“I applaud your team for the way you genuinely listened to the children and parents. You showed them such respect and empathy. ”
CLieNT: KOHL CHILDREN’S MUSEUM
The Context: The mission of the Kohl Children’s Museum is to inspire a love of learning through play-based early childhood education. Considering their experience is rooted in an indoor, in-person environment, they were unable to deliver their promise in the most effective way during the pandemic. This realization led to an overhaul of their operations, in order to continue serving children from birth through age 8. As restrictions began lifting and long-term planning was underway, two major questions arose: how might they ensure parents understood the educational value of play? How might they bring the museum experience outside of their walls?
CREDITS:
My role: User Experience Research and Service Design // Created at: IIT Institute of Design, graduate research project // Professor: Service Innovation Practitioner, Mark Jones // Team: Anna Olsztynska and Xin Faye Sun // Photography: courtesy of the team // Final Presentation
Gathering feedback from parents and children.
clarifyING the challenge
We ran 8 subject matter expert interviews to build empathy and develop a holistic understanding from educators and parents alike.
We audited the museum’s existing brand architecture to develop an in-depth understanding of their business model, positioning and current offerings.
We dove deep into secondary research to build and understand context of early childhood education.
We conducted a competitive analysis to gather a deep understanding of the children’s museum market.
ideating possibilities
We defined the opportunity space in order to create realistic constraints to ideate against and position our solution accordingly.
We facilitated a strategy table ideation session to diverge on possibilities before converging on what’s probable.
developING the SOLUTION
We narrowed down guiding design principles to drive the development of future exhibits.
We held three rounds of iterative prototyping to inform the offering with input from key stakeholders - children and their parents.
Implementing the concept
We wrote and presented a recommendations report to tie all findings together into a cohesive, actionable document.
We developed a service blueprint to provide a roadmap for implementation with all considerations to make the exhibit real.
We determined key partnerships and a proposed pricing structure because without a margin, they can’t serve their mission.
Camp Kohl includes four different stations fenced off in a park setting. We imagine that people will sign up online for a one hour time slot. Kids and parents can freely walk around within the zone to play with each station as they wish. There will be camping chairs throughout so that parents can take a breather and feel confident that their kids are in a safe area. To run this, it would require 2-4 Kohl staff members.
Each station creates moments of discovery by including a variety of play schemes that hit all the senses. Kids have the autonomy to choose how they play, depending on their ages and individual abilities. Role play is at the core of each station. Children are given the pieces to let their imaginations sour, while at the same time learning about the practical applications of outdoor education.
When children complete each station, they receive a sticker. After they collect all four stickers, they become Junior Rangers. By the exit of Camp Kohl there will be a photo opportunity marking the achievement and extending the experience into their homes with a tangible takeaway.
Each part of the exhibit includes color coded QR codes based on the type of play that station is oriented towards. The information is geared towards parents, providing them with prompts to play with their kids, tips and tricks for outdoor education and an explanation of why each type of play is impactful for child development. This code is live! Feel free to poke around the lo-fi prototype.
THE OUTCOME
The Kohl Children’s Museum is equipped with the pieces they need to bring exhibits out into the communities they serve, creating a tangible opportunity to instill a love of learning in a larger number of children. In summer 2021, they will be able to move on to the build and test phase of higher fidelity prototypes and begin to cultivate partnerships to bring the concept to life.
WHAT i LEARNED
Designing for children means you are designing for the village surrounding them as well. Understanding a complex ecosystem of dynamics and needs is critical to create something that has impact.