Increasing visitor engagement in outdoor adventures at The Presidio
TEAM MEMBERS
Collaborative project, 5 designers, the Presidio Field Station team
TIMELINE
4 months, 2022
ROLE
This was a social impact project I did as a student in California college of the arts, I came in as a social impact partner helping with design/ branding/ strategy tasks
At a glance
THE PROBLEM
The Presidio Field station team was deeply engaged in visitor experