Part 2: A Tale of Two Trails...

don’t we all deserve the best?

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

In Part 1 of “A Tale of Two Trails” I talked about some of the best practices observed on a self-guided trail (SGT) in Cloudcroft, New Mexico at the Sleepy Grass Campground. The SGT in this post is a bit different because it takes place at a zoo. You may not think of zoos in this way, but the reality is most zoos are a self-guided experience.

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

 Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo

Palo Alto, California, USA

My experience with the Junior Museum & Zoo (JMZ) took place when attending a webinar and examining its website. What impressed me about JMZ webinar session was their use of evaluation to assess the success of special events and regular experiences at the site by visitors.

A bit more background on the site…

·      Site Mission: “The Palo Alto JMZ is dedicated to providing quality science education, supporting wildlife conservation, and advocating for animal welfare. Our robust community outreach program serves approximately 184,000 children and their adults.”

·      It was founded in 1934 by a teacher and in November 2021 opened a new site location.

·      The new location incorporated accessibility in a variety of ways.

·      There are about 200 animals, mainly indigenous to California, and a wide variety of science experiences for youth.

·      Their visitation rate is approximately 14,000/year.

 I am going to let the slides from the webinar presentation, “Impacts of Accessibility Features in Zoo Experiences for Visitors With and Without Disabilities”, tell the story.

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

These pictures helped me get a sense of what might be available during the self-guided experience at JMZ: a place to rest and linger, meeting the needs of larger children with disabilities, many things to touch, nooks and crannies to discover, many visuals, and integration of technology.

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

My EID ears perked up when I saw Outcomes and Evaluation…

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

There was information on who participated in the evaluation(s)…

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

A series of charts showed how accessibility was viewed by the selected visitors…

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

Charts presented the usefulness of accessibility items, overall rating of the experience, and visitor impact…

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

There were a few feedback comments from families…

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

And a final slide with conclusions…

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

To capture and share this much information on the visitor experience was quite impressive and reminded me of the importance of evaluation during the process of interpretive planning for trails and exhibits.

Regarding how the site lined up with the 11 Best Practices points listed in “Part 1: Tale of Two Trails,” I can only make an educated guess from my experience at the webinar and examining the website. I did try to contact the JMZ staff for some comments and to answer some questions, but they did not respond to my efforts…so here goes:

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

I did get a sense there was something special about the place including a “whiff of mission; there were a variety of “doing” and sensory experiences available for the visitor; the Head & Heart were engaged nicely; there were places to linger and reflect; the place looked well maintained; and, of course, there was a strong evaluation component at the site.

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

 I have no idea if the maps were useful, how much information was on signs, if other places to visit were suggested, or if there were experiences to connect to everyday life or a larger context. Most zoos and museums have a gift shop so I assume JMZ has one for visitors to take home something in their Hands, but I am not sure how those items might connect to mission or reinforce memories of the visit. Same with Hunger – do not know what kind of food, if any, is offered.

Overall it is my impression that the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo is a great self-guided experience, and their use of evaluation was quite impressive.

For more…our EID colleague Lars Wohlers has been involved in interpretive evaluation for years and recently developed a unique software tool for evaluations.

A recent post by Don Enright offers insights into evaluation in the interpretive setting that may be of interest.

Also Jon Veverka has a new publication available for planning and implementing interpretive trails that has a lot of useful information.

Well, time for me to move on down the interpretive trail, so please send us any comments on this or any of our other posts. Next up will be a guest blog post that is quite interesting – especially if you like to dance.

Image Courtesy of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo

Part 1: A Tale of Two Trails…

don’t we all deserve the best?

Before Bill’s two posts on self-guided trails (SGT) become a distant memory, I want to share a couple of experiences I think exemplify best practices on a trail. One SGT is in Cloudcroft, New Mexico at the Sleepy Grass Campground, contains some typical trail designs, and is created to encourage use by visually impaired individuals. The other experience takes place at the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo (JMZ) in California. You may think this latter experience an odd choice for a SGT, but recently I realized that all zoos are self-guided for most visitors.

 After experiencing the New Mexico trail in person, and attending a webinar describing what happens at the Palo Alto JMZ, I wondered why all SGTs don’t employ the best practices these two experiences offer? Do we interpreters think adults or “regular” folks don’t need or want the same kind of experiences on a trail offered to people with “disabilities” or for younger visitors? And perhaps the bigger question is…How can interpretive planners and frontline interpreters make everyone feel invited to experience what a trail can offer the visitor, especially if it offers interactions that deepen a sense of place and provide a whiff of mission?

 Before getting into the trail specifics, these are the eleven (11) best practices that I took away from Bill’s posts and used when reviewing both SGT experiences. Does the SGT…

·      convey something special about the place – a whiff of mission?

·      offer some “doing” for a variety of visitor types?

·      include sensory experiences?

·      engage the Head, Heart, Hands, Hunger?

·      have useful maps?

·      give “Goldilocks” information on signage – not too much and not too little?

·      provide places to linger?

·      suggest follow-up places to visit or other resources?

·      connect to everyday life or a larger context?

·      ask you to evaluate the effectiveness of the experience?

·      look and feel well maintained?

Sleepy Grass Campground SGT Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA

The focus for funding this trail is to provide an experience for the visually impaired. All the signs have raised printed lettering, braille, and raised symbols. Also embedded in the background of each sign is a picture of an iconic railroad trestle that is a popular nearby attraction. The iconic trestle connects to the community of Cloudcroft and the region because the trestle is part of an old rail system that removed logs from the area. The picture below is a detail of the trestle and the braille.

The maps are located at regular intervals along the trail and have raised icons. The map below shows the simplicity of the design. At each map location the raised “heart” symbol indicates where you are now. (Map picture)

The trail itself is well designed, not too long (1/2 mile) and wide enough for 2 or 3 people. The wooden railings on each side of the trail are a real plus for the visually impaired, are tastefully done, and add a “you are in a forest” feeling for everyone. 

I especially like the sensory experience for the feet – something often missing in SGTs. For the visually impaired it indicates a nearby sign. For others it is a good visual reminder that something is going on right here. The trail cover is finely ground rough wood and the sign indicators underfoot are medium-sized stone gravel slightly embedded over a layer of fine gravel.

I like the amount of information on the signs -- at least for my taste (and for Goldilocks). All the signs seem well maintained (though a few had a “dot” or two of braille missing). Each sign encouraged the visitor to participate in some “doing” and they indicate distances to the next information sign.

 Here is an example of one sign and the activity space very close to it…

 There is also a small off-shoot trail that encourages visitors to feel the bark on different trees and one tree has no bark…

 A bit further along the trail a sign and a bench encourage the visitor to linger for a while and listen to the sounds of the forest. In another location a sign and bench encourage more lingering while listening to and feeling the differences in sounds and temperature between the forest and a small meadow.

 The sign and activity at the Animal Bones stop is very engaging. A variety of bones are on the railing near the sign and no samples are too alarming – no skulls, animal skins, or a stuffed animal.

It appears someone makes sure the bones are in place on a regular basis since people or wild animals could easily knock them off the railing.

 I think this trail is a great example of what a self-guided trail could be and it contains most of the 11 best practices mentioned above. Here are a few things not included:

·      No “Hands” opportunities (something to take away in your hand as a memory) or “Hunger” experiences (no food), but good “Head” and “Heart” experiences

·      The trail does not provide other resources or suggest other places to visit

·      There is no suggestion of how to apply the sensory experiences to other places or how to connect this experience to other parts of the person’s life

·      I could not find any evaluation opportunities for the visitor or data on who uses the trail.

The only other concerns — a couple of signes with missing braille dots and some of the words are difficult to read against the trestle background. Otherwise, it’s a great SGT experience that pulls the visitor along without being boring.

Next time we will go to Trail #2 at the Palo Alto Junior Zoo, their strong use of evaluation and how they get visitors involved in the self-guided experience.

If you are interested in reviewing Bill’s two posts on SGTs here is the link to Part A and to Part B.

Is Your Visitorship Expanding ? Achieving Cut-Through

Being effective at what we do as interpretive professionals requires a foundation in marketing and public relations. We can create the best product/experience for our visitors but how do we ensure we continually grow & expand our visitorship and build the awareness of new and enhanced offerings. We cannot be satisfied with the same visitors returning again and again or to sit on our laurels and hope the visitors come flocking by.

No, we need to actively reach out in more targeted ways. If you have a “marketing person” on your staff, then you need to be working with them and talking to them about what you have found out about your present key publics. Tailoring a communication program to be effective for more “of those similar visitor types” is a first step to growing attendance and gaining support quickly (just one step but a critical one for success).

Photo credit : Bill Reynolds

When I was asked to grow a continuing education program at a nature centre, I decided to attend a three-day symposium at the New York Botanical Gardens titled “How to Run a Successful and Profitable Continuing Education Program in a Cultural Institution” and 40 years later I realize it was one of the best investments I made after I had completed my MSC in Interpretive Services.

Not only was this course chock full of learnings about the 7C’s of communication and the 6P’s of marketing, it also sent me down a new guerilla marketing learning path that expanded my horizons concerning the design of effective messages and images for people to help grab people’s attention. One course item that stood out was the tactical use of direct mail. It was key emphasis to getting your message into the hands and heads of your prospective visitor.

At that time, in the 80’s, we, of course, used letters in envelopes and the postal service with actual names (not “Occupant”) to targeted neighbourhoods. It worked! We doubled our registrants every season. Fast forward to present day: now we have e-mail which is free - bonus! However, direct mail can still work!

How many new prospective visitors is your park or centre talking to directly through a typed message delivered in front of their eyes in their inbox in a season or in a year? I am not talking about advertising or new web site contacts, I am talking about invitations you send to actual individuals. This can work for growing visitorship as well as for expanding that base.

Photo credit : Bill Reynolds

Expanding visitor types is topic for another time, although I have one tidbit to share from that course that is still relevant. If you have a symphony perform Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at your park then market through the symphony outlets not just through the park’s normal public relations department. That will accomplish market expansion.

Why this journey down memory lane? Well, it was triggered by an interview with a creative director, who had several mindshifting perspectives about branding that I wanted to share with you. I read this in a magazine about innovative businesses around the world, called “Fast Company.” It started with this line:

“How do you measure real impressions and create campaigns with cut-through?” Just ask Aurelia Rauch, creative director at Bergos, a Zurich-based bank. Two things immediately come to mind:

1) I believe interpreters should be called their site’s creative directors and because of that they should be called in whenever there is a design decision being made that impacts the visitor experience. Don’t discredit the information because it relates to a bank and you are a heritage institution. It is about raising awareness among a social media saturated audience and achieving cut-through.

Raising eyebrows and cut-through for a washroom sign (photo credit: Bill Reynolds)

In this case, Aurelia, the creative director, is responsible for shaping their branding, communications, marketing and advertising strategy. She is quoted as saying, “Brand campaigns that raise eyebrows can be a good thing!!” Knowing what is topical in your area and incorporating that into your messaging helps to make you relevant. Aurelia gave this example of a mini-storage company who explained, “What we do is in our name. We don’t need to explain it. You either need storage or you don’t.”

In another PR campaign hey wanted to do something good during the lead-up to the vote to legalize same-sex marriage. Renting space on a giant billboard they raised a few eyebrows by dislaying “If you don’t like gay marriage, don’t get gay married.” Interesting tactic of being seen or being known for doing something good, especially if your facility is in between blockbuster exhibits.

2) Now for something completely different: Aurelia says they focus completely on text ads and don’t use imagery. “Text has a magic to it as you just hear your own voice in your head.” She goes on to point out, “We also don’t have a physical product to sell, so the written word works best. A bold typeface gets the message across in such an immediate and resonant way.” Interesting countertake on “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Bottom line: consider your approach — is it time to try something a little different? Do you have a physical product or are we talking about an experience? Can it be conveyed best with an image, words or with both?

Credit: Bill Reynolds The power of bold text

Aurelia talked about admiring a painting by the Venetian Renaissance painter Titian that showed Mary being carried up to heaven. “The motivation behind it was that the Church wanted to inspire you to change your behaviour. When it came to motivating people to aspire to something, the Church did that extremely well. And that is what good branding does.”

Hadn’t thought about the church in that way before. Maybe we need to more observant and notice who does effective motivation and borrow those techniques for our heritage facilities. After all, isn’t our mission-related experiences really about changes in behaviour and attitudes and feelings. What changes are necessary to implement these new behaviours? In this case it is a strong image that accomplishes the targeted feeling that Aurelia expresses as “This is it – whatever it takes, I want that.”

Depending on the visitor type and the place image, words, or both should be considered. Effectiveness is in the eye and/or mind of the beholder. Make sure YOUR creative direction is being heard.

Part B SGT: One Size Does Not Fit All

Hey folks, we received a positive shout out from John Veverka after we sent you all the first half of this post about self-guided trails (SGT). He passed on an article he had written explaining his approach of mass customization to solve the issue of the “one size (story) does not fit all.” He nails it, in my opinion, when he laments the lazy approach he names the “Wikipedia on a Post.”  His article recommends a step-by-step process of resource inventorying, setting objectives (to understand and to feel), and choosing subtopics before deciding the best self-guided options available at a site using print or send to phone capability. Check out John’s article here: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox/FMfcgzGtvsbNBjCbzmMKPlgzjgbVWgzk?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1

Pat A of this post left off with: When planning that SGT ensure there is real appeal and interest in any reading or listening the visitor does along the trail. Reflecting on John’s contribution we could easily start with a reminder about avoiding the compulsion to become Wikipedia on a Post. In the age of instant access to information the SGT should be performing tasks other than informing. It’s time to explore the act of directing our visitor into new perspectives and encouraging their act of doing and involving themselves with trail elements that tie to SGT objectives.  

Have you involved the reader?

One example jumped out at me from Elk Island National Park in Alberta, Canada where the first line on the trailhead sign said, “What are your first impressions?” The text continued with a conversational tone that instructed the trailwalker to “…focus on the background and pierce their way through the dense hazelnut and aspen foliage…” to try and read the landscape beyond.

The next stop was at the first bridge and the text went like this, “Since the first stop you have travelled down a slope to this depression-a site where an ‘iceberg’ melted.” It is like we are having a conversation right now and we are being asked to reflect abit on our walking.

“Kneel down on the bridge and sweep away the curtain of duckweed.” (Note: there is a drawing of duckweed included.) “Under the water a swimming, gyrating show proceeds, free for the watching. Spend a few minutes here, you’ll enjoy the show.” Several images are included of a few underwater denizens to spark interest. The brochure and signage text maintains its friendly chattiness and yet can be directive suggesting something to do.

Is there any magic or sparkle in your wording?

speak to the visitor when using archival quotes

Courtesy Bill Reynolds

Sparkle is especially important for the trail name and the individual stop titles. Continuing along the Elk Island NP SGT using the brochure mentioned previously, there is never a sense of formal instruction in the writing style - always a sense of awe and wonder is expressed. The author writes about the pond by saying, “…an ecosystem that rivals the great oceans…” - you can almost hear the circus barker’s call. “Wielding oversized jaws, the water tiger chases after prey and literally sucks the life out of it when captured.” (drawing of water tiger included).

Would it be better to draw not say?

One time I found this grid drawing of a British Columbian temperate rain forest as part of a self-guided trail brochure, reminiscent of a 2-D drawing laying out an indoor museum diorama exhibit. The grid allowed you to pick out objects in the picture and find their name by combining the horizontal-vertical alphanumeric code and then refer to the list. For example, the owl you see is at B-12, you look up under birds and you discover the creature is a spotted owl. You can also look up what alphanumeric code corresponds to certain herbs, mosses, fungi, mammals, etc. and find out where they “are hiding” in the drawing.

This had potential to be a good interactive tool but it needed to be connected directly back to certain areas along the trail. The accompanying text also did not match up to the items drawn. If they had reinforced each other and related to the actual trail this could have been neat. Choosing what went into the drawing based on the trail sightings would have been the preparation needed.  This would have been perfect as a placemat in the cafeteria and as a laminated take-home placemat gift, all acting as wonderful educational and marketing tools.

Clever use of graphics in a SGT trail pamphlet cover is seen below in Le Relais. They tried to pique curiosity about the trail, without words, by using a mosaic of images that you would eventually encounter from various trail stops. Some may call it a form of dramatic foreshadowing, others may call it previewing - in any case both techniques are effective when you attempting spark interest and to lure in a reader/viewer using a 2-D format.

Have you considered the interest level of your visitor?

McGillivray Falls Trail in Manitoba used trail stop descriptors on one side of the leaflet, thus avoiding the often overabundance of text dedicated to floral identification. Meanwhile the leaflet’s backside was used for a list of flower descriptions and accompanying drawings. Not a bad plan to concentrate on a topic like flowers in one section so it doesn’t dominate or dilute the SGT desired messages. Of course in this case the assumption has been made that there is a large visitor base who desire to know more about the common flowering plants along the trail. As an interpretive planner, or evena front line interpreter, have you checked whether this is the case or whether other topics might be of more interest?

This brochure dropped the ball as they concentrated on a litany of botanical descriptors as the way to describe different aspects of flowers like you were reading a condensed book on botany (Remember - ou are not Wikipedia and no condensing 10 years of knowledge into one brochure). 

Here are some points to remember if you decide to focus on how to tell plants apart from each other:

·         Having a drawing with arrows alerting one’s attention to key visual differentiators on the plant.

·         Deciding what is it about the plants you are choosing that is importnat to highlight.

·         Having seasonal descriptions for each species and describing what time of year they bloom.

·         Indicating where on the trail you are likely to find certain species and their preferred habitat. (eg. dry, sunny or moist, shady)

·         Careful what vocabulary you use — in the case of the Falls Trail they referred to umbels, pinnately divided leaves, and inflorescence. Unless they are shown in a drawing or are a trained botanist then these technical terms should probably be substituted for more common words, or no name at all, just a description of the parts function. (Of course if it is the site’s objectives that visitors should learn these words before leaving, there would need to be some “doing” involved — but that is for another blog post.)

·         For the reader’s ease, determining how to arrange the plants you chose to place in the brochure is important. In this case with the Falls Trail the vertical ordered placement seemed quite random.

Courtesy Bill Reynolds

·         Being careful when using the term “flower” in your title when including a lichen and a fern.

·         Don’t always relying on flowers - they can be overrated. Why not have some fun with leaves and their varied shapes and arrangements, or checking out their undersides. Try using the word ”underbelly” as it’s guaranteed to crack kids up. 

·         Instead of focusing on simply describing the identifying characteristics for the visitor, why not turn it into a discovery for by directing them to check out hidden details. (e.g. look closely at the lower petal lip to see if it has a vein and describe its colour)

·         Highlight the secret and saucy life of plants and their reciprocal relationships with insects and their interdependency with us.

Have you drawn the connection to the visitor’s life?

McGillivray Falls Trail reminded me about the importance of context whenever we have an interpretive trail that follows close to a river. We should always mention where the water is flowing to and where it is flowing from. In addition, this is also a great opportunity to include a connection to the water cycle and how we humans are intricately tied to it – as in drinking from the water fountains in a local airport, or from the taps that provide the water for cleaning dishes at the local McDonalds or from the faucet in the bathtub at home.

 Have you built in a way to measure your SGT success?

If your hoped for takeaway message was, let’s say, “Insects that crawl in and around meadow plants are beautiful” are you checking after the walk to see if visitors are making comments like, “Gee, I didn’t know crawling insects were so beautiful.”  If you are not accomplishing what you set out to do then it is time to go back to the drawing board and decide if a self-guided trail is really the best vehicle to use. Prototyping your trail and doing dry runs with different test audiences can help you out before making an expensive mistake.

I do not run across a SGT leaflet with a built-in evaluation questionnaire very often but in my home province of Alberta, I did find one in the Marl Lake Trail brochure. The evaluation pages were perforated so it could be easily torn off and handed in. The brochure introduction stated “The booklet can lead you to new adventures…” and “The booklet can help you enjoy your walk…” among the delicate high mountain fens. The stated goal of the evaluation was “…to help park staff improve future Marl Lake Trail brochures.”

We should be seeing more evidence of this openness to seek improvement, and accept feedback from the visiting public so they feel more invested. It is also a great idea to evaluate, however, get the questions run by several different visitor types to ensure you are going to acquire helpful answers that you can act on.  In the case of this brochure it felt a bit more like a school test rather than a gathering of information.

Courtesy Bill Reynolds

All the evaluation questions were factual about fens using classic test set-ups with True or False statements, circling best answers and matching phrases. Is this type of test marking to see what visitor’s remembered the best way to improve the brochure? Do the visitors go away really knowing the top 5 things about fens and marl?

After I turned off the alarm bells going off in my head about this brochure, I started to re-assess the intent of the trail brochure and the takeaways desired. In my opinion, open ended questions to determine what the visitors felt about their time spent in this habitat would have been more helpful - like what they found most exciting about fens, or most intriguing about marl, or why we should protect this community? This would have begun to provide the park with better feedback.

If you ever desire to receive feedback on your interpretive resources, we at EID are always open to share our expertise from over a century of experience. Check out our blog page “What We do?” to get a sense of the types of capacity building we can help you with.

SGT: One Size Does Not Fit All

As I was sorting through my collection of self-guided trail (SGT) materials this week, I was reminded of the good and the bad examples I had collected over time and how I still see similar errors repeated when I visit trails today. So, the following helpful points are meant to assist interpretive planners with the 80% of their time spent on preparation before one launches into the 20% time spent on implementation/production for the SGT. These points are relevant whether one plans to use signs-in-place, brochure-numbered posts, QR codes with or without smartphones, or any other form of audio-enhancement.

Preparing a SGT at its most basic is joining a number of interesting places together along a path. Nature trails, historical trails, and sensory trails have been the norm in park settings. Linking together various artworks, zoo animals, botanical specimens or museum artifacts that create a journey for the visitor to follow is also applicable.

courtesy Lars Wohlers

Generally, SGT’s follow the same pattern.  What if we shook up the walking aspect and a microtrail was created that required a “hands and knees” position to focus on the small things in life? What about a trail that would engage the visitor, as in sketching, where your eyes are directed toward certain “scenes” of varying distances using, for example, sighting tubes and picture frames. Or journaling at a few spots along the trail using perspective changing quotes and passages.

Ah, but I get ahead of myself and head down a rabbit hole of sorts. First, some key questions need answering:

What will the trail do?

What are the specific 4H outcomes for the Head, Heart, Hands, and Hunger? (see our Putting Interpretive Ideas into Practice blog posts).  What is special about this place that you want visitors to know and feel? What is it you want them to take away? What do you want them to remember?

Is it about pointing out things?  Is it exclusively about explaining things?

Is it about finding meaning in what we see or experience?

 Is it about reinforcing old skills or learning new ones?

Who is it for?

This step is often forgotten in one’s enthusiasm or evaluated when considering the content and format. One size does not fit all. Would we expect the same story aimed at a grade one child to be interesting for an adolescent or university graduate? Have we included something of relevance for the elderly couple or a family with toddlers? Is there a sense of past, present, and future about the interpreted site?

Courtesy Bill Reynolds

Are they naturalists wanting to learn about plants or birds specifically? This audience seems to be the one that is often catered to. What level of knowledge are you assuming? How do you plan to “hook” and boost the level of engagement for the visitor who wants to stroll through the site?

How long are your visitors here for? Why do we design only short trail with densely packed signs along the trail? How about inserting interpretive enhancements at longer intervals on the longer trails? What about inserting viewpoints that are not dependent on long distance vistas but help the visitor to look up in the canopy or gaze at a nurse log? The stop designed with these kinds of stops might need special equipment like hammocks or kneeling pads.

Creating swollen trail nodes with interpretive stations could encourage visitors to linger and explore their individual senses or some neat site feature that will connect with the visitor. Maybe it will pose questions like:

Do they live in the area? Do you live in the same watershed, same country, same continent? Can we provide some comparisons, some similarities?

Some other visitor types to consider…Is it their first visit or do they come regularly? How do you counteract the “been there- read that” SGT experience? Do you provide options? Many heritage facilities are continually creating multiple background materials for changing exhibits. Why don’t parks and nature centres do the same and adapt to changing situations and multiple guest interests? Ever thought of a leveling system of booklets that lead to graduation? “Wow you have attained the gold level! Congratulations!” This consideration is as important as translating into different languages or the visitor’s spoken dialect.


Courtesy Bill Reynolds and his grandson Jakob

Where should it be?

This should be determined by answering what do you want your visitor to discover and then picking the best spots that demonstrate this.

When will this trail be used?

Is it meant to be taken more than once and at different seasons? Seasonality seems to get overlooked at times, especially with plants, as the text and drawings often represent only one season. This connects back to taking approaches necessary to counteract the “been there, read that” trail syndrome.

Mechanics Checklist:

The SGT intro should include how the trail is marked, estimated length of walking time, distance, change in altitude, washrooms, accessibility, safety concerns and expected behaviour.

Prospective trail walkers need an orientation. Maps should show the shape, distance and position of the trail, and its location in the park along with the location of the park in relation to the nearest population centre(s).

A SGT leaflet from Maine’s Acadia National Park notes that “Stops were selected for the purpose of introducing the visitor to a small slice of life {in this case} near the edge of Jordan Pond.”  It followed up at Station One by saying, “An evergreen corridor welcomes you - a balsam fir holds its branches out as though inviting you to slide your hand along its flat, soft, dark green needles.” All communication should have an element of welcoming and invitation for the visitor, especially to offset, at times, what can be perceived as onerous safety rules.

A summary should include where to get follow-up resources for enthusiasts, where to contact the relevant staff and where to locate the information centre and other nearby SGT’s. Shenandoah National Park’s interpretive trail booklet mentioned the other park SGT’s and how they each emphasized a different facet of the interwoven influencing factors in the Park’s story.

First cautionary note: Don’t try to tell people in one hour what it took you 10 years to learn.

This formula has been around for ever:

Total number of stops: 10-15

Total number of words per stop 30-75 (this was for written text; however, oral listening should not extend this by too much)

Yet I still find examples where the site has gone textual overboard and they wonder why general interest visitors walk by the designated stops along the “interpretive trail.”  Not only the length of each text but the content depth needs to be dialled back in many cases.

courtesy Bill Reynolds

Something I have never seen in trail brochures is levelling of text for one stop so that the layout shows a short, medium and longer paragraph version of text - each one building on what came before and each one using a smaller fontsize. This caters to the person who has either a small, medium or large interest in the topic at hand. Labels in museum exhibits often employ this strategy and I have noticed some signs- in-place doing this. Incorporating a QR code can accomplish this levelling aspect - note how the example below includes instructions.

Also in the example below, the voices of local indigenous youth are employed to share their knowledge about native plants. Different viewpoints and connections to our heritage need profiling and a scientific or naturalist perspective is just one lens.

courtesy : Bill Reynolds

Expanding out on the topic initially discussed also can be done with audio as the listener can choose more tracks after the base track.

Second cautionary note: Don’t try to explain thousands of years of change or a series of complex interrelationships in one stop.

Glaciation erosion, evolution, geologic time scales don’t lend themselves to a 30-75 word descriptor even with graphics. So why do we keep trying to include them in SGT signs and brochures?

On the complex interrelationship topic, here is one half of the text from the last station on a nature path: “Locked forever to the spot where germination takes place, all wild plants must be able to satisfy their needs there if they are to succeed.  Sunlight, amount and distribution of rainfall, soil content and structure, temperature range, and plant and animal competition pressures all help to determine which plants will thrive.”

If you want the visitor to have an inkling of plant need satisfaction when it is stuck in one spot, as this previous sentence lays out, then one would have needed to partition out each italicized and alternating bold determinant as its own stop. This could easily have been the concept for the whole trail and stops could be selected to demonstrate each element in action. Making this message relate to the human condition and need satisfaction would also strengthen the visitor connection.

Third cautionary note: Please, not another beaver or lichen stop!

I have travelled all over the globe and I have encountered the same type of introductory text as the primarily fact-driven text on signs about these two living entities no matter wherever I take a trail. Talk about “been there - read that.” We need to really search for elements that stand out as differentiators while noting the universal message that can tie many communities together. We don’t just have a stop about trees so why do we talk generically about lichens? Lichens vary alot and need more respect. What makes your site special? Let’s never forget to highlight this.

“Have a good look at the tree across the track because you won’t find it anywhere else but here on the buffalo plateau.” I really liked this line that drew attention to a special park feature from a gorge nature walk in Victoria, Australia. A great opener and a great reason for a stop!

Then it falls flat. “It is called Buffalo Sallee. The fine leaves distinguish it from the other gums in the park.” That’s it?   The only interesting thing about this gum tree is its name and leaf shape?? At least we should have a message about the mission of the park and protection values.

When planning that SGT ensure there is real appeal and interest in any reading or listening the visitor does along the trail.

We will pause for a week and take this up in our second segment. Please throw me a crumb and let me know if there was anything – even a morsel -- that got you thinking in a different way and was helpful to you in this post.

Action Now: Solarpunk to Generation Carbon

As smoke again enveloped the Edmonton, Alberta area where I live and another health advisory discouraged outdoor activities, a sense of frustration occurred. This combined with our county having had the first ever evacuation order due to spring grassland fires, I just felt a blog post relating to this ongoing human-caused tragedy was called for.

As citizens and individuals active in the natural and cultural interpretive profession we have a communication and facilitative role to keep the dialogue going and impact people’s lifestyles on behalf of the Earth - our home. This role is about repairing our relationship with the Earth’s communities and natural systems, striving for harmony with all living things, and putting clean air, water and soil above all else. People often say, “It’s the economy, stupid!” that’s the key to survival, BUT counter that with “You can’t breathe, drink or eat the economy, stupid.”

When EID started our blog posts we wanted to draw from different perspectives, form more interrelationships, and break down silo thinking -- not just draw from the interpretive, educational and museum fields. Here are a few relevant items that have crossed my desk that focus on our climate crisis and I think promote interrelationships between fields.

 

Solarpunk Shines a Light

Being exposed to the concept of Solarpunk is an example of this cross-fertilization of perspectives we need in order to keep our profession relevant. This group is offering a digital conference on June 24 and this YouTube link will tell you all about it: Solarpunk Conference: From Imagination to Action Kickstarter - YouTube

So what is Solarpunk? Solarpunk is a social movement that encourages all of us to ask: "What does a sustainable, equitable future look like?" and "How can we get there?" These are the questions our politicians, businesses and communities should be asking on a regular basis. Our visitor centres and museums should be playing a stronger role here to really engage our visitors in the future of their natural and cultural heritage. Truly, is there anything more vital than this? 

"Solarpunk is really the only solution to the existential corner of climate disaster we have backed ourselves into as a species," says Michelle Tulumello, a Solarpunk art teacher in New York state. "If we wish to survive and keep some of the things we care about on the earth with us, it involves a necessary fundamental alteration in our world view where we change our outlook completely from competitive to cooperative."  

I recommend you start with the following introduction to Solarpunk on YouTube: New to Solarpunk? Start Here. Advice when viewing – the narrator goes at a fast clip so be ready to pause during the 4 levels of action steps or slow down the speed of delivery. It can seem overwhelming, depending on where you are in your lifestyle, at the present moment.  However, the introduction is a comprehensive resource of strategies that potentially can be doled out in small doses to your site visitors…and for moving forward personally.

Rooted in Solarpunk’s philosophy, Canadian consumer brand Expedition Air employs upcycling technology to sell products like paintings and T-shirts made from carbon-captured material. Their consumer offerings de-risk the uptake of this novel material while helping to envision a future in which products and art, are carbon sinks. Are you able to support initiatives and brands like this at your centre?

Parent company to expedition Air is Carbon Upcycling Technologies, who have a reactor technology that allows material to be broken down and CO2 absorbed, creating enhanced concrete additives. Does your site have any future construction plans where you could use this upcycling approach?

Carbon Almanac - Where Kids Help Grown-ups Save the Planet

I am pleased to give a shoutout to the Carbon Almanac Network (CAN) who brought my attention to solarpunk through the daily email they send. I recommend subscribing to CAN’s daily carbon almanac email blast for ways to work carbon reduction into your lifestyle. dailydifference@thecarbonalmanac.org   All heritage sites should be raising visitor awareness of this free educational service. One can also listen to Episode 102 of the CarbonSessions podcast episode, to get exposed to this movement.

The Carbon Almanac Network, a team of +300 contributors from around the world, deserve a mini-profile expansion. They worked together under the guidance of marketing guru, Seth Godin, to create a book called Generation Carbon about climate change.  ”Now more than ever, we need established facts, a common understanding across generations, and collective action.”

Generation Carbon is a book of facts, not opinions and tackles the difficult questions kids have about climate change. In 3 days from April 29 to May 1,2022, when it launched, it was downloaded more than 10,000 times. Their aim is to get Generation Carbon to hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of kids as long as the ever- widening network continues to spread the word. To receive your free personal downloadable copy of Generation Carbon: It's Time to Start click Generation Carbon – A Carbon Almanac for Kids (thecarbonalmanac.org)

The educator’s guidebook followed the 69- page climate almanac for children. In addition, Generation Carbon is a companion podcast where kids age 6-10 help grownups save the planet. Young changemakers are challenged to finish the eBook’s mission — the game plan is based on the multiplier effect to teach five adults about climate change using a bedtime study challenge, almanac exercises, bathroom wall fast facts poster, etc

The Climate Test Kitchen of California

The second news item spotlights the State of California that continues to step up with market- based climate solutions.  As the fifth largest economy in the world, California continues to play a leadership role in policy making that deals with climate change and has been called a climate policy test kitchen.

In a previous job my colleagues and I were always being reminded that to be effective at successfully focusing effort and change agentry you needed to grasp - what gets measured gets done!  In California, a key part of lowering greenhouse gas emissions is accounting for them and this is exactly what the state is setting out to do.

The bill that cleared the California Senate on May 30, 2023 would require companies that operate in the state and generate more than a billion dollars a year to report greenhouse gas emissions across their supply chains using a standardized formula. Climate disclosure is a critically important step to reduction.

Our public facilities, as well as corporations, need to provide this information and model the way forward. As a customer, investor, or a regulator it is very hard to compare voluntary, non-standard disclosures and expose greenwashing if nothing is measured.

Is your site willing to examine the environmental and social effects of your supply chain in the exhibit areas, the gift shop, or the café? Would you be willing to share this information with the visitor along with what actions you are taking to have less impact?

It’s funny (sad, actually) how corporations are trying to prevent transparency and do not want to be held truly accountable , by spending money on greenwashing and anti-emission reduction lobbying efforts, so “business as usual” can continue. Putting shareholder’s profits above the environmental and social health of communities is a reality we have come to accept. Can we turn around profit before people, to people before profit?

Industry lobbyists stymied a similar proposal last year. How should this impact our role at a natural or cultural heritage site?  I believe it goes back to raising awareness of issues that all citizens need to be cognizant of, for their physical, mental and social well being.  Modeling new carbon reducing approaches is something we could champion.

Courtesy Booth Hansen architects web site. With 217 solar panels, the building is LEED Silver certified, the first in the USA for a new children’s museum. Kohl Children’s Museum in Glenview, Illinois.

Knowing that one’s visitors are in a leisure mood is an important consideration in how you approach critical topics but does not mean you shy away from them. Surveys continually demonstrate that our heritage sites have high credibility in the visitors’ minds so it behooves us to be that credible source of information. It is not about being a mouthpiece against certain industry practices but it is about being a mouthpiece for beneficial community well being.  We in the interpretive and heritage site field all have an important role - let’s jump in and prime the pump with information that increases awareness and models actions for others that will benefit all the human and non-human passengers on the planet.

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The Currency of Kindness

Our last email contact with you was dealing with the welcome aspect of the visitor experience and it was a whopping two webinars worth.  This item is short and sweet but still packs a wallop.

We believe that successful interpretive planning requires the design of the total visitor experience- pre, during and post visit.  It needs to:

·         reflect a holistic individual,

·         offer visitor interactions between place and visitor, and

·         be developed using the curation of mission-based, outcome- driven experiences. and

·         incorporate a sense of welcoming,

One element of welcoming is the need for inclusion, for feeling like family and for providing the sense of community, safety and kindness.

I follow British-based Positive News and want to share with you an article about the Kinder Shop in a Cumbrian town where the currency is kindness. This resonated with me on the concept of community, as I believe it has relevance to heritage sites that need to UP their connection status and level of caring within their local population.

You can accomplish more through more people by tapping into the wider community of resources available. You also can align quickly with more support by widening your net of people contacts and become less insular. Reaching out for assistance makes everyone stronger and builds relationships that are so so important these days.

Enter the Kinder Shop pop-up and the concept of exchanging goods for time. Here, all the goods were donated by local businesses and priced as volunteer time at nearby charities, with the suggested number of hours displayed on the ‘price tag.’ This concrete initiative was a way to promote kindness and understanding within the community.

They found a catalytic way of thinking about linking volunteerism, the time-starved person and everybody’s interest in getting a deal. The response was overwhelming, with 1,143 hours pledged to help local charities in just one day.

What about primarily promoting understanding in the neighbouring community about what you do at your site? Does your heritage site or does your neighbouring community have a space that could act as a pop-up, where you could display donated goods from local businesses Then the exchange for donated time could not only be for assisting your site but also your “community” of land trusts, archives and affiliated conservation organizations.

Do you have a wish list of projects that need to be done but no person power to do them –, exhibit upkeep, trail maintenance, wildlife cam viewing/recording, bench painting, planting flowers, researching artifacts, help in the bug room, etc.

In the case of a natural heritage site what about promoting earth kindness by exchanging local business free goods for donated time to undertake community projects that you co-ordinate?  Think of this as an extension/outreach project to build strong interrelationships and for being visible in your community… it is worth its weight in gold. How about building & mounting bat boxes, constructing bee hotels, or a native plant seeding day?

I have always been slightly perturbed when I would hear the lament from grumbling staff that they are being required to “do more with less.” My comeback was always so let’s do “more with more”. A bit like the glass half empty concept versus viewing it as half full. We may be given less money, and less staff but that doesn’t mean we can’t look for more. Yes, that takes time but can be a blessing in disguise.

Less budget does not have to mean less resources – it can just mean more partnerships. Having the money to buy what you need is the easy way. However, how might one find the resources to do the things that need doing without money exchange?

We need to start thinking of “exchanges” both in terms of what we and potential partners could offer, in addition to what we and others need in terms of time. The more co-ordinated mutual support, network we have built up - the stronger we all are from a social health, community spirit and desire to thrive perspective.

How DO you unearth a mountain of goodwill using the currency of kindness? How can you become a catalyst of people resource exchange and be a matchmaker in the process? And who DO you direct it to?

For more info on this great uplifting news source and this specific topic go to  The shop where the currency is kindness - Positive News

"Yes, Virginia, We Really Did Record Our Webinar Sessions on Welcoming the Guests."

At EID we think one of the most important interactions with the visitor is the Welcome. That is why we decided to focus on the Welcome Experience for our first two webinars. However, we need to apologize for the delay in getting these two sessions on “Sharing Great Ways to Greet the Guests” up and running. There were a few technical glitches that came up that you, as the viewer, should be aware of.

On the Part 1 webinar we discovered a “hole” in the upper right corner of the recording that revealed the Zoom code behind the screen. Our tech person, Nate Byerley, found a way to patch the hole with a picture of our EID logo. The audio is not affected but at times the PowerPoint slides do get obscured.

The focus of this first Welcome Webinar is the arrival sequence, the parking lot and entrances, with examples and analysis of first impressions, inclusivity, comfort, engagement, humor, and accessibility. In addition, staff from the Raven Run Nature Sanctuary in Lexington/Fayette County, Kentucky will present a mini-case study of their entrance with feedback from EID and participants.

If you prefer to view this first webinar in smaller segments at your leisure here is the link you can use: https://youtu.be/yLQxZFRi3FU

During the second webinar Bill and Mike take a deep dive into components of the Pre-Arrival, Arrival and Welcome sequence. There is emphasis on building anticipation, creating a mood, and setting the stage for visitors.  Different techniques to orient the visitors are discussed so they know where they are and where they can go. This session also responds to participants’ entrances and welcome concerns and presents examples on employing humor and a “whiff of mission” in the Welcome sequence to encourage greater focus on the site’s outcomes and mission.

A couple of times we forgot to just use the speaker view on the recording so the pictures of the participants may block some of the PowerPoint text. Sorry about that and we will do better next time. Here is the link if you would like to download the session: https://youtu.be/XcofjZZZAjk

If you would like to explore some new ideas about the Welcome Sequence at your preservation, collection or historic recognition site please contact us at contact@eidcoaching.com and we would be happy to set up a meeting with you. Or if you have questions or comments about the webinars please send those along in an email or in the comment section below.

Thanks again for your patience and for your continued support of our work at EID. We will keep you posted about future webinar sessions.

Pantry of Destruction and More Twittertalk

It’s time for the last in the series of three posts from the 2022 #InterpDesign twitter platform annual highlights. The previous post dealt with the power of graphics in playful interpretation which helps with serious learning. We also had fun with the effective use of infrastructure and who can’t forget the dog library. Now we delve into satisfying various visitor needs.

If you follow us already then this will be a tweet refresher/reminder with some added bonus expansion on the original limited commentary. If you don’t follow us yet (what are you waiting for!) as our aim is to inspire you with an eclectic range of thought -provoking material that you can apply to boost your visitors’ site experience. If your visitor experience team needs a spark of new perspectives on a specific issue or just general experience enhancement as a kick off to 2023, then get in touch with us at contact@eidcoaching.com A roundtable discussion is only a Zoom meeting away.

Design WITH Children! Take Curiosity Seriously!

How do you go about sparking a “lifelong love of heritage” in the youngster demographic? Perhaps by transforming an heritage property into a first-of-its-kind experience designed for AND with youngsters. What if rooms, in a richly decorated home, best known for its furnishings, became spaces that celebrated the escapades and challenges of childhood across the centuries, especially the realities of life for children who were employed? 

courtesy: National Trust

Certain spaces in the Children’s Country House Museum run by the National Trust in England have been redone to portray the child’s journey through the ages. Daring young ‘sweeps’ can take on the chimney climb and crawl into the darkness. Others can venture down a Victorian mine tunnel or get involved with activities to see what life was like for children working in domestic service.

Certain spaces in the museum basement have been transformed into interactive historic house interpretation like the World Below and the Pantry of Destruction. In the former, visitors can prepare toy food and make clay models inspired by the house’s plasterwork. In the latter Pantry of Destruction children are engaged in the basics of heritage conservation with an interactive display on heritage hazards such as floods, theft and pests, to counteract elements of ‘destruction’. The portrait photo booth allows visitors to pose for photos using symbolic props that echo the symbols found in historic portraiture associated with 17th century Jacobean interiors.

What about devising & testing ideas aimed at "serving the needs of children with families, not families with children?” The Children’s Country House Museum did just that -following a two-and-a-half-year renovation, by working with 100 ambassadors, up to age 12. They continue to work with children to further develop the Garden and decide what the future should look and feel like. 

They claim this is the world’s first stately home entirely reinterpreted for children. The property has removed almost all ropes and barriers, allowing visitors to explore the space freely, with colour coding used to signal which objects can be touched. A rotating mirror allows visitors to pick out details in the paintings and plasterwork that decorate the stairs.

In another twist, the National Trust created a second-hand shop selling children s’ pre-loved items including books, toys and clothing. This exemplifies the reuse principle as opposed to outright consumerism and reinforces a certain value system integral to conservation.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/peak-district-derbyshire/the-childrens-country-house-at-sudbury/creating-the-childrens-country-house

Fostering Connections

“Museums in general are places for community and dialogue, and are uniquely positioned to foster connections among people using art immersion as a stimulating factor.”

This was stated by Lucy Stewart, the Associate Curator of Education at Carnegie Museum of Art, after she led the launch of a Mindful Museum at her institution. Having read the Alliance of American Museums (AAM)’ Creative Aging report, that concluded the over 55 demographic was being ill served by museums, she responded with “a call to action.”

Courtesy : Carnegie Museum of Art

Their market research discovered: “There are more than 20,000 people aged 55+ within walking distance of Carnegie Museum of Art.” How many of you know the numbers of certain age groupings within a close distance of your centre that you could call “neighbours?” A new form of outreach, and forgotten target market, perhaps?

Two main thrusts from the report were apparent: the need for seniors to be able to express themselves and to be active in a safe, comfortable, and stimulating environment. A sense of comfort also meant sitting in chairs in the galleries, during a planned time slot with a reserved space that removed any feeling of being rushed.

Art Paths or tours of the museum’s gallery, were optimized for movement and meditation; art history and drawing classes tapping into art therapy; and in-person chair yoga instruction were offered.  For more on this check out https://jingculturecrypto.com/carnegie-museum-of-art-mindful-museum/

Lucy Stewart’s previous quote applies to more than art museums. It has universal appeal among the heritage sector, because if you replace the word museum with park or historic site and the word art with sense of place as in sense of place immersion, it still rings true.

However, while fostering connections only among people is a worthwhile goal, at this juncture in our earth’s demise, fostering connections with the earth must take precedence. A recent book called Earthwalks an alternative nature experience by Steve Van Matre and Associates addresses this connection outcome up front, with structure and purpose. Earthwalks are not simply another outdoor leisure pursuit. Their focus is on generating feelings of joy, kinship, reverence and love with the earth. Heritage sites need to be sponsoring these Earthwalks developed by The Institute for Earth Education (www.ieetree.org). EID can help you set up a training session for your staff so they can regularly lead this outdoor experience. See our blog post for more details https://eidcoaching.com/blog-main/2020/4/24/earthwalks-using-our-senses-to-deepen-our-feelings-for-the-earth

Courtesy Merrion Hotel website

Palette and Palate

While on the artistic flair bent, the Art Tea event is a feast for the eyes & stomach at Dublin hotel, the Merrion where hanging masterpieces inspired chefs to create pastries as mini art collection edibles. At the special event, visitors would get to consume them while contemplating the miniature artwork prints that accompanied the edibles so you knew what or who you were eating. Then you might be intrigued to see the real thing in the gallery. Have you encouraged any of your curated collections or natural heritage specimens to inspire your café menu? Any high- end pastry chef/restaurant partnerships coming to mind with waterfowl carvings perhaps? 

While attending a Salmon Arm, British Columbia Art Show featuring Indigenous artists we were treated to tea and cookies at the end of the opening that blew me away because it was so apropos to the gathering and the earth relationship being expressed in the artworks.  Just wanted to illustrate that it doesn’t have to be fancy just connected to the essence of the story and playing a reinforcing role

What’s your Narrative?

The Fort Worth Zoo in Texas wanted to inject their digital presence with a contemporary, playful look and feel that would reinforce the zoo as a destination for fun and excitement, while simultaneously presenting the animals in their charge with dignity, through captivating imagery and language that promotes exceptional care. Their commitment to species survival, conservation, animal welfare, and education is placed at the forefront of the digital guest experience. Here is the image that appears as part of their twitter handle:

Courtesy : Fort Worth Zoo Twitter

What is presently at the forefront of your guest experience and does it match to what you want it to be?  In maximizing this narrative, the Fort Worth Zoo reports that new website is already driving donations, animal adoption, and other forms of vital support and giving.  They are empowering visitors to join a movement toward wildlife and habitat protection by engaging in events, where donations are solicited for their vital projects and causes.

While reading this, I could not help but wonder how our national and state/provincial parks could benefit from a visitor building lesson, by reimagining their web presence to empower visitors effectively to join a movement toward wildlife and habitat protection. Visitors pay their admission but beyond that they are never (in my experience) ever asked to contribute towards any research or wildlife monitoring or conservation work in the park. Budgets are not overflowing for this type of work so why don’t we give visitors the chance to participate financially and provide them the feeling of benefiting their parks-their wild spaces. A dream worth pursuing…

Hopefully this 3-part twitter highlights that rambled down diverse pathways has provided you with some new approaches and perspectives. We at EID want to share what we have learned along the way as well as the ongoing flurry of innovative and engaging approaches we constantly search for. However, a solid plan tried to an outcome-driven mission is paramount. Having interpretive passion without direction is like being an octopus on roller skates. You can be sure there will be plenty of movement but you won't know where you are headed, making it difficult to measure success.

If you have problems or just need a boost of energy - we have ways to help you solve them or provide revitalization. Get in touch with us for a coaching session.

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Tales from the Twittersphere

Time for the second installment of the 2022 annual highlights from our #InterpDesign twitter platform. If you follow us already then this will be a refresher/reminder with some added bonus expansion on the original limited commentary. If you don’t follow us yet (what are you waiting for!) then this will be a tremendous treasure trove of titillating twitterings. Totally!  We aim to inspire by exposing you to an eclectic range of source material that is thought provoking and will contribute to visitor experience enhancement.

