OverviewMy team's task was to design a product to drive empathy for Woodland Park Zoo. Woodland Park Jr. combines the physical and the digital to create an engaging and fun learning experience for kids and families visiting the zoo. With the scavenger hunt and companion mobile app, we wanted to create a space for kids to answer conservation questions, earn points/rewards, gain animal friends, and continue this learning at home long beyond their zoo visit to push empathy long-term.
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Values & Goals 🎯
• The zoo was looking to engage their primary visitors into the physical environment for a more memorable experience
• They wanted to have a long-term impact that lasted past zoo visits since people typically only visit once a year • Highly values the physical and natural environment of the zoo - had worries about adding technology into the experience in fear of it taking away from the current feel |
Success Metrics 🙌
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Color Theory 🎨
We learned that different colors were associated with different characteristics and ideas. Diving into what colors meant for kids specially, we decided that a green, blue, and orange color scheme would be perfect as blue is calming and encourages creativity while orange enhances critical thinking and memory.
Language 🗣
We learned that framing our language and stories about the animals would make a big difference in our impact. Giving the animals names, using he/she and describing them past just their habitat and diet, but also about their emotional and behavioral traits would help drive empathy in children.
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Kids & Technology 📱
We found that kids up to 11 years old typically did not have access to technology outside of the home, which would mean our product would likely primarily be guided on the parents phones at the zoo. This would influence the type of product we create and even how we design the interface.
Attention Span 🧩
Kids ages 6-11 typically stay interested from anywhere from 12-23 minutes. Some of the best ways to maintain this attention were including a gamified element, creating a reward system, and watching their parent/guardian also participating and/or maintaining their own attention as example behavior.
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Parents 👩👦
We found out that parents were open to technology in the zoo for their kids if it was educational. They usually struggled with getting their kids to stay interested in animals unless it was the kids favorite animal which they would interact with the most.
Multiple parents also highly struggled with the lack of a virtual map option, which made their experience difficult and frustrating in general. We took note of this to possibly address this pain point in our product. All in all, they wanted their kids to have fun and learn during this visit as the visit was mostly for them. |
Kids 👧🏽
Kids really wanted to have fun while at the zoo. Some kids expressed that they usually learned about animals via YouTube or in school sometimes, but not very often.
They also expressed their favorite animals and most memorable experiences from the zoo which usually had to do with interacting with their favorite animals. (Note: we also learned that kids are more likely to interact with animals they know something interesting about). They also expressed interest in gaining prizes in the zoo during their visit, for example a goodie bag or other rewards. All in all, they wanted a good time and reward. |
Primary Persona 👧🏽
Our first persona represents a curious kid visiting the zoo with her mother who's ready to have fun and learn.
Click photo to enlarge
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Secondary Persona 👩🏼
Our second persona represents a dedicated parent bringing her daughter to the zoo for their annual visit.
Click photo to enlarge
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Pros
• Creates a learning environment for kids through information that's more accessible and interesting • Can push empathy through understanding information • Attractive to parents who want their kids to take higher learning objectives from the zoo experience |
Cons
• Little to no physical interaction involved - goes against stakeholder values and goals • Adds more to the load of information already at the zoo in which many people were already interacting with - Cognitive Overload • Kids in the age range we're designing for typically don't have access to tech outside of the home - so app information will likely still be relayed through the parent just instead from the phone (similar to the current zoo experience where parents read the animals information board and explain it to their children) - No unique value. |
Pros
• Might encourage kids to visit more animals if they see how many there are to find on the map, extending zoo visits • Could give incentive for kids engage with animals or explore in the zoo - finding animals and checking them off to get rewards • Addresses lack of a virtual map pain point |
Cons
• No clear opportunities to push conservation and learn • Very similar a scavenger hunt experience the zoo has already tried in their environment which didn't do very well - No unique value or differences • Not enough reason for kids to want to continue engaging in this experience, especially if they've already found all of the animals in one or two visits. |
Pros
• Balances the physical and the digital experience while still putting heavy emphasis on the physical the most • Adds in a reward system to keep kids engaged and encourage them to participate • Pushes empathy long-term with the at home learning content that's accessed with points earned during zoo visit • Conservation questions show people exactly how they can make a difference (empathy initiative) |
Cons
• Still might be too much tech involved if we're not careful about when and where we incorporate in zoo technology use • Might not push empathy long-term if we don't emphasize and encourage the points and rewards system while showing the value of using those rewards and points for at home content |
Check the video demonstration for high fidelity app screens!
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Widen our audience 👥
When we talked about our idea to others, many outside of our target audience of kids expressed interest in using an app like this for the scavenger adventure portion, in app conservation questions included. Young adults, and even corporate professionals who use such activities for team building and bonding say they would use this in the zoo to make their experience even more engaging. Due to time constraints, my team couldn't explore what widening the audience might look like, though it's a great avenue to explore in the future!
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More activities & more depth 🎲
We only designed a few screens of the at home content to demonstrate the minimal viable product due to lack of time. Though, in the future we'd love to show more range of activities that we might offer and even what specific activities might look like in action to further push the purpose and excitement of the at home content as well as how kids can use their points to their advantage in the app.
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