ZooDesign: Methods for Understanding and Facilitating Children’s Education at Zoos

Hirskyj-Douglas, I. , Gray, S. and Piitulainen, R. (2021) ZooDesign: Methods for Understanding and Facilitating Children’s Education at Zoos. In: 2021 ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference (IDC 2021), 24-30 Jun 2021, pp. 204-215. ISBN 9781450384520 (doi: 10.1145/3459990.3460697)

Abstract

Zoos have been consistently popular with young visitors, helping educate children in animal conservation. However, zoos’ typical strategies employ interactive signs and videos, which children largely ignore. In pursuit of new engagement methods, children were invited to design for animals via ZooDesign, a gamified imaginative design approach centred on an educational card and role-playing game, ZooDesign assists children in envisaging how animals can use technologies, by exploring their welfare needs and humans’ involvement. Many children designed with the animals’ well-being in mind. Analysis of their creations and role-play interviews revealed that the method constitutes a good process but not all designs were appropriate for use with animals. Furthermore, few designs included the children themselves; most emphasised zookeeper and researcher roles instead. Building on child-computer interaction methods for zoo-based education contexts, the research raises key questions involved in educating children about animals.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Hirskyj-Douglas, Dr Ilyena
• Authors: Hirskyj-Douglas, I., Gray, S., and Piitulainen, R.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• ISBN: 9781450384520
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 Association for Computing Machinery
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher

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