Playful Interpretation

Among all the tweets, deciding what to start with was a challenge.  It was decided by an avian visitor. Outside my window, on a snow laden branch, looking quite plump and happy in the minus 22C temperature was a robin. He seemed to be egging me on saying, “Just put on your down jacket, lined pants and join me -it’s balmy out here. The chokecherry berries have just the right bite of ice fermented tang to them.” Normally, the robin performs an uplifting sign of warmth and of new life’s explosion soon to come – both welcoming signs after a long, cold season, however this chap was heralding the opposite.

With this human to wildlife projection prelude, Rosemary Mosco’s spring robin comic strip came to mind.

Her great nature- based comical images illustrate what playful interpretation can mean. We periodically retweet her graphic strips on our tweet platform. Interpretive excellence is about viewing behaviour, creating images and stating language in relatable terms – why not in cartoon terms?

The Power of Cartoons

As you can see, Rosemary has a light- hearted, quirky way of communicating.  The following snippet from her Bird and Moon comics, exemplifies a different form of informative “teaching”:

Human: "I would do anything for my kids! I'd protect them with my life!"

Canada Goose: "I would do anything for my kids! I'd protect them with my life!"

Human (while strolling through the middle of a goose family on a park lawn): "Why is that goose being such an aggro jerk.”

This made me think that a graphic approach may be a better tool to use when it comes to raising awareness of inappropriate and dangerous human behaviour. I would wager that in many cases, this slant of humour, using anthropomorphism based on biological behaviour would be a far more effective warning for certain audiences in order to communicate why to avoid human wildlife interactions. 

We might try using this graphic approach more often as a way of delivering our messages and accomplishing our head and heart outcomes. Rosemary Mosco’s work demonstrates another way of building a connection with nature through better empathy, understanding, and a more inclusive planetary ego.

Canvases Worth Pursuing & Igniting

Graphics like innovative street art design often provokes my little brain cells to utter comments of… why don’t our parks and heritage sites spend time ensuring that their service infrastructure performs to its best ability and play a role in non-personal interpretation?

Upon seeing this stairway adorned with fish it spawned all sorts of ideas. An interpretive adornment does not have to be onsite.  Maybe search for a local venue in your neighbouring community and investigate a partnership as a part of outreach work that performs 24/7 and has constant reinforcement.

For example, what if a village situated near a river adorned a staircase with native fish to remind residents about caring for their watershed & thinking twice about what they flush from their home into other beings' homes. A wonderful message so germane to many natural area visitor centres and definitely worth hinting at to their visitors. What about your staircase? What would work for your site? What image would be worth replicating in a prominent spot that would remind visitors about developing a more caring relationship with whatever subject matter was chosen to support your mission and outcomes?

Double Duty Infrastructure

Resources for interpretive programming, self-guided trails and specific media are constantly being squeezed yet visitor service Infrastructure is a given. It not only has the capacity to be doing double duty, it NEEDS to be doing double duty both from a functional viewpoint and from a mission -related, message-reinforcing viewpoint (see our previous mini-blog post Double Duty Design Dream Dec 2018).

There are so many public canvases capable of sparking the flame of inspiration.  A staircase is just one “avenue” of possibility.  Another would be a sidewalk doing double duty as a giant “What am I ?” artifact display - conversation piece, acting as multiple mini-gateways to past worlds.

Do your walkways liven up the visitor experience? Do they play a role in drawing you in and engaging your senses?

Sit Up and Listen

On the subject of Infrastructure there was a great tweet from Copenhagen, Denmark which aimed to draw attention to climate change. This was not just an attempt at a fun selfie, like the giant Adirondack chairs at tourist resorts but it also acted as a message carrier.

Thought-provoking clever design, in this case a bench built a metre higher than the normal sidewalk rest bench, was situated at a practical height due to the projected raise in sea level by the year 2100. By avoiding facts and figures, infrastructure can play a very significant and impactful role bringing the abstract into the concrete.  This is a powerful illustration of how ignoring a behaviour can have dramatic outcomes.

Created as part of TV 2’s “Our Earth – our Responsibility” campaign, it certainly strikes a chord with pedestrians. Any working on a non-exhibit like this to drive home the point of Our Earth- Our Responsibility? Any partners you could approach?

Emphasis on Fun

Sometimes EID finds street art design examples worth sharing that combine subtle humour with an image that could have relevance to an heritage institution. The example chosen below blends this relevance with a humourous infrastructure example that gets infrastructure to pull its interpretive weight.  Our sites need to look for opportunities to add a little fun to help put a smile on the visitor’s face.

Not only the pipe but also the grate was screaming for some creative treatment and the artist combined both. This cartoony image would work well for a zoo in keeping with the nature of the site but there are numerous images and styles adaptable to fit whatever your subject matter is whether botanical garden, aquarium, historic site, or nature centre. We all possess these, shall I say ugly corners, that are underperforming. Let’s pay more attention to what we already have and get them working for us. Get out there and inventory those areas that need a makeover.  In this case we asked on our tweet: Do you have a pipe you want to spruce up for your visitor’s experience?

Satisfy the Playful Urge

Sometimes there can be the image-based tweets that trigger a deeper dive. In the case of the dog library, it sparked more than just light-hearted, canine compassionate humour. “Take a stick leave a stick” is a play on words for the concept of a  free neighbourhood lawn mini-library where cupboards on posts beside sidewalks cajole strollers to open them and “Take a book leave a book.”

Pets are frequent companions with visitors to our sites and courtesies are often offered to them in the form of water bowls, treats and shady spots to rest providing the basic of Maslow’s needs. Play for a dog takes it up a level as reading does for humans. Do we need to satisfy the playful urge in humans before we jump into interpretive messaging or can we combine them?

 This also got me thinking down another pathway – be on your guard. This outpouring of care and compassion for our pets says something about our need for companionship and relationship. We seem to understand that all living creatures require the same basic needs. We go the extra mile when it comes to providing the life needs of feeding wild birds and animals along with offering them some nesting shelter assistance. Are we compensating for feeling guilty because we have wiped out their home habitat? Is this not another form of creating a dependency on us rather than designing and “developing” human communities where we strive to live harmoniously and interdependently together with wildlife? Our natural heritage sites can do a better job of demonstrating this lopsided lifestyle, and question the kind of relationship being set up. Our urban parks can raise the awareness bar among visitors so they advocate for city, building and landscape planning that reflects more than human needs. Designing with nature in mind has to be the way going forward.

Play is Serious Learning

Getting back to the concept of play, is this particularly apt quote that popped up on Twitter that EID subsequently shared.  Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers Neighbourhood TV series understood children and we SHOULD remember his point that play is the work of childhood and involves serious learning. Although I might venture to say that play applies to all human ages. Playful interpretation is what we at EID always advocate for.

Lavatory Laboratory

Upon reviewing our tweets and retweets from the past year it was decided there were enough to fill two blog posts as well as spotlight one topic in a third (this one). The topic of lavatories was flushed out from the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) member survey tweet, about the best museum bathrooms, based on over 200 responses.  Laboratory because we feel there needs to be more playful experimentation in their presentation along with more purposeful use as an integral part of a site mission.

The AAM survey received an interesting proposal as part of the entries – pointing towards the consideration of a new position - a curator of bathrooms. This would place bathrooms as a key element of the guest experience reflecting their strategic welcoming importance.  This may have been tongue-in-cheek (how apropos) butt it does deserve some deliberation.

We were bowled over by the diverse design examples supplied.  Best Criteria seemed fairly loose if non-existent – in the eyes of the beholder kind of thing. Get prepared because urine for a wide range of entries – all with a different angle (I promise from now on no more droppings of silly scatological puns in the text).

Before we launch into a few select AAM entries, I must confess I am a bathroom design junkie with quite a collection of what I consider best practices. Yours truly cannot always avoid getting in the picture as the first image attests to.  Right off the bat, walls have the opportunity to reinforce a sense of place or culture as this iconographic tile design illustrates. This was used in the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, in Whistler, British Columbia. Hand in hand with a creative interior is the creative treatment of the rest room directional signage that presents an opportunity to avoid the generic cold institutional feel. Instead, you can have some fun and pick images that relate back to the site messaging as the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre did.

Washrooms can often be among the first impressions that visitors get from your site. The majority of visitors will visit them at least once during their experience. For this reason, they can play a critical role in atmosphere building and reinforcing your mission yet they are often neglected. They provide way more potential than simply catering to people’s basic needs. In the following case of an outdoor facility the colourful facade clearly presents a fun, well maintained and clean exterior – giving the impression of a well-cared for interior- something outdoor washrooms don’t universally demonstrate. Additionally, the image reinforces the heritage of sternwheelers on the nearby lake as well as sand castle beach frivolity. What sort of impression do your restrooms project?

AAM blog post author Joseph O’Neill set the stage with this statement: “From the visitor perspective, bathrooms can be all-important, revealing just how carefully the designers of a public space considered their comfort and needs…for some people—including those who care for young children, who are transgender or gender-nonconforming, or who have disabilities—this importance can be heightened, and even a barrier to visiting a place altogether.” This summer I experienced my first-ever gender-neutral facility, featuring floor-to-ceiling stalls and a communal sink area at a local historical park. It felt strange initially then wonderful because of the feeling of equity rather than separateness.

We have to reassess our building facade and the service facilities within our sites to gauge whether they provide a sense of inclusion and belonging for all visitors. During the most recent EID participatory webinar we introduced this concept when discussing how comfortable we are all with the welcoming design aspect (or lack of) within our sites.  Email us to let us know if you missed that session and would like to have us offer it again. If several staff members  from your site and even neighbouring sites  would like to book a digital session over zoom, Mike and I would love to accommodate.

Let’s get to the examples chosen from the AAM article for this blog post.  From the standpoint of a bathroom-exclusive exhibition, the Mariners’ Museum and Park had great panels in its stalls that explained bathroom elements on ships and using the bathroom at sea.  A Head of Its Time: A Brief History of Going at Sea, discussed topics like why the facilities—or lack thereof—were called the head; “as well as the wisdom of keeping tabs on wind direction and how sailors improvised before toilet paper.”

Located at the site of a former psychiatric hospital, the Glore Psychiatric Museum keeps its bathrooms strikingly on theme, again through wall and stall panels, using them as an opportunity to teach about topics like optical illusions and phobias.

The walls of the bathrooms at Planet Word in Washington, DC feature euphemisms for going to the restroom (e.g. ‘seeing a man about a horse’) and wordplays on famous quotations (e.g. I stink, therefore I am.)

Beyond the 2- dimensional use of walls how about the Charleston Museum in South Carolina that created a wall mounted exhibit case featuring a chamber pot display.

chamber pot display courtesy AAM blogpost

At this juncture I need to insert a really novel “exhibit” example I discovered at a regional heritage site in Creston, British Columbia. A two- door closed cabinet was situated in the washroom with the label Do not peek Unmentionables for Ladies on the outside doors. The word “not” had a line strike through it egging you on to open them. Lo and behold -undergarments and period advertisements are on display. I am not sure what was in the ladies’ washroom – a parallel unmentionables for men??

Certainly, in the category of memorable washrooms is the Denver Museum of Art where, “The sinks sing ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ as you wash your hands. A visitor called Melody commented that “You can get the sinks to sing in canon if you time it right.” This singing sink idea was created by Denver artist and designer Jim Green, who is also known for a Laughing Escalator at the Colorado Convention Center. This may be technologically too much for your budget, so if you desire to lighten your visitor’s mood try using images of smiles as To be more on pointthat can be very effective.  Another option would be installing a motion detector or pressure sensor that triggers a sound track of laughter when they enter (maybe not before you enter the restroom but before you enter your site’s main door).

Although the singing sinks is very catchy, it seems more appropriate as a mission driven experience for a children’s museum or the birthplace of a composer, songwriter or lyricist rather than an art museum. To be more on point, you could produce an audible track that has a connection to your mission and that changes over time depending on the season, temporary display, or exhibit.

What does an art gallery do with its restrooms? It uses them as a canvas! Commission artists to design the whole restroom as a functional piece of art.  Not only that but why not partner with the Kohler Trust for Arts and Education and Kohler Company, who manufactures bathroom fixtures? That’s exactly what the Smith College Museum of Art, in Massachusetts did when they instructed two artists to sink their teeth into projects that would tap their creativity to “blur the boundaries between form and function.” The result: glass panels that were “translucent optical windows or doors into the watery world beyond the architecture, along with water drop imagery continued in the sinks and other fixtures. The second restroom has tiles with narrative images of transformation and creation myths interspersed with drawings of large, tear-like droplets that enclose tiny human forms, a reference to a creation theme.

Guess what? There is a John Michael Kohler Arts Center, in Wisconsin, with six spectacular artist-designed bathrooms. These were produced through the centre’s artist-in-residence program that allows participants to experiment with the Kohler company’s manufacturing technologies and materials. Check out on Instagram to see their stunning ceramic masterpieces. If there was a beauty competition they would win “hands down” or should we say “pants down”.

If you want to explore more of the restroom entry images, then the source website is: https://www.aam-us.org/2022/07/29/the-best-museum-bathrooms-according-to-museum-people/

You don’t have to go overboard in a design sense but some thought should be given to spice up the industrial look and continue your connections to mission and outcomes, as these previous places demonstrate.

For your first enhancement, taking a foray down into an esoteric dream world is not our recommendation but choosing some more mission-driven practical approach would be. We have all seen the use of stalls for posting notices and ads over urinals in men’s bathrooms (not sure what happens in the women’s bathrooms) which are often hand written scrawls. However, I have also seen an effective and professional use of washrooms as a locus of information and marketing channel. Here is one example posted on the lower right corner of the washroom mirror at my local Valley Zoo. They are raising awareness about their fundraising project for four new “child’s eye view” immersive landscapes: Above, Between, On, and Under. To me, this works as an appropriate clean and clear information extension to be read when washing your hands and singing the popular song “going to the zoo, zoo, zoo…how about you, you, you…”

Stay tuned for the next post involving more Tales from the Twittersphere.

Sharing Great Ways to Greet the “Guests”

What Is Your Site’s Welcome Like?

Image by Amber Avalona from Pixabay

So maybe you’ve been thinking – “Our site approach, arrival and front desk needs a makeover! How can we improve the welcome and increase the comfort level for guests to our site?”

Please join us on Tuesday, September 27, 2022, via Zoom for this free interactive session with Bill Reynolds and Mike Mayer of Experiential Interpretive Design (EID). The webinar will begin at 9am (PDT)/10am(MDT)/11am(CDT)/Noon(EDT)/4pm(GMT) and last about 60 minutes.

The session will focus on the Welcome that takes place during the Arrival Sequence: entrance (gate, lobby, plaza), parking lot, and admission/front desk. You will get a chance to share what kind of Welcome you use and in addition hear some…

·       new ideas to solve existing arrival issues

·       practical ways to improve your site’s initial visitor experience

·       techniques to decrease “threshold fear,” stress, and anxiety in your guests

·       ways to “lay down a welcome mat”

Photo Credit: Mike Mayer

To register for this free session please send an email to contact@eidcoaching.com by Thursday, September 22 to receive the Zoom link. Please share this information with others you think may be interested in attending.

If you are interested in highlighting your site as a “mini-case study” for this webinar, please email Mike at mike.mayer@eidcoaching.com . All we would need from you is:

·       some pictures of your site’s Arrival Sequence

·       be prepared to share what you feel you do well, and

·       indicate where you would like some constructive input on your Welcome area(s)

For more information on EID visit our website at www.eidcoaching.com .

Photo Credit: Mike Mayer

Doin’ Design Right: Right Memories, Right People, Right Invitation

There was a time period during the 2000 decade that I was reading Landscape Architecture magazines to enhance my design concept of the visitor experience and better understand their professional mindset. Certain articles I kept, that spoke to me for different reasons, and I have chosen two examples from 2007 that continue to provide inspiration. The third item snuck in- what can I say.

Right Memories

The first article by Lisa Owens Viani was titled The Feel of a Watershed, yet even more provocative was her subtitle, The Cedar River Watershed Education Center teaches by sensory experience. Should it do more? Triple whammy of intrigue here!

Firstly, one does not normally plan to get visitors to feel a watershed- so I was immediately interested in HOW this was going to be accomplished as feeling type outcomes have always been an underpinning of our EID practice that we encourage sites to include when planning. Secondly, a center managed by a utility that had heavily incorporated exterior sensory experience rather than just interior traditional exhibits was also unexpected, yet something to be applauded. Thirdly, the “should it do more” question was abit of a cliffhanger that set me to wondering about this outcome challenge coming from a landscape architect – whether they should play a more direct interpretive role- but what did that mean exactly? Was an interpretive specialist involved as part of the design team? Probably not if they were posing this type of question. Read on.

watershed rain drums Courtesy Cedar River Watershed Center web site

Author Viani states that the design purpose was to educate Greater Seattle residents about the source of their drinking water. In addition, the architect was aiming for visitors to develop a new awareness of how to shape their own environments and behaviour in ways that could lead to healthier watersheds.

