Designing for conservation action with kids PhillyCHI Event @ Think Brownstone How do we extend the excitement and learning of a zoo experience once visitors leave the zoo? Jes Koepfler Director, Design Research & Strategy Intuitive Company Elizabeth Bonsignore Human Computer Interaction Lab University of Maryland Chris Myers, Lynne Myers & Jamie Bercaw Anzano iSaveSpecies Grant Team & Miami University The Team Founded by The National Science Foundation
Transcript
Designing for conservation action with kids
PhillyCHI Event @ Think Brownstone
How do we extend the excitement and learning
of a zoo experience
once visitors leave the zoo?
Jes Koepfler Director, Design Research & Strategy
Intuitive Company
Elizabeth Bonsignore Human Computer Interaction Lab
University of Maryland
Chris Myers, Lynne Myers
& Jamie Bercaw Anzano
iSaveSpecies Grant Team
& Miami University
The Team
Founded by
The National Science Foundation
Our task was to use UX research to: • Expand ideas from existing iSaveSpecies
digital interactives that already existed
on zoo grounds • Inspire new web-based interactives
that would appeal to children (ages 7-12)
and their families • Conceptualize activities to
encourage kids to learn, share, and
practice conservation action
To tackle this challenge, we used participatory design
methods for engaging with youth.
Druin, A. (1999). Cooperative inquiry: developing new technologies for
children with children. In Proceedings of CHI ‘99, ACM, pp. 592-599.
Approach Design Prompt
The best way
to design for kids is
to design with kids.
Co-design teams had 30 minutes to
respond to this design prompt:
Design a web store that inspires kids and
families to engage in conservation action like:
If you raise money in your store, the money
would go towards animal conservation!
We facilitated a co-design
session with teams of kids and
young adults to generate
and elaborate on design ideas
for creating a web-based conservation store.
We had 6 mixed-gender,
mixed-age teams with 3 kids and
2 college students each.
more about animals and the environment
what you learn
money or volunteering to help
with conservation efforts
good stewards of the environment we have things you do in your everyday life
to help save the planet
Big Ideas Tangible counterparts: There is no ‘online’ and ‘offline’ for kids. They want
to be able to create physical representations of their
digitally-created projects.
Mobile affordances: Kids instinctively design for interactions like gliding and
shaking, which are key affordances of mobile devices.
Hybrid worlds: Kids like to blend reality and fiction. They’d rather learn from
a genie, robot, or zombie than an animated zoo ranger.
Next Steps
Design * Iterate * Evaluate
Jes A. Koepfler (@jeskak)
Director, Design Research & Strategy
Intuitive Company * www.intuitivecompany.com
443-615-5170 Special thanks to:
Cheng Wan Digital Experience Designer, Intuitive Company
