Earlier this month I was speaking at the Australian Wildlife Tourism conference about smart practices when designing interpretive visitor experiences where I introduced several strategies and some cautionary items to think about. Sadly of course, I presented via zoom, as escaping to an Australian spring would have been really nice but not in the cards.
The art of the invitation was one visitor receptiveness strategy I touched on, in order to build an earth relationship and connect with a sense of place.
In this conference context of inviting visitors to engage first hand (using all senses) with the heritage site, I pointed out the need for adapting one’s messaging so that adventure opportunities are voiced as invitations. Visitor uptake is improved by this format reimagining. Visitors often prefer to remain aloof and don’t naturally gravitate towards interaction with nature -they need nudging and guiding within an atmosphere of relaxed comfortableness. Many times, we don’t set the stage properly or we are too subtle with our suggestions without clear assistance and practice. Result: visitors don’t engage because we have not made it mildly enticing and easy. Let’s look at an example.
image courtesy Bill Reynolds
Here is a sign at a park entrance that was titled, “What do you want to do today?” It has eight sub- titles as in “Learn about Plant Diversity and “Have an Adventure” (see image). Having a sign like this is a positive first step because it answers, “what is there to do here?” – a question that often lurks in the visitor’s minds. Secondly, it is not just a big list but the ideas are grouped into categories with mini-bulleted lists to help and not overwhelm the reader.
Image courtesy Bill Reynolds
So far so good. When you drill down the “Have an Adventure” section more, you will find generic expressions as in “Look into an underwater mini-world on the boardwalk.” There is an image associated with this one bulleted opportunity that suggests “looking” means changing your normal upright posture ie. getting down on your belly. Getting visitors to alter their perception in different ways that will heighten their nature awareness is a key strategy that heritage sites need to facilitate more.
However, people don’t generally jump into different situations they are not used to or employ their senses in new and novel way without assistance and some carefully designed coercion- this is where the art of the invitation comes in.
Remember I said mildly enticing. The above “look” expression is more of a command than an invitation. An invitation would be more along the lines of “don’t miss the dragonflies breaking their back as they begin their life of aerial acrobatics.” The idea is to spark curiosity about something as in this case -why do dragonflies break their back in order to begin flying? This is not the time to use words like nymphs and incomplete metamorphosis(although I am sure I did that in my early years fresh out of university biological science).
Image courtesy Bill Reynolds
Of course, such an invitation is timely and this would require being aware of seasonality and changing visitor messages throughout the year. This just might be an outcome your site interpretive plan delineated.
Letting your visitors know what is “naturally” happening this day, this week, this season as rationale to go exploring to encounter something different can also be very inviting. This would also encourage frequent visitors to check out “What’s happening today” because why else would you if the message never changes. Adding a personal touch also increases the invitational draw, as in “Meet Joan at the boardwalk at 2pm to see a whirlygig up-close.” By saying whirlygig but not saying whirlygig beetle you also maintain the mystery.
Imagine if you entered a clothing store and they had a sign that said “try a hat on” or it said “express yourself this winter by sporting a rainbow- coloured hat from the popular, newly arrived collection. Francois is here to help you.” Which would be more effective in engaging your visitor? It is time to re-read the suggestions you provide for visitors to test their level of invitation and start ramping up their effectiveness. We have delved into this art of the invitation in previous blog posts and an excellent backgrounder is offered here: Interpretive Invitations — EID Coaching
So what about that seasonality thing? We need to think about it way more than we do. Remember my reference to having shared cautionary items. Here is one: Beware of the invite that is no longer there. I run into this so often when I am invited by a sign to do something out-of season or I am reading a description of a living thing that is only appropriate for a few weeks- maybe a month, in a year. Don’t fall into the seasonality trap. Review your signage.
This following sign is another good first shot at presenting to the visitor, at least, the diversity of life that could be encountered at different times of the year(so it’s worth coming back) during the circular year. It is all a bit of a jumble: fun for those who have a good natural history knowledge already and can pair words and images together like solving a puzzle, but confusing for those with little background.
EID always wants signage to encourage visitors to do something to increase their earth relationship. Was the intent to have visitors search for certain seasonal flagship species? Would it have been easier to provide helpful hints like directing visitors to certain locales to increase their spotting chances? Would it have been mildly enticing to create a game like having bingo cards available with different images in each square (instead of alphanumeric symbols) using the images on the seasonal chart sign? People/families could hand them in for discount prizes on field guides for example.
Yet is it clear that these fellow passengers on planet earth appear at different times and in different forms? Knowing what the exhibit outcomes were that they wanted to achieve would be intriguing in order to assess success. Why were these specific species chosen to represent their season? Was it easier to find these denizens here at this site because of a certain soil- atmosphere- water regime-habitat assemblage? What’s the story here?
Image courtesy Bill Reynolds
In the above example of boardwalk looking, we are told we can look into the underwater mini-world. Well that only pertains to two thirds of the year (not bad, and certainly better than reading all year about flowers that bloom for only a few weeks of the year). You still have no idea of what you might look for & when or how. We can set our visitors’ expectations better, can’t we?
Remember I mentioned making engagement easy. That does not happen by telling our visitor to look into the water under the boardwalk and then showing a picture of people lying on their stomachs and peering down. Setting expectations and nudging them along would require:
clear directions of how to get to the boardwalk,
clever ways to get visitors to lower themselves from their normal comfortable bipedal position,
observational aids like facemasks and magnifiers,
collecting apparati like dip nets and trays,
laminated critter sheets showing the weird and wonderful underwater adaptations they have.
awareness of where all the aids are available (as in a borrowable backpack from the visitor centre or bookable at what times at the boardwalk “invitation station?”)
We describe this concept more fully in our blog post Interpretive Invitations — EID Coaching Assuming you have potentially whet their appetite for adventure, you need to follow through with the next steps that get the visitor interaction ball rolling. Don’t leave it to chance.
I recently encountered a self-guided sign that not only addressed seasonality but also talked about next steps. Take the time to read this well written text in this next image.
Image courtesy Bill Reynolds
As the sign is read year- round the interpreters tackled the seasonality issue by discussing them all at once. The image though shows only the summer and fall portions. Not only is it relevant for when the visitor is there but it also provides a hint at changes that you could be noticing at different times of the year. The way it is written is not command-style either as in a Stop Look and Listen approach. Rather it is like an observant author sharing their thoughts providing for the visitor a confirmation as in “I noticed that too” or a future challenge, “I need to be on the look-out for that.” There is even a clear section on the sign that says “Next Steps.”
Helping the visitor engage with nature is facilitated by making a “doing” interaction easy and enticing. The expansion of the invitational station concept with observational aids plus practice with participatory activities needs to take place. I visualize these places as micro- visitor centres situated in key places that aim at assisting the visitor with sensory alertness and perception-changing. Self-guided signage can play a reinforcing role in tandem with these stations where interactions with the earth, and time spent in touch with nature, embraces seasonality and ongoing change. Let Mike and I know through contact@eidcoaching.com if we can help you conceptualize what this kind of station might look like at your site. There is no better time than the present.