Evaluating Educational Effectiveness

A welcoming courtyard incorporated an artist installed sound- of- rain -falling -onto- drums recirculating irrigation system, computer programmed to the rhythms of different world cultures. They reported that visitors have a 3-stage reaction: they are “surprised, enchanted and inspired.” WOW. Imagine if you could design in and accomplish this level of staging for all your interpretive programs and exhibits? Guess what more visitors remembered most about the site? Read on.

What the architects were going for was a place-based experience “that creates a mental vessel to put information into.” Rain drums and the stream that circulated under the building and beside the pathway brought water awareness to the forefront. They evaluated the educational effectiveness of their design by asking the following questions over a year and a half:

·         Are there features that helped foster new appreciation of water? Or a new awareness?

·         What do you think the designers were trying to say with the way the buildings and landscape were designed?

·         From your experience here, what is your impression of the watershed?

·         What stands out in your memory that you’ll take from this place?

·         What home practices might you be willing to undertake after your visit today?

Remember the design purpose was to educate Greater Seattle residents about the source of their drinking water and how they impact a healthy watershed. Would these have been the questions you would have asked?

Follow a water drop Courtesy Cedar River Watershed Educational Center web site

Learning Assessment

Can you really assess new learnings without getting a sense, before the visit, of the base level of awareness of individual visitors? There is even a quote in the article from project co-manager, Nancy Rottle, stating, “Whenever you have a visitor, what they take away always depends on what they bring with them.” I rest my case. Remember this when you are involved with setting up a program/exhibit/trail evaluation.

Betcha landscape architects were most interested in the answers to question #2 and were happy to know that more than half of interviewees said the built design felt like it belonged and fit in with nature? If visitors were helped to reflect on how their own living and working spaces did or did not do the same, that would bring relevance back home.

More than 50% of those surveyed gave a high likelihood of creating habitat with native plantings, conserving water, designing buildings differently and using environmentally sustainable materials at home due to exhibit design. A third indicated they would collect and reuse rainwater or detain stormwater. In cases where concepts were not seemingly grasped it was felt that direct interpretation was “not compelling” enough or that call out features for visitors were missing, as in the green rooves -metal rooves situation.

Visitors were expected to make the connections between the water holding green rooves metaphor for healthy watersheds, and contrast that with the water shedding metal rooves metaphor for unhealthy watersheds, replicating the impervious urban streetscape. This did not happen as the features were not directly pointed out or commented on. With an absence of interpretive signage, the bioswale and the role of infiltration basins to prevent erosion by detaining water were similarly absent from visitors’ commentary. Also absent from commentary seen as a missed interpretive opportunity, was the daylighted creek that had been in a pipe before the project had been started (something close to home for urbanites) .

Courtesy Cedar River Watershed Educational Center web site

The design was summarized as doing the right thing in many ways:

·         Respected nature and cultural site aspects

·         Educated and delighted through interactive opportunities

·         Provided take-home ideas for visitors to use

·         Told the story of water beautifully through aesthetic design

This latter point is driven home by the following descriptor: “The elegant S curve of the runnel meander, languidly sighs ‘liquid’ in a captivating way. A veritable illustration of Hogarth’s * serpentine line of beauty.” How is that for landscapese? What this translates as, is the designer chose to use with cast iron grates that are perforated with lilting curves to reinforce the water theme.

*Trivia Note: Hogarth, William was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist.  His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic -strip like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects." Not sure if the reference was apt – seems like she was referring to another painter by the name of William; in this case the English landscape painter-Mr.Turner. Anyone out there have an opinion? Am I off base?

Under Interpretation

Author Viani wonders towards the end of the article whether it is possible to under interpret something by avoiding being too didactic, as the project manager was concerned about.  Manager Nancy Rottle cautioned that you want to avoid “hitting [people] over the head with information.”  Was that a shot at poor interpretation?? That hammer approach should never happen, however many professionals still have that view of interpretation. At the same time subtle interpretive cues can solve the sole dependence on design that people walk by and do not “see.”  The pendulum can swing both ways, so I would agree that conceptual osmosis does not work for many intended outcomes if design is left to its own devices. You could easily under interpret if architects and interpretive specialists are not integrated into a team interpretive effort as the evaluative research indicates.

What stood out in visitor memories?  A third of interviewees stated it would be the multisensory rain drums. As Nancy Rottle, project co-manager says, ”memory is more about feeling than cognition. You have to be moved before something sticks with you.” Right on. It is not clear how they capitalized on this emotional draw however to accomplish their overall educational purpose driving home water’s preciousness, its value of being present and visible/audible, along with the visitors’ role in its conservation.

Courtesy Bill Reynolds

The majority of respondents overwhelmingly (author’s word not mine) felt the facility helped them understand the concept of watershed. It was not clear whether this was tested somehow and they really did understand or they just simply responded that way. The author pointed out that understanding where Seattle’s water comes from was accomplished, however what wasn’t clear was whether downtown Seattleites understood that they lived in the watershed also and could have a direct impact on its health. If they had been asked to draw a picture starting and ending with clouds of where their tap water came from and drain water went to -and they were correct- OK mission accomplished.

This is especially important as the dying of Puget Sound is being attributed to urban runoff from Seattle. The author felt a more encompassing view of the total watershed would ramp up the motivation for visitors to change behaviour to benefit water quality. Author Lisa Viani suggested that the topographic model of the watershed could be expanded to include urban Seattle or a separate model be placed “downstream” of the upper watershed model.

This is something she shares with Erin Frost, a member of the Friends of the Cedar River Watershed as they have observed a major disconnect with the holistic understanding of the Puget Sound as the final resting place. Specific streams have friends groups but they lack the big picture understanding she said. This begs the question if there was a discussion with stakeholder groups prior to setting the purpose of the centre?

A thorough analysis of the post-occupancy evaluation is included in the 2005 Proceedings of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture.

Right People

Stakeholder group discussions are so vital and they act as the segue to the second article. According to my estimation, this is the first (and perhaps the last) example of this interpretive landscape project. Another west coast facility situated in Ashland, Oregon this time, the Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory were in need of an anti-attack buffer. But not any old anti-attack buffer – one that would be designed as an appealing garden that told the story of the unusual lab operations.

Courtesy Biomimicry Institute web site

This article was authored by Michael and Laura Murphy, and titled CSI: Wildlife with the subheading: A most unusual federal laboratory calls on students to help design an interpretive landscape.  It was a classic case of Fish and Wildlife partnership between their project engineer, their landscape architect, and their interpretive specialist, mixed in with a University class of landscape architecture students. Happens all the time, right. Wrong! Yet why don’t these alliances come to pass more often. Probably because they don’t all have a Professor Helphand involved- I kid you not that is his actual name. Actually, because it takes co-ordination and requires more time. And in the case with students, you need a partner who realizes the beneficial enthusiasm that can be unearthed at a university. The collaborative process undertaken and described next is instructive.

The F&W trio from regional HQ travelled to Ashland to pitch the idea to the city planning officials and the forensic lab professionals. Having the concept supported upfront by involving stakeholders upfront is key. Then the trio plus the lab director travelled to the University to pitch the need for a people-friendly yet vehicular- free secure garden involving hillocks, seat walls, berms, reinforced interpretive bollards, etc.

A comprehensive visit to the lab and a dozen international science garden case studies, were supplied to the students, for conceptual design approach ideas, including the Garden of Cosmic Speculation in Scotland (guaranteed to be a rabbit hole for those curious sorts out there). This culminated at the end of term with a rare lab open house for the community of Ashland including many children and the garden club.

Ideas included a spiral path addressed issues of species extinction, another used typical forensic puzzle pieces as wayfinders, and another used a whale skeleton rib structure as a defining pathway feature. The winning overall design used the three symmetrically intersecting circles of forensic science as the garden layout basis. The suspect, the victim, and the crime scene link together forming the triangular intersection being the solution(s)-a recurring diagrammatic structure found in many disciplines.

Right Invitation

Caught among these landscape architecture articles was a single piece of paper that fluttered to the floor garnering my sideways glance. From an old Parks Canada Fundy National Park publication (sorry, couldn’t find a date-probably 30ish years ago), I was struck by a simple yet arresting image of a park naturalist standing with an outstretched hand in front of the visitor centre. The accompanying article by Superintendent Jackie Olsen was titled, “We’re Glad You’re Here” and it invited you to spend some time there, watch a video and observe some marine life in the aquaria. WOW again. When does that happen anymore – receiving a “welcoming booklet” and being greeted in front of the visitor centre with such an expression along with a detailed invitation.

Inviting? Image Courtesy Bill Reynolds

Aside: I visited one of our provincial parks this month and you would never had known there was an existing visitor centre because the one insignificant street like sign directing you there was all that we encountered car-wise and bike-wise as we travelled around the park for 4 days. Yes it was indicated on park maps and it was a small font size similar to the beach changehouse, laundry spot and campground registration booth. I sure hope your visitor centre commands more real estate, markets itself to the visiting public, and invites them to come on in and receive assistance in planning their visit.

Then I was hit with a follow up quotation from James Harkin, former Commissioner of National Parks from 1911-1936. It encapsulated the hoped- for visitor rejuvenation all staff desire. It is true now as it was back in the early 20th century:

“National parks are maintained for all the people – for the ill that they may be restored; for the well that they may be fortified and inspired by the sunshine, the fresh air, the beauty, and all the other healing, ennobling agencies of Nature. They exist in order that every citizen of Canada may satisfy his craving for Nature and Nature’s Beauty; that he may absorb the poise and restfulness of the forest; that he may fill his soul with the brilliance of the wildflowers and the sublimity of the mountain peaks; that he may develop the buoyancy, the joy, and the activity he sees in the wild animals; that he may stock his brain and mind with great thought, and noble ideas; that he may be made better, be healthier, and happier” (and this was written by a bureaucrat??). ”
— James Harkin

Superintendent Jackie summarized by saying how all staff were proud and dedicated to doing their part to make the Commissioner’s wish come true for all visitors. Not a bad series of outcomes for staff to aspire to make happen. Not a bad set of expectations for visitors to try to achieve either. How would you measure them?

Image courtesy Bill Reynolds

As visitors depart the park should we ask - On a scale of 1-10 how fortified and inspired by the various ennobling agencies of nature have you been? Imagine if we could tap into how much more productive or innovative visitors felt during and after a park visit…

Actually, I am only being slightly facetious-primarily with the wording. Would our parks be offered more protection and have a higher economic value if regional directors, deputy ministers and politicians were to receive such evaluative feedback on a regular basis beyond simply attendance and revenue? (I know, I know, I am just an old-fashioned idealistic romantic… are there any others of you out there?)

Putting Interpretive Ideas Into Practice – Epilogue

Time, Dance Steps Taken & Missing, and What’s Next

TIME

After posting Putting Interpretive Ideas into Practice-3 Ellen sent us the following comment:

“Wow! Sounds like an awesome program, but what a lot of work went into creating it! I cannot imagine doing that for every program (even though I acknowledge the benefits of it).”

Floral Clock at Kentucky State Capitol, Frankfort, KY

Thanks Ellen, and you are correct. Time is a big factor to consider when doing interpretive planning. There is so much “hurry up and get it done yesterday because the group is coming today” mentality in our field that planning time is not valued as it should be. So, before I get into some practical thoughts, let’s use a “planning a house” analogy that might be useful.

Photo Credit: Mike Mayer

When building or remodeling a house I don’t think of the paint color, wall hangings or flooring right away. First, I want to know Why I am doing this work. Do I need more space, less space, one level or two, something more energy efficient? Next, Who is this new or remodeled house for – the children, myself, my partner, extended family? Then I want to start thinking about What I want or plan to do in this newly build or remodeled dwelling – a room for writing, flexible playspace for children, a music room, space to host 6 – 10 folks for a dinner party? I need to take the time for this “Big Picture” planning before getting into the details -- much like a site needs to take the time to think about the WHY, WHO, and WHAT when developing a Mission and visitor Outcomes. (Note: take a look at Steve Slack’s Interpreting Heritage for more on the WHY, WHO, and WHAT)

Finally, when the Big Picture planning is done and the room layouts are completed, only then do you start to consider the details -- furniture, flooring, paint, and other decorations (interpretive experiences for the visitor). By completing the Big Picture tasks first, it is easier for the front-line interpreters and planners to develop interpretive experiences – they know the overarching goals, they have visitor-types in mind, they know what areas to focus on and they can develop interpretive experiences that enhance the site's Mission and visitor Outcomes.

Photo Credit: Mike Mayer

In the previous posts where we highlighted Métis Crossing, our goal was to show the key elements EID used in an overall site plan for the visitors. Then we zoomed in to show how the process can provide direction for an interpretive experience area (Buffalo Camp), a specific visitor-type (adult couple on ½ day visit), while linking the interpretive experiences to the Mission, Essences, and Outcomes.

We understand not every site wants to develop an entire Interpretive Plan. That said, it is still important that each site have a Big Picture view for the staff and for the visitors. OK – now let me get a bit more practical. Here are a couple of things to consider…

 ·      First, don’t try to make all the changes at once…take your time. Maybe decide which essence or program area is most important and start there, then include other areas over time.

·      Second, focus on a visitor-type who will participate in this essence or program area and develop Outcomes first, then the experience that will support the site’s Mission. Experiences for adults will be different from experiences for families with children of various ages…one size does not fit everyone.  

·      Next, don’t try and do the work by yourself. Work with colleagues and friends to develop the Outcome Matrices. Of course, EID would be happy to set up some coaching sessions to work with you on the basics and provide feedback as you get involved in this new process for interpretive design and planning. Our goal – making sure the final product is your handiwork and reflects the uniqueness of your preservation, collection, or historic recognition site.

·      Finally, it is important to have managerial support. You need time to produce a quality product. We also recommend advocating for the interpretive staff and designers to be included from the beginning of any new site projects -- buildings, trails, exhibits, or anything that effects the visitors. All too often the educational and interpretive personnel must settle for inherited “master plans” from other professionals.  How demeaning to not be included from the very beginning.

Photo Credit: Steve Johnson

 Ellen, we appreciate your comment concerning time – and the lack of time. If you would like to describe your site, the work your position entails, and the range of popular areas and offerings at the site, we may be able to suggest a good starting point. Please contact us any time at contact@eidcoaching.com.

DANCE STEPS TAKEN…DANCE STEPS MISSING

If you look through the Interpretive Design and Dance of Experience book you will notice Van Matre offers 15 Dance Steps (divided into 5 sections) that interpretive designers need to focus on to provide a holistic experience for the visitor:

Defining Step: Mission

Preparing Steps: Message, Image

Receiving Steps: Welcome, Orient, Guide

Interacting Steps: Head, Heart, Hands, Hunger

Producing Steps: Achieve, Motivate, Organize, Reinforce, Evaluate

DANCE STEPS TAKEN: What we did work on…

At Métis Crossing our work focused on determining the site’s Essence(s), identifying Outcomes for the Interacting Steps (Head, Heart, Hands, Hunger) and the Producing Steps (Achieve, Motivate, Organize, Reinforce, Evaluate) - developing meaningful and memorable experiential interpretive interactions for the visitor at the Buffalo Camp Invitation Station. This included an Outcome Inventory, an Invitation Station Outcome Matrix, and an Invitation Station Activity Matrix (Dance Cards in the book).

We would have liked to work on all 15 Dance Steps, but such was not the case. However, this is the beauty of working with EID. The site chooses what areas need attention, together we work on the Dance Steps that fit the project, and then EID works with the staff to ensure a process is in place for future projects. We do not  want to just come in, write a plan, and then hand it over…that is Consulting and Leaving. Rather we want to be Coaches over Time and encourage the staff to use the EID process to develop their own plans by…

·      offering some models,

·      providing practice time,

·      giving feedback,

·      letting the site partners make final revisions, and

·      being available for discussions and questions after the initial work is completed.

DANCE STEPS MISSING: What we did not work on…

The staff, partners and community associates at Métis Crossing did not want to revisit the Defining Step: Mission…they liked what they had. The site was already utilizing strong Images and the staff was working on several options for an overarching Message for the entire site and for various experiences – the Preparing Steps . 

