Mini-interactive exhibitions
Kelly Parker
The mini-interactive exhibitions are designed to be placed at various points along a park trail.
Design Idea
The idea is to encourage young visitors at Whinlatter forest to connect with the landscape around them, the design will help young visitors to learn about conservation and sustainability through playful engagement.
This project is based around Whinlatter located in the Lake district national park. The mini-interactive exhibitions are designed to be placed at various points along a trail. Each exhibition has information and interactive activities for the user, including what animals are nearby and why we need to protect their habitats, information on how thy can join local sites to help maintain the forests, ideas to do in their own garden to help wildlife. There are litter pickers and bags at each station to encourage the young users to collect any rubbish from the trail
Description of the Project
To stimulate my ideas, I took pictures of existing trails, from this I had the idea to create a new interactive trail exhibit that can be enjoyed by the young visitor but more widely aged appropriate than the Gruffalo and stickman trails on offer as my research showed all participants taking the questionnaire enjoyed being outside and had enjoyed popular Gruffalo/stickman walks when younger but felt to grown up for those characters now
Process
I was able to get inspiration for interactive elements from the exhibit situated in the shop of Whinlatter as my research showed not many visitors had interacted with it or even seen it. Due to where it was located. The information was suitable for teaching children about conservation and sustainability; I used some of the information on the mini-interactive trail to educate the young visitors.
Throughout the process the form for all the components was thought about, for example the size. I researched the average size of children from toddler to adolescent. This guided my choice of size. The feedback from the participants during the perception of materials helped guide me in my choice of materials, they discussed their associations with wood and nature, it reminded some of walks out and memories of playing games, as my design is a playful engagement situated outdoors, I felt the connection of wood and nature to be fitting.
I am a mature student loving my design journey so far, I have grown in confidence with each design. I am enthusiastic about product design, after graduation my dream job would be to work designing children’s toys and educational material.