Strategy: Local radio will be used – airing twice during the day. Buying airtime during the early mornings and evenings, parents and children will both hear the marketing campaign, perhaps even on their drives to and from school. The campaign will be geared towards parents and guardians, as they are the driving force (figuratively and literally). The commercials will be informative, stating when the exhibit will open, the cost of entry into the Science Centre, etc. By both utilising local stations and strategically playing the commercial multiple times during the mornings and evenings – the total costs would be $150 per 30 second spot utilising local stations like Kiss 92.2, Z103.5 etc (source: https://forums.redflagdeals.com/how-much-does-radio-advertising-cost-868897/) . Playing three commercials per day for a week – total cost would be $3150.
Television commercials over local cable television channels will be utilised quite effectively. Parents and grandparents may still use cable as a news source of entertainment. It’s important to feature the commercial at prime hours if the parents/grandparents are the prime audience for the commercial. Advertisements would be aired before the evening news in order to capture the older demographics. Television commercials can be quite expensive. Two commercials, placed at the beginning and middle of the advertising period would be beneficial. Using CTV news as an example – a twenty second promo spot can cost upwards of $1700 (source: https://stox.ctvnews.ca/rate-card). Playing two commercials during the week would cost approximately $3400.
Internet advertisements could be seen by both children/youths and parental guardians. Advertisements could be effectively placed on YouTube videos. YouTube charges per day and works based on the traffic garnered. Essentially, advertising costs are 0.10-0.30 per view or click. Advertising works based on what the budget is – once the budget limit is reached, the account is charged, and the advertisement stops. YouTube advertisements are sometimes a cheaper alternative to other media advertisements. However, in order to hit a large number of viewers in Toronto – setting a relatively sizable budget is important. If views cost $0.30, a daily budget of 150 can garner 500 views (source: https://strikesocial.com/blog/youtube-advertising-cost/) . Over the course of a week, the ad will be viewed 3500 times. Total cost for running the ads will be $1050.
Creating effective marketing is expensive, however the patrons that it could drive to the exhibit would be worth the cost.
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