 Because of some staff changes, the scope of the contract and the time factor, we did not focus on the Receiving Steps:  Welcome, Orient, Guide. Yes, we did introduce these steps and offered some suggestions, but in-depth work was not done. These Receiving Steps, in our opinion, are key components to the visitor experience. The Welcome, Orient and Guide set up the visitors’ first impressions of a site. Here are some thoughts on the Receiving Steps.

WELCOME

This step sets the stage for the rest of the visit. Think of how you greet someone invited to your home. What do you say at the front door? What do you offer them right away? How do you make them feel comfortable and, well…welcomed? This step can even start before the visitor arrives. Does your visitor feel “invited” to the site, do they have an idea of what to expect? Can the visitor find welcoming information on the website, on a flier, or on some other form of media?

Does the approach to the site help give the visitor a sense of what they might expect, reduce anxiety about being in the right place, and build their anticipation?

And how about a threshold or gateway that tells the visitor they have arrived. Is there a clear sign that the visitor has crossed over from where they came from and have now arrived at a special preservation, collection, or historic recognition site?

 Though it is at the other end of the visit, you also want to think about how to say good-bye…the Exit experience. Does it encourage a feeling of “glad you came?” How do you say good-bye to visitors when they leave your home to make them feel special, worthwhile, and welcome to visit again?

 If the site Welcome and Exit are created like a visit to our homes, what a different experience it would be for the visitor. (For a deeper look at this Step check out the posts on “A Tale of Two Welcomes – 1” and “Tale of Two Welcomes – 2”)

ORIENT

 How many times have you visited a museum, zoo, preservation site, or other heritage jewel only to look around and think: “Well, which way do I go now and what should I do first?” Even if a visitor feels welcomed, they need to know where things are. Once again, what do you say to visitors who come to your home:

·      “Please, put your coat on the bed in the first room on the right. And come right back here to the kitchen so I can get you something to drink.”

·      “The bathroom is just down the hall on the left.”

·      “We aren’t going to eat for another hour so help yourself to snacks on the table and find a comfortable spot on the patio.”

·      “There are cold drinks in the fridge and also in the ice chest outside – make yourself at home.”

A site “greeter” is a great way to combine a warm Welcome with a sincere effort to Orient the visitor. Another great way to Orient is with maps. Jumbo-sized maps along a path or hand-held experiential maps can help the visitor stay oriented in time and space, provide a sense of where they are going and alert visitors about offerings along the way. We advocate for different kinds of hand-held experiential maps for various visitor-types because, once again, one size does not fit all. 

Photo Credit: Mike Mayer

GUIDE

 Notice this Receiving Steps does not say LEAD. In this context Guide is a gentle helping hand, not a lecture about the place. Here are a few words from Van Matre’s book Interpretive Design and the Dance of Experience (pages 127-130):

     “If visitors come to dance with a place, rather than merely using it for another kind of dance, then guiding is often expected and appreciated. Orienting is explaining where to go; guiding is getting people ready to go, and sometimes taking them there. In other words, orienting is giving visitors a basic map; guiding is providing the ‘how to’ for their adventure.”

     “Think of guiding in this sense as taking people by the hand or at least giving them the feeling someone is doing so…Just remember, this is not directional guiding, it’s experiential guiding. In a way, it’s saying, ‘I will aid you in getting ready, sharing some things that will be helpful, and practicing them with you when needed. I will even set off with you to make sure you’re comfortable, but then you’re on your own.’ This is guiding as coaching, not leading.”

     “Interpretive guiding should prepare visitors to make their own discoveries whenever possible…Remember, good guiding is experience-driven. And good guiding implies that there are discoveries to be made by prepared visitors.”

WHAT’S NEXT

All 15 of the Dance Steps are important when working on a Visitor Experiential Interpretive Plan (VEIP)…none should be left out. The reality is, though, your site may not have the time, money, or staff to take on all 15 Steps at once. Which brings us back to Ellen’s concern at the beginning of this blog post – Time. Here are some final suggestions…

·      First, you don’t have to make all the changes at once…take your time.

·      Decide the most important essence experience area then consider doing a perfect visitor ½ day or full day exercise to see what is realistically possible.

·      Create an Outcome and Activity Matrix for one program experience area, then move to other areas.

·      Get support from administration and staff.

·      Most important…get started.

Look for an invitation later this summer to join us on a Zoom session to discuss some of these topics, answer your questions, and listen as you share your site concerns. If you would like some immediate feedback on the EID process and the Steps email us at contact@eidcoaching.com and we will be happy to start a conversation and answer your questions.

Pursuing Planning Excellence Part 2

After reading Part 1 of this book review on Interpreting Heritage A Guide to Planning and Practice, by Steve Slack, we hope you are ready for more insight, so let’s jump in. 

We were just about to delve into deciding on the HOW you are going to select interpretive devices by merging the WHO, WHAT and WHY of your interpretive plan – what author Steve Slack refers to as the funnelling stage. 

Formative Market Research

Steve provides us with a practical example of how formative market research can play a key role in this merging process. The What and Who project he focuses on is the re-interpretation of a Roman fort historic site with families as the target visitor. Why: to engage a new target audience and position the fort as only one component of a wider visit - exploring the entire heritage site landscape that encompasses the fort. Market research techniques for the 12 families involved:

·         a table-top exercise probing visitors’ expectations of a site visit along with prior site knowledge,

·         self-complete booklets to record responses to existing experiences,

·         annotating a paper representation of the site with likes and dislikes,

·         a voting activity around proposed interventions, where images of potential devices were shown and responses were recorded, and

·         focus groups that expressed how they enjoyed learning together and how they were expecting “physically interactive, hands-on opportunities, punchy text and eye-catching design.”

While the family’s learning expectations were no big surprise from the focus group, there was important feedback about the welcome, catering offered, and interpretive devices experienced.  As well was the fact that families felt the need to ask for permission to play safely at the site. For EID these are all critical elements of the visitor experience and need to be considered when designing an interpretive plan. In many projects we encounter that want to cater to families, the site has the research information but doesn’t deliver on the experience! In this case research drove design to accomplish visitor friendly positive directions:

  • new periscopes inside the fort allowed visitors of all heights to peer onto the ruins on the rest of the site to promote exploration,

  •  life-sized Roman characters were positioned at various stops supporting a variety of play styles

  • ·a spy game was designed to entice families to move from location to location by linking a series of interactive games, instead of following panels around the site, and

Choose-Your-Own-Adventure

A common approach is a self-led experience, which means the visitor sets the pace of their visit and they call the shots of what they consume. However, it is really up to the site to provide the options, suggested routes and range of opportunities/interactions, just like in a choose-your-own-adventure book, where the visitor has the sense of control.

When encouraging the visitors to make their own way through the heritage experience is the goal, Slack presents tried and true techniques.  The interpretive service needs to supply a range of ways into the topic for different kinds of visitors. Techniques such as specimens, quotations, images, textual labels, storybooks, hand held informative “paddleboards,” to interactive lift-up flaps can all be employed.

“Unled, open-route experiences “may” (our emphasis) need the cleverest and the most cunning of plans of all, even when staff might be present to help frame or introduce the experience.”
— Steve Slack

Sorry Steve we don’t agree with the word “may” and feel these experiences DO need cunning and this should be the time when interpreters put their experiential visitor coaching into high gear. The design of do-it-yourself (DIY) guest experiences is the desired way NOW, and we need to improve our skills at doing this. EID follows the book Interpretive Design and the Dance of Experience’s lead on the concept of invitation stations and setting up ways for visitors to practice awareness skills prior to going on unled explorations.

With the Interpreting Heritage book, author Steve Slack solidly points out the opportunity is to enhance the blank canvas the visitor finds in front of them at the site and to use tools to stimulate their curiosity by using maps, subtle prompts and encouragements without obtrusive panels. We have found the book Earth Education: A New Beginning by Steve Van Matre, to be chock full of these type of engaging leadership tools and guidelines.

Rainbow chips Earthwalk activity Credit Mike Mayer

The interpretive principle of making your site come alive is well described by the example from the State Library of New South Wales in Australia where they activated archival documents - letters written between children fathers serving during World War I (WWI). “While the 100-year-old letters penned in children’s handwriting are incredibly touching as first-hand accounts, they can only have a certain impact behind glass in an exhibition case.”  State library staff created a typical Australian kitchen during WWI and visitors were invited to take a seat to hear the letters read aloud in a recording done by the Australian Theatre for Young People. Steve reported that this was a moving and meaningful experience especially because of “…the genuine affection from the hugs and kisses which fill the pages.”

Orientation & Extended Interpretation

Before Slack supplies the reader with a survey of interpretive devices at one’s disposal, he addresses the important but often forgotten role of visitor orientation within the interpretive sphere. “…Give them some hints about what they might experience, where to go, how to understand the site and even a suggestion of what to do first.” He provides a range of statements often used at site welcome desks, and asks the reader how you would react to them and how they would make you feel. He will make you want to spend some time at your own “front desk” and gauge responses. Here are some examples:

·          “I’m your guide today, stay with me at all times.”

·          “The arrows on the wall will tell you which direction to go.”

·         “The site is yours to explore.”

At EID we perceive the act of preparing the visitor to engage on-site is fundamental to a successful interpretive experience and is often missing in many interpretive plans. Opportunities to impress and entice should be required and reinforced at the welcome/admission area. 

Opportunity missed Photo credit : Bill Reynolds

We are also very glad that Steve proclaimed “…a favourite place of mine to extend interpretation is the café,” with menu design and fabric of the space. The author provides a brilliant image of using table surfaces to reflect the details in an historic site ceiling not easily viewed. He also mentions an exhibit in the middle of the restaurant at London’s Royal Opera House that displays a Swan Lake ballerina’s costume, suspended on wires, giving the illusion of gliding effortlessly through the air. All food service areas should be part of the interpretive plan and are integral to the reinforcement of messages. Subtle reminders of the site’s Mission, Image, Message and desired Outcomes should pervade all visitor service treatments as in the gift shop, play areas, rest areas, pathways, parking, and, of course, eating spots.

Interpretive devices

The book provides a large section describing the choices that presently exist from print to digital to interventions and the following highlights a smattering of these techniques. First, a sharing of two interpretive centre pet peeves (and potential solutions) EID shares with the author. 

1)  Ineffective, sloppy lighting placement that creates visitor shadows obliterating that which you are trying to read and

2) Unimaginative labels

credit Bill Reynolds

Any head shakes out there agreeing with us and confirming the frustrating ubiquity of this?

In the first case, Steve describes an elaborate way of remedying sloppy lighting in a gallery by employing a cinematographer to oversee the exhibit lighting scheme that had the bonus impact of mood creation in the different spaces. In an elemental sense, why would you not have someone check light placement when people of different heights are actually in position and correct errors before permanent installation?

In the second case, Steve mentions how he tries to correct the humdrum label issue simply by challenging graphic designers to break the white square card mold and create beautiful labels. Related to this are two different spins Steve shares on the concept of printed labels. In one case, individual character cards were printed and distributed to visitors before they moved through an historic exhibit, explaining what happened to actual people to create a sense of empathy in visitors (e.g. 600 ID card booklets exist for this purpose for visitors to use at the US Holocaust Museum). Along a different vein, Tate Britain’s gallery produced a range of collectible visitor maps directing visitors to enjoy interactions with non-curator-driven topics, such as eclectically themed paintings organized into Odd Faces, First Date, I’ve Just Split Up, and I like Yellow.

As the author says, writing is the subject of a whole book but he does provide some great overview thoughts. He makes an excellent point about knowing the role and the function of a piece of text from the perspective of a visitor’s experience. To quote Steve: “It is NOT what do you want to tell them or what do you want them to know. It is knowing what you want that chunk of text to DO.” That is the driver. This is exactly why EID uses an outcome matrix that reflects the Head, the Heart, the Hands and the Hunger of the holistic visitor. The thinking head stuff is just one potential result and very one-dimensional.

Slack reminds us to keep in mind that writing visitor-facing text means the visitor is most likely “…standing up, on a weekend, in their downtime, and surrounded by people, noisy chatter and beeping mobile phones.” Long conceptual oriented text won’t cut it. A gem, in my estimation, is his advice to “let teenagers read your text” before you commit to anything.

Improving for the Visitor Benefit

Really intriguing was the author’s example of shifting interpretation at the National Trust’s Rainham Hall that had been home to over 50 people in its lifetime. They have chosen to re-interpret the site every 2 years using different historical characters each time. Using “Who’s Living at Rainham Hall” as a bit of a marketing rallying call, this is a wondrous example of partnership and co-creation. Bravo! Lead collaborative designers at Studioweave said on their web site that their goal was to “balance a community focus with scholarly content, alongside joyful entertainment.” An impressive and bang-on triad of aims to accomplish within a mission driven objective.

Rainham Hall credit Studioweave

Steve points out that this is a perfect example that “…interpretation does not need to be left static.” EID would shout from the rooftops and say interpretation should NEVER BE LEFT STATIC. To avoid this perception by the visitor is paramount. Our profession needs to always aim at getting visitors to come back for another experience. 

Directly related to this is the subject of interpretive project evaluation and as Steve declares - Why bother? He has 10 points WHY you should bother, along with providing audience response tools and notes on writing an evaluative brief.  He shares items to ponder:

·         How do you know if your outcomes were achieved?

·         How can you grow in confidence and be emboldened to try new things?

·         How can you continue to dialogue with your visitor for mutual benefit to understand likes/dislikes?

·         How do you flag issues and correct them as you go?

Answering these questions would be following the mantra of continuous improvement, especially so you DON’T REMAIN STATIC. When it comes to evaluating exhibit planning and the search for constructive criticism the author recommends a process called the Excellent Judges Framework, outlined in Judging Exhibitions: A Framework for Assessing Excellence, developed by Beverley Serrell and colleagues.

Installing interpretive elements little- by -little while repeatedly re-evaluating was an approach the author used over the course of a year, at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. This inspiring iterative experimental approach assessed:

·         six different versions of a written label for the same painting,

·         dedicating a whole room to just one painting,

·         changing the wall backdrops away from traditional red,

·         rehanging paintings to vary their distance apart.

credit Dulwich Gallery

This all provided the team with evidence to persuade reticent stakeholders worried about doing something different to implement changes. Feedback on interventions impacted the development of the next idea, thereby contributing to the front-end evaluation of the next project. Evaluation bottom line: visitor experiences get better.

Kudos to Steve for breaking the mold in the book’s bibliographic treatment by using a two-column approach to provide a brief summary of each book title. He prepared it using his interpretive framework of determining why write a bibliography, who is it for, what outcomes do I want, and how should I present it. Each title was presented like an object in an exhibition with a short label encouraging you to do something – in this case source out and read the book, describing reasons why you should do just that.

This two - part review is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the diversity and wealth of topics on interpretation and planning in this book. You will want to add it to your bookshelf (at least for those of us over 35 still using bookshelves)!

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Pursuing Planning Excellence Part 1

(after a 3 month hiatus we are back blogging - we hope you missed us - send us a note)

“Interpretation planning ought not to be overly complicated or filled with unnecessary complexity. If we strive to deliver clarity for our audiences, then we should strive for clarity in our interpretation planning too.”
— Steve Slack

This line comes from Steve Slack, author of the most recent guide to interpretation planning- published in 2021. I realized how much of an interpretation geek I am as I thoroughly enjoyed reading Interpreting Heritage A Guide to Planning and Practice, part of the Routledge series of Guides to Practice in Museums, Galleries and Heritage. I still get goosebumps when I discover examples of smart practices couched in the insatiable desire for continuous improvement, all wrapped up in the spirit of sharing, that exists among the interpretive profession. 

This overview will happen in two segments where this first part will explore the WHY, the WHO and the WHAT in planning. We will keep the HOW of selecting devices from the extensive fun interpretive catalogue that Steve has compiled, for our second review segment.

Practical Guidance and Pitfall Avoidance

Right off the bat I must say the book was easy to read with its enjoyable conversational style. The order of topics and train of thought flow made eminent sense. Steve provides practical guidance and pitfall avoidance. He also celebrates others in order to advance interpretive practice. This book was written with the intent of continuing to support and encourage one another in this rewarding profession. A sense of joy and privilege comes through in the writing, as he takes us on this learning journey into a profession he obviously loves.

