(evaluation text only)
For this project, I have created a prototype/mock up for the Hull Maritime Museum which is aimed at key stage one children (roughly between 3-6), I chose this age bracket as this is the age my own daughter is and used her for testing, resources and research for my work, this is also the age the staff of the museum see most when I asked them on a visit, this is because many schools use it for trips and parents visit with children throughout the holidays to entertain children. From this information, I decided that my app should be available across devices for everyone so to make this possible it would work through using QR codes to transfer information.
I visited my daughters school and spoke to the teacher and staff about which they methods they found worked best for getting the children’s attention and making learning easier for them. They came back with a few ideas but the main repetitive ones was;
- Rewarding them with things such as stickers and certificates
- Been recognised by their peers
- Through activities such as matching and finding games
- And only using a short time scale for any activity to be able to keep their attention
Using this information, I decided to try and incorporate as many of these as possible, I would do this by giving the information for each area as short games that they would have to find when traveling through the museum, this gave me the idea to make it like a pirate adventure and use a treasure map to help them navigate their way round, this would also track which of the activities they had completed and then once they had completed the map they would receive a certificate from staff at the end. I decided the best way to get the information to the children was to have a mascot/character deliver the information by reading what is displayed on the screen (which is mainly there for parental reference while doing the activities in order to assist the children), in order for this mascot to appeal to children it had to be not only entertaining but also memorable, to do this I researched which are the most popular children’s characters for 2018 and many that was on the list have been around for many years. I created a mood board of the most well-known and decided to do an analysis of “Pepper Pig” as she is probably the most well-known of all children’s characters currently, from this I discovered that they seem to all use the following factors;
- Simple shapes
- Easy to recognise humans/animals
- Mainly primary and secondary colours which are easy to recognise for children
- They are easy to recreate and for children to try to draw themselves
From all of this I started to create my mascot, I decided that it should match in with the theme of the museum and the app so I came up with the concept of a fish with a bandanna on as the fish would be easy to recognise and simple enough for the required points but the bandana would give it the pirate feel to tie in with the app. I started to sketch out a basic fish shape and then further developed it to create the final mascot (process is within blog), which I coloured in orange and red which are colours that most children can recognise and name with ease.
I took a trip to the museum with my daughter to get a feel for which parts small children like and which parts they don’t really show any interest for, the staff gave me a copy of their current activity sheets that they have (enclosed in paperwork) to use as a reference for my app design, they are very basic especially for the under 5s which is the within the age bracket I am aiming at, they provide no stimulation for the children as they are growing up with technology, this was proven as my daughter refused to it and preferred to walk around taking photos this gave me the idea to be able to use a devices camera for the app to give the children a feeling of being in control and allowing them to feel more “grown up”. I found that most children preferred the exhibits with animals in as they can relate to them more so they are more interesting to them this is why I chose to use the section on Whales.
Now I had a plan for my app, a mascot for it and a lot of photos as reference I started working on developing my app and for this I used PowerPoint to display it. I kept my colours very simple and easy to name for children and used very basic animated themes throughout to make it bright and appealing for the children while making it friendlier and inviting for them, to keep a pirate theme I used a ship styled background or a simple blue for pages where there is not a lot of information or graphics so that is it not overwhelming or overstimulating for them so that they are not being distracted by too much going on. All titles and text is in very basic simple font which is easy to read for those who are starting to read but also for parents to be able to read and process with just a glance, there is a box at the beginning if the app where the child enters their name this will then be printed on the certificate at the end when the have completed the trail. Everything within the speech bubbles is narrated to the child but is on the screen to give them the emotional connection to the mascot as they feel it is there for them personally, but the text will remain until they move on to the next screen for parental reference if the child misses something or wants to ask a question. Navigation and activities are selected through QR codes which the children find using the app and the devices camera, general navigation would be done by the child holding up the device as they walk and the app would use the camera to show what they are pointing it at with the overlay shown which gives the effect of looking through a periscope, this would keep the children engaged for longer as it is more of a virtual extension of their imagination giving them a more fulfilling experience, once they get close enough to a QR code and click on it to select it will either bring up the navigation screen or the activity that it is linked to.
The navigation screen gives the two options of which way to go each is made simpler for the children by using icons on the arrows to give them a more independent feel by been able to make their own choices and find their way around the museum.
I created a very basic map where the children collect stamps/stickers from completing games and activities that they find throughout their travels each time they collect one they are one step closer to the “treasure” at the end which is a certificate with their name on the giving them a sense of pride and accomplishment in what they have done, through all of these little games and activities the children will have learnt more than just walking through and will want to return to do it again and each time they with retain a little more information without even realising that they are been delivered a large amount of information just broken down and will retain more through playing then simply having the facts been read to them making the museum more popular.
Over all I am happy with the concept which I came up with and feel my research before even entering the museum gave me a fresh mind to view the exhibits in other than just looking for what I found interesting, taking a child who I would be aiming my app at helped a lot to get a real perspective and not just try to create a synthetic approach. Although I feel my app could be refined further with better graphics and technology but I feel that would only be able to be done through creating an actual working prototype I would have liked to be able to speak to few more parents and teachers to find out what they would like the app to provide in the future and be able to deliver more information to the children by progressing onto further areas of the museum. But I feel my biggest problem with this was not been able to test it on more children to be able to get their feedback for the development and appearance.
Naomi Eccles 