EID Note:  Steve Slack wrote his book without knowledge of Steve Van Matre’s Interpretive Design the Dance of Experience perspective on planning and design. He had this to say after we sent him a copy: “The content is obviously splendid, but so much more than that. The design and layout are so charming, but also the general tone - careful, considered, philosophical prose from someone who not only knows their subject inside-out after years of experience, but who has also clearly a passion for the subject. And it's future. I'm inspired. “

“For the bulk of the time reading this book, I smiled, saying to myself yep, yep, yep, especially through the central sections with the dance steps. Anything that suggests having an interpretation plan is a good thing in my book (figuratively and literally). Forces - features - facets is new to me and I like it a great deal…”

“In my book, I found myself wanting to be brave - indeed, suggesting that interpreters need to be brave - and I called a few things out where I felt my opinion varied from the interpretive establishment, but ID goes further than that.” Steve Slack mentions a few times he is not writing to challenge anyone -too bad, however his book is chock full of insights. Steve Van Matre, on the other hand does not shy away from challenging the prevailing ethos of interpretation with its emphasis on communication and transfer of knowledge rather than taking a catalyst/coaching approach to visitor engagement. So, if you are up for that, order a copy from Our Inspiration page.

courtesy Bill Reynolds

Back to Steve Slack’s writings:

If your background leans more to a natural heritage/parks interpretive experience you will be familiar with Steve Slack’s quick historical reference to the influential Enos Mills, Freeman Tilden, Beck & Cable and Sam Ham; whereas if you have more of a museological bent you will be familiar with authors like Graham Black, Peter Vergo, and John Falk & Lynn D. Dierking. You will have to go to the source for details as Steve only briefly alludes to the concept of principles without sharing any of his favourites or what he would consider the “must haves” for pursuing excellence. I found the very light coverage of principles somewhat disappointing despite a super compilation of references. Having a solid foundation in these building blocks, is critical for budding professionals to have, in order to build up and out from.

Model, Model on the Wall, Who’s the Fairest of Them All

I heartily encourage all our readers to crossover disciplines and discover Black’s 23 principles for museum display or Falk-Dierking’s Contextual Model for Learning or Beck & Cable’s inspiring 15 principles of interpretive philosophy. This will enrich your professional practice.

When Steve starts addressing interpretation planning, he looks at four examples, two from the museum field and two from the park interpretation field: 

  • Story of Change Planning model implemented by the Happy Museum Project characterized by being visionary, inclusive, outcome-driven and evaluative

  • Outcomes Hierarchy Model emphasizes including a stronger visitor perspective and the benefits of applying a systematic interpretive planning lens at the strategic institutional level (Marcella Wells, Barbara Butler, and Judith Koke)

  • Interpretive Master Planning model (John Veverka) involves a comprehensive set of questions and prompts investigating the interpretive resources, directing you to think clearly about the traditional plan elements from objectives to evaluation

  • 5M Model for Successful Planning Projects (Lisa Brochu) stresses being rooted in strategic context while addressing Management (mission), Markets, Messages, Mechanics (visitor usage), and Media

The author explains how he has distilled different planning models down to a four- step questioning framework:

1) Why are you interpreting this asset?

2) Who is it for?

3) What do you want to happen as a result?

4) How will you interpret it?

He has chosen to borrow and combine different models by using the terms message, takeaway, Big Idea or theme as interchangeable in order to answer the first WHY question step. The third question is particularly well worded as the WHAT is not just about learning content but it is about what HAPPENS to a visitor from physical, emotional, spiritual, and social aspects not just conceptual. He reiterates that HOW comes last in his schema. Recognized for its inherent ability to worm its way into the beginning of the process and its ability to pull one easily off track, Steve adroitly puts HOW in its place.  His analogy with built- in admonishment to “eat all of your vegetables before rushing on to your pudding,” was perfect. You picked up on the fact that he has British heritage, right??

My response was hallelujah! It is so easy to jump to the HOW based on seeing neat techniques and the desire to use fun activities or a digital application. We have to resist the compulsion to do this ending up shoehorning in what might not be an appropriate or best use of said technique. Then we don’t achieve the visitor impactful outcomes we were looking for in the first place. In Steve’s words, “I find myself regularly holding teams back… before rushing to the interpretive toy box.” Resist the temptation, my friends.

He encourages you to draw on others feeling comfortable to “be a magpie and pinch any and all parts from the various models” that work for your situation. Whether it is a master site plan or an interpretive

courtesy Bill Reynolds

brief for a single exhibit case, the core principles are the same. An interpretation plan “is a conversation, a collaboration, a journey, a hope or aspiration, a manifesto.” In Steve’s terms he says that you have achieved your aim if the visitor responds with “I’ve got it,” or “Ah, I see.” If interpretive content is met with “So what,” you have failed. Dates and species identification can have this effect.

Integration and Interfacing

A new term for me was the introduction of an interpretation interface plan which I see as having mucho potential (can you tell I am taking Spanish lessons?) This type of plan demonstrates how a new installation would integrate into the existing interpretive scheme at the site. Steve also suggests strategic integration as a heading in an interpretation plan, as a way to not forget the importance of fitting into other site plans or other heritage sites.

We at EID rank integration highly critical to the visitor experience so management is reminded how landscaping, parking, trails, play, and rest areas all have a role in reinforcing visitor takeaways. As Steve points out, “…our {interpretive} work is only ever seen in the context of a wider visit.” In addition to the on-site experience, it would be beneficial to think about the existing regional heritage experiences - how they could mutually support each other and benefit the present visitors’ explorations along with planning future trips.

So glad to see the emphasis on de-siloing, when forming an interpretation working party that strives to integrate with 2D (imagery, graphics and text layout) planners/designers and 3D (exhibition spaces and signage schemes) planners/designers.  The author provides an extensive potential list of stakeholders and recommends you err on the side of inclusion.

Answering the WHY question involves digging into the institutional purpose. I am going to share a very important practical exercise the author highlighted when developing an interpretive vision. He refers to it as “interrogating the mission statement” – gotta love that! Starting with the existing mission statement he asks participants to “add thoughts, comments, reflections, doodles, sad/happy faces next to words that they think relate directly to how the place interprets its heritage assets.”  The organization’s interpretive vision and agenda eventually came to life after facilitated conversations and “many sticky notes and biscuits” (he didn’t mention it, but there must have been tea!).

The author shares a wonderfully instructive case study of the Tenement Museum in New York where a refocussing of the museum’s purpose forced a rethinking of the interpretation model to incorporate a group experience imparting and internalizing immigration values as part of the visitors’ experience. Is it time for you to revisit your mission and vision, then investigate whether your interpretive agenda matches your intent?

Tenement museum web site

Discussion questions exist at the end of every book chapter and I particularly liked this thought-stimulating set of two from the Purpose Chapter:

  • What are your internal/institutional reasons for interpreting?

  • What do you stand to gain from interpreting?

Getting to Know Your Visitor

When the author reflects on his early days he notes, “each day when I turned up, the heritage remained the same, but the visitors were different.” Every visit was going to be different as nobody experiences in the same way. Every visitor was going “to step, see, smile, smell, learn, think, wonder or reflect in a different way…”

To help inform one’s interpretive thinking, the author lays out a solid review on researching, getting to know, and keeping up to date on your visitors. The author hit the nail on the head when he formulated a comprehensive list of psychographic visitor questions to be asked, dealing with: motivations, hopes, fears, site expectations (preconceptions & misconceptions), learning styles, and kinds of desired experiences. These are interspersed with more traditional considerations about what visitors like/dislike about your site, their access issues, and their subject knowledge. The kinds of favoured experiences that visitors could choose from are described using adjectives like: cerebral, reflective, ordered, adventurous, social, provoking, reminiscent, enlightening.

courtesy Bill Reynolds

He cautions that interpreters need to be involved in determining these formative front-end research methods that normally get commissioned by the communication group and test marketing options only. The prospect of what is going to be delivered to people when they visit, is as worthy to test but often forgotten, so Steve implores us as guest experience interpreters to speak up. He stresses the importance of listening to visitors as part of the planning process, formatively testing out our ideas and concepts with them early on, so we can tweak our ideas in light of how they react.

My three favourite discussion questions at the end of the Audience Chapter that direct pondering are:

  • How will your interpretation plan interact with your audience development plan?

  • How does your understanding of the meaning of diverse, inclusive, and representative impact what you deliver as a visitor experience?

  • Who will the audience advocate be at all stages on your project?

Do you have an audience development plan? You should start one if you don’t and if you do you should revisit on a regular basis to evaluate and adjust it. The author discusses the thought of being relevant as a strong argument for visitor co-created interpretive content, allowing visitors to be reflected in the exhibit and seeing themselves IN the heritage space. Considering who your stakeholders are and when you involve them during the planning stages brings us back to the inclusive working party.

Public-facing Interpretive Content

The Outcomes Hierarchy Model introduced at the outset is the conceptual framework of choice for this book, focusing on four required outcome domains being:

  • Social interaction

  • Psychomotor doing with bodies and brains

  • Emotional short- term feelings and

  • Intellectual long- term considerations or reflections

Definitely some similarities here with the 4H approach (Head, Heart, Hands. Hunger) EID utilizes from Steve Van Matre’s Interpretive Design book, that we referenced at the beginning of the blog. In addition, this guide showcases another model, known as the Generic Learning Outcomes framework. This was produced by the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries at the University of Leicester looking at formal and informal learning as well as public - facing interpretive content. The author says these outcomes are “a useful catalyst for conversation when used as part of the group discursive planning process.”

Steve Slack delves into responsible WHAT messaging and the need for acknowledging the shared history of a place that may bring about controversies, the use of multiple narratives, and more than one truth to be explored. I quote, “we have a duty to tell the truth about truth.  We ought to say what we know, what we think we know, and what we believe to be true… and what we don’t know.”

Let’s leave it there for now until we meet again for segment two that explores the HOW- and a smattering of the over 200 most prominent interpretive devices Steve Slack has witnessed.

Sign Stew: a Tasty Bountiful Blend

November’s blogs contained some heavy cerebral planning material, so we thought you might want a lighter fare as we enter the holiday season. Here is a gift collection of interpretive design tidbits that caught my eye this past summer season. I wrap up the post with a New Year wish to be sent out into the multiverse so it spreads as far and as wide as possible. Feedback requested.

Note: All Photos were taken by Bill Reynolds unless captioned

Balancing needs

What should the first sign as you enter a site deal with? Here is a wonderful example of an approach that works. The three headings that greet the visitor reflect a balance of catering to the visitor and catering to the site management. What will you see? What lives here? What makes this site unique?

The first two questions address orientation style inquiries that are very commonly asked by visitors so why not talk to your prospective visitor right off the bat responding to what is on their mind.  The third question is tied to the mission of the site. Visitors should become aware of what makes this site different and worth protecting. In this case, visitors discover they will be walking among three different and rare unburned relic forests. What a tree-mendous entry sign to a natural area.

In contrast this entry sign to a wildlife reserve, suffers from the old problem of cramming too much onto one sign compounded with a confusing mosaic treatment and colour scheme. The information package is a mix of really need to know and nice to know topics splayed out like a puzzle. The first two questions of the previous sign are sort of handled here but buried. The main concern is a site protection one dealing with impressing on the visitor that they should stay on the trail – read the red top triangle. I fear due to information overload this critical message is not read by everybody.

The message in the red triangle probably should have been a standalone sign potentially using a bold black on yellow cautionary sign quality.

The exclamation point in the middle of the sign may have caught your eye.  It is attached to some significant information about species at risk in this area but a dull listing of the 12 species names is a let down for the visitor. Images would have been so much more effective. If cost dictated one sign then message priority should have stepped in and the two areas being discussed should have won out.

Nail down your objective

Now we are talking – giving the visitor something to do and engaging with the visitor’s senses but is this well done or poorly done? What was the objective? Did they go far enough by simply asking a question? That is the usual problem- often times you are asked a question then not provided with enough background to take it any further.

In the avian case are they assuming (often a bad decision based on the writer’s knowledge) that you know what a mallard quack and a goose honk sound like but perhaps not what a “call” of a trumpeter swan is like? Does it sound like a trumpet and is that what the reserve managers want the visitor to listen for? Do they want the visitor to see if they can detect at least a certain number of waterfowl sounds so they get a sense of their diversity in the wetlands? You are left on a precipice of involvement- especially with no audio component associated with the sign.

In the mammal case, they give you three options and show you a photo of only one? Without binoculars from this point, the animals are specks so you would not be able to detect which one anyways? What was the point? If you wanted to assist visitors in discerning the fact that these three furbearing water-loving animals live waaay down there, would you not have been better off showing images of each animal:

·         swimming in the water indicating how to tell them apart and/or

·         indicating with arrows that point to the parts of their bodies that you use to identify them when visible out of the water?

Writing for the Visitor

How do these interpreters treat a trailhead welcome?  Another use of the old question strategy, and in this case it relates to having listened to the visitor and noting where they are coming from. When it comes to GIANT TREES people want to know their age. Instead of just putting up the dates and an associated historical event, the writer went the extra mile of visual imagery engagement. Relating branch growth to a human life that the visitor could touch would really drive it home. Connecting this to sustainable certified logging practices and wood purchasing decisions would extend the teachable moment relevance to human lives.

Were you intrigued by the orange lettering at the bottom of the sign image. It was a clever promotion for park pass purchases. The main point, is the missed opportunity I frequently encounter where cross promotion of other trails or programmes is rarely utilized. A visitor experience interpretive plan needs to consider how to raise visitor awareness of park offerings and encourage visitors to linger longer.

That question strategy again – is it relevant? Not knowing how loud a frog’s voice is -doesn’t that keep you up at night? Large colourful graphics are so commanding of attention. It seems like the small text real estate is being vastly underutilized. This is great cocktail party information but what purpose does it serve?

A positive aspect is how they handled the distance -rather than just stating it numerically, the text grounds you to the present by referring to an object (the resort) that you not only can still see from this location but it is also where the trailhead started from.

 

This management component of a sign (left) was also seen at the entrance point to a forest trail. Taking a light tone yet still delivering a strong message. Taking the time to communicate potential impacts and explaining the rationale for requested visitor behaviour. Do these strategies work? Do you attract more flies to honey than vinegar? Does this help parents explain to their children certain needed rules in high traffic areas? Master’s thesis anyone?

An interpretive sign glimpsed in a kid’s bike park that speaks so well to starting where your learners are. Having the look and feel of a kid’s book it also focuses on subject matter that appeals to their age group - licking a slug and poop. Will this encourage kids to approach these forest animals in an investigatory and caring way, as opposed to stepping on them? Does it supply enough NEAT factor to get kids to appreciate its existence?

Diversity and Inclusion Firsthand

If your objective is to alert the visitor to the wide range of plants growing in a small space then this layout accomplishes that. The array of species on the perimeter are connected to the central photograph using white dotted lines (hard to see in photo but clear in real life) so it is easy to make the link. At the same time, what percentage of visitors like counting the number of plants they see? Perhaps the goal was just to encourage visitors to slow down and look more carefully on the ground. This sign might need some more hints to direct kneedrop behaviour and micro-trailing to allow the practicing of close-up skills.

Larger Than Life

Here is a clever way to share the impact of a dam and make it approachable from an invertebrate perspective that is also relatable to a human experience. This writing style captures you right away and it places you in the centre of the action. The larger-than -life image draws you in. The content is very dramatic and pertinent as it relates to the impact of a dam on these little fresh water fellows. This deals with a daily happening that most visitors would never think about. You can almost hear readers saying, “I had no idea…”

Great example of design that reinforces the message Bugs for Breakfast where the background is a red checkered tablecloth and plates. Zoom in and you’ll see each invertebrate has a size reference beside the larger-than-life drawings. So many times this little detail is forgotten and people go away with no concept of how tiny these creatures are. What is missing here?

There is plenty of reading but no call to action – no exploratory doing suggested. Was there a place close by where the passerby could get engaged? Could you have promoted a regular program, the visitor centre aquaria or a kit to borrow focused on pond life?

Exhibit Dynamism

How about a wayside exhibit you can actually step into? How do you give visitors the sense of ski-jumping at an heritage ski hill where world records were set? Like a tandem skydive where you are strapped to your instructor, these interpreters envisioned a sculpted metal figure that visitors would literally lean into while standing on a set of skies and looking dooown. A very gutsy move.  

Even the picnic table infrastructure reinforces the essence of the site. You may be familiar with actual skiis being used as seats and snowboards as seat backs in other ski-related locations. This treatment breaks the stale mold of same-old.

How about a twist on the standard mounted flat interp signage? At the same ski hill wayside exhibit this twist was presented like a wide “V” similar to an old-style flipped open newspaper - laid out with snippets of articles & ads.

Another clever addition was the English title Face Plant Daily which I assumed was made up and not the actual title of the local paper of the time period. You should always be on the lookout for catchy quirky titles. The writer may have borrowed the idea from the local accommodation in town -Face Plant B&B. The French Title translates as the Snow Bulletin – falls flat for me - missed opportunity to help the reading visitor to have some fun.

Let Interpretive staff be creative

Are any of your sites using new methods of communication due to line-ups caused by social distancing? If not, you are missing an interpretive opportunity. Sure, you can put a line on the floor to designate the six feet separation but how creative is that? In this case, the owner capitalized on social media testimonials as a marketing gimmick to draw you in and confirm you have made the right choice to visit. Your site could do the same and/or incorporate an interpretive message. Never underestimate what you can learn standing in a cafe line!

Seen on a road at a outdoor camp setting where a trail crossing occurs:

What if cautionary/warning signage could be original and aspirational at the same time yet still be effective? In this case you want to slow drivers down and also give them something to think about. Bonus, campers feel pretty good about their future self too. Whereever you need to communicate with visitors, let interpretive staff be creative.

Love this non-traditional directional sign positioned at a T-intersection. Big and Bold and easy to read plus makes you ponder and packs a chuckle punch.  If you are going straight ahead anyways you get a confirmation that you are heading to good times (the town of Kimberley). If you were planning to turn left then you have a seed planted about Kimberley and perhaps you are missing out on something- good times. Can you see how this can be applied not only during the arrival stage of your visitor’s journey but how this technique can be used on-site at trail intersections, in lobbies or hallways? Let interpreters be creative!

Contracting street-artists may pay you back many times over if you simply provide them with the interpretive essence and primary message of your site, letting them create a stunning visual. What word caption or phrase comes to your mind when you encounter this? For me, it is nurturing.

Let us know what your caption might be so we can share -there may be a prize awarded, you never know.

Putting Interpretive Design Ideas into Practice – Phase 3 (cont.)

Getting the Visitor on the Interpretive Dance Floor: The HOWS & WAYS

Notes from Bill & Mike: In the last post, Putting Interpretive Design Ideas into Practice – Phase 3, we introduced Activity Matrix examples for the Head and Heart using AMORE (Achieve, Motivate, Organize, Reinforce, Evaluate). This planning tool is to help the visitor engage with interpretive experiences at a preservation, collection, or historic recognition site. To conclude Part 3 we have included Activity Matrix examples for the Hands and the Hunger. Let us know if you have any questions and please send us your comments on this or any other posts.

Quick Reminder…The Activity Matrix examples are for an Invitation Station (10-20 minutes) at the Métis Crossing Buffalo Camp for the ½ day adult visitor. The intent is for the Invitation Station to entice the visitor to return for a deeper experience of Métis culture by signing up for the Buffalo Camp Immersing Experience (60 – 120 minutes).

Photo Credit: Bill Reynolds

HANDS Activity Matrix (Tangible Skills & Memories)

 This Dance Step of Hands can be a bit tricky because most folks immediately think of “Hands-On” activities. Not the case this time. The hands-on, sensory, visceral experiences are in the Achieve section of the Activity Matrix. When Van Matre refers to Hands he literally means what visitors will take home in their hands:

“Never forget that people want to take home some piece of the places they visit – as a concrete reminder, sometimes a trophy, often  a validation of their experience…And if visitors cannot meet this need with something environmentally-friendly that supports the site’s mission, they will buy junk – lots of it – or pick up some object at the site and haul it away.”

It is also important to remember that using our “hands” (or even our feet) to learn new skills can be something tangible we take away from a site. As we struggled to clearly understand pages 168-169 in IDADE, we decided to offer two examples for Hands: (1) literally a memento the visitor takes home in their “hands” from the Buffalo Camp Invitation Station, and (2) utilizing the visitors’ hands to “earn” an item that will provide a memory of the place.

(1)  “Laws of the Buffalo Hunt” -- Visitors receive a copy of the “Laws” to read over and keep as they enter the Invitation Station. Then, on the poster with all the “Laws” listed, place a mark by their choice for “Top Law.” (2)  Métis Hunt Captain -- As each new Buffalo Camp Immersing Experience begins, the Métis Hunt Captain, dressed in traditional Métis clothing, announces the “Laws of the Buffalo Camp” for all present to hear. (3)  Exploratory Booklet -- On pages provided visitors can record reflections on the “Laws of the Hunt” and record the rules and consequences that work in their family & community.

(1) Traditional Buffalo Products & Silhouette – traditional tools and items made from the buffalo are available on a table for visitors to handle. Visitors add a check mark or initials to the Buffalo Silhouette indicating what part of the buffalo was most interesting. (2) Make A Sash – visitors receive 5 colored threads to make a sash after visiting 5 Invitation Stations and highlighting 5 threads of the sash illustration in the Exploratory Booklet. (3) Exploratory Booklet -- After the visitor experiences an Invitation Station and interacts with the traditional items, they highlight one thread of the sash illustration in the booklet with a special pencil. When five threads have been highlighted, and sensory and visceral descriptions recorded and shared, they can receive the actual threads to weave into a sash.

Photo Credit: Métis Crossing/Métis Nation of Alberta, Canada

HUNGER Activity Matrix (Flavorful Delights)

 “Let us break bread together.” This often-used quote speaks as much to the need for social interaction as to the need for nourishment. Relaxing over food can provide a mental and physical break from “site fatigue.” A meal or snack is also a chance to relax and ruminate over what the experience has meant so far, and, of course, to gather and “break bread” with friends and family members. Every visitor experience interpretive plan should integrate social time and activation of the taste buds in the pursuit of the site’s mission and message. If we as designers neglect this aspect of planning, the visitors will find a way to relax and eat even if it means bringing their own food and discovering their own comfortable spot. So, why not make “flavourful delights” an integral part of what the visitors remember about the site?

Van Matre has a few things to say about this on pages 169-171:

 “For most people visiting a public jewel on a leisure journey demands some opportunity to attend to the toothed end of their intestinal tract, not merely as a necessity for their physical well-being, but for their mental well-being…Unfortunately, such activity is often divorced from the interpretive messages of the places visited. What visitors eat and drink, and where they do it, should contribute to the site’s intended outcomes, and giving the visitors something to discuss or ponder at these times should be an objective of its experiential design.”

The Invitation Station, the Immersing Experience, the Café, and the Gift Shop are all areas where the visitor Hunger can be addressed and integrated with the Outcomes and takeaways.

(1) “Rate the Taste” – A-Frame stand with the daily buffalo products available to taste. Visitor can use a simple 1, 2, 3 rating scale for “Great”, “OK”, “No Thanks” for each product tasted. (2) “Buffalo Silhouette” – silhouette divided into sections to indicate where tools, cuts of meat, and products obtained from buffalo come from. Visitors put a check mark on parts they tasted and tools they liked. (3) Exploratory Booklet – page to record which buffalo products and tastes they liked and compare taste with favorite family foods. (4) “Favorite Flavour of the Day” – Near exit to Cultural Gather Centre visitors record “Favorite Flavour of the Day.” An alternative is to put re-usable tokens in containers that have pictures of the various site “taste” options that day.

Activity Matrix Things To Think About… here are a few items we feel are important to remember when putting the Activity Matrix together.

1. Are you just presenting the pieces of a place or focusing on the processes that make the place a “jewel” ? An object should help reinforce the processes, not be the primary focus. You will notice we have incorporated the primary process for this Invitation Station into the Outcomes for the visitors.

2. Does the “meaningful information” fit into the visitor’s mental web? Will the experience and information connect, fill-in gaps, or strengthen the visitor’s mental web, or will the information fall out? To quote Van Matre: “The web of life is the inter-connected, inter-working of inter-related stories. When visitors grasp this ‘webbing concept’, it is easier for them to catch new things while dancing on their own.”

3. Do the “memorable experiences” provide a strong enough sensory and visceral glue? Has the visitor been deeply immersed in the place, is there time and space for reflection and sharing, and to explore ways they may be changed?

4. Is the focus on the meaning of the place? We want to celebrate why the cultural or natural heritage jewel is important, and then connect it to the visitor’s web. That is why it is important to provide experiences that reinforce the mission and message of the place throughout the site. The task of the interpreter is to set up an environment so the visitor can make the connections as they “dance” with the site on their own.

5. Are visitors being attracted to and “pulled” into experiences rather than simply ignoring or feeling “pushed” into an experience? It is important to find ways to invite the visitor into experiences with creative and sensory and welcoming “hookers” that cause a bit of delight and curiosity. If they are motivated to participate, then the mental and emotional web is better prepared to catch new ideas and feelngs.

6. Are the experiences organized in a Way so the processes and Outcomes are easy to hold onto and understand? What will the visitors take home in their Head, Heart, Hands and Hunger (stomach) and will it be connected to the whole experience? This may mean carefully reviewing all aspects of the visit — from car park to gift shop to café as well as examining current and future interpretive experiences.

7. Finally, is there some accountability? That is the value of the Evaluate column in the Activity Matrix. Are we achieving the intended outcome? Is it connecting to the visitor’s Head, Heart, Hands, and Hunger webs? Is it helping the visitor to embrace the natural and cultural value(s) of the place? Again, from Van Matre:

“By combining meaning with mission, we restore the dynamism to our interpretive sites. Each place represents a unique expression of the processes of life that is worthy of attentive experience; that’s why it was established, and what we are paid to celebrate and share. As interpreters, when it comes to our places, we don’t want so much to help people find their own meaning as to help them experience and appreciate ours. That’s the core of our job.”

We hope that our posts of Phase 1, 2, and 3 of Getting the Visitor onto the Interpretive Dance Floor have provided a clearer picture of how the process of designing and planning for the visitor works using IDADE. And yes, we did make some adjustments when working on a real-life project. However, the core of the books ideas were used in the planning process and embraced by staff at Métis Crossing.

An Epilogue to these three Phases is next on our list. There are a few important steps we did not spend time on at Métis Crossing but are vital to success: Image, Message, Welcome, Orient, Guide and Visitor Flow.

Photo Credit: Mike Mayer

Putting Interpretive Design into Practice - Phase 3

Getting the Visitor on the Interpretive Dance Floor: The HOWS & WAYS

From Bill and Mike…Yes, there has been a long gap between our post on Phase 2 of Putting Interpretive Design Ideas into Practice and Phase 3. Some of this was due to holidays, camping trips, family commitments and other life events. But mainly we wanted to provide some good examples for this post…and that took time. If you have the Interpretive Design and the Dance of Experience (IDADE) book, review pages 218 – 219, “Everglades Dance Card.” Notice there is only a Head example. We wanted our examples to include the Heart, Hands and Hunger for a better sense of how to set up and use this planning tool. For a variety of reasons, we have decided to refer to the “Dance Cards” as the “Activity Matrix,” but we are using the same planning and organizing pattern for the design process. 

Though a fully developed Activity Matrix was not included during our time with Métis Crossing, we used the Outcome Matrix from the Buffalo Camp Invitation Station as the basis for our examples. We carefully designed HOWS & WAYS to best Achieve the desired Outcome, talked with Van Matre several times, and used the “Model-Practice-Feedback-Revise” process on ourselves. We think this completed model will provide a better understanding of how the Activity Matrix (Dance Cards), work and we look forward to your feedback. If you have developed an Activity Matrix, or you would like us to work with you on developing one at your site, let us hear from you.

Photo Credit: Mike Mayer

A Quick Review…

In our first blog post on “Putting the Interpretive Design Ideas into Practice-Phase 1” we looked at EID’s Phase 1 when working with a site on an visitor experience interpretive plan. The major focus was making sure everyone is headed in the same direction as we Dig Into the Whys:

During Phase 2 of the visitor experience interpretive plan process we worked on the following:

  Phase 3

Now in Phase 3 we get to the fun stuff – designing the HOWS & WAYS of getting the visitor on the Interpretive Dance Floor. The Activity Matrix, or Dance Cards, are used to start designing the mission-based experiences for a particular Visitor Type which will to help them Achieve intended Outcomes. And maybe by this time you are ready to throw up your arms and shout, “What, another matrix to think about and plan?” – well yes. This type of careful planning can help ensure the visitor will take away the importance of the site and connect it to the web of their life experiences in an organized and memorable manner. And yes, this takes time. Remember – these matrices are living tools that can be adjusted as goals and circumstances of a preservation, collection, or historical recognition site change. That does not mean new front line seasonal staff members should redo everything every year. Once an experience is doing what it is supposed to do, leave it alone and let it do its job.

Getting to Know AMORE

 To get started on developing the four different Activity Matrices for the Head, Heart, Hands and Hunger, it is important to have some clear idea of what is meant by Achieve, Motivate, Organize, Reinforce, and Evaluate (AMORE). If you refer to pages 198-214 in IDADE you will find lots of details from Steve on these last 5 Dance Steps. We have condensed the information a bit for this post and it is still important to review the pages in the book for a deeper understanding of AMORE.

  • Achieve: Design and offer specific process and outcome driven interactions that invite & prepare the visitor to participate in a deeper experience with the site.

  • Motivate: Pull the visitor in with compelling & appealing invitations; stimulate willingness to experience what the site has to offer.

  • Organize: Tie together common outcome takeaways from the Invitation Station, the Immersing Experience and at other on-site experiences to assist visitor recall & integrate new understandings and feelings.

  • Reinforce: Designate a variety of site locations and experiences to practice and strengthen the outcome takeaways, aiming at enduring memories for the visitor.

  • Evaluate: Determine if the experience has Achieved the intended outcome and provided “enchantment, sparkle and delight” for the visitor.

As we developed the Outcomes for the Head, Heart, Hands and Hunger we stated the natural or cultural processes we were aiming for and incorporated these processes into the Outcome Statements. And by the way, please give us some feedback on this – Is it clear? Do you have questions? Do you have some examples to share?

Key points to remember:

  • These Activity Matrices examples are focused on the ½ day, adult, drop-in visitor type – so their time at Métis Crossing is limited. A different matrix would be needed for a different visitor type.

  • This is an Activity Matrix for an Invitation Station (10-20 minutes) at the Métis Crossing Buffalo Camp. It is an introduction that will hopefully entice the visitor to return for a deeper experience of Métis culture by signing up for the Buffalo Camp Immersing Experience (60 – 120 minutes) another longer experience.

  • Given the visitor’s time constraints (½ day), the goal is for this visitor type to leave with an initial connection in their Head, Heart, Hands AND Hunger (in the stomach) of the Métis Essences of Land & Water Relationships and Becoming a Nation.

Head Activity Matrix (Meaningful Information)

Pages 218-219 in IDADE display the “Everglades Dance Cards” example for the Head. You might wonder if this is really an activity description. No, it is not. It is simply a brief outline of the HOWS & WAYS the Outcome will be achieved (brochure, exhibit, walk, etc.). Fortunately, pages 220-222 provide more details about the HOWS & WAYS. We are going to use this same format to present each Activity Matrix – the matrix outline followed by a bit more detail about the activities we envisioned being developed. (Reminder: as mentioned earlier, these examples were developed by EID to better explain how AMORE works, they were not fully implemented at Métis Crossing during our time with the site.

Photo Credit: Métis Crossing/Métis Nation of Alberta, Canada

HEART Activity Matrix (Memorable Experiences)

 As Van Matre mentions on pages 161-164 of IDADE, the feelings are the “glue” that hold the mental web of understandings together. How we feel about our experience at a site is often stronger than the information we may, or may not, remember about a place. To quote:

“Essentially, when it comes to the feelings, interpretation aims for visitors to take away both a feeling of a place (sensory impressions) and a feeling for it (visceral impressions), so we have to consciously design interactions that do both. People take away deeper feelings of a place when they have been immersed in it in a fully conscious way with all their senses stimulated. And people feel good when their needs are met in a way that says others care about them. In both of these cases, it’s the detail that counts. Those who want to facilitate memorable experiences should practice creating memorable moments that fit together in service of mission. Doing so requires a lot of hard work but the rewards are worth it.”

 For more on “making memories” check out the dozen “Pointers” on page 164 of IDADE.

OK — how about we stop there so you don’t feel too overwhelmed with one post. The Activity Matrices for the Hands and Hunger, and a bit of an epilogue will be posted next week. Once again, please let us know if you have any questions or comments, and look for us at the upcoming NAI conference on Zoom in early December.

Photo Credit: Mike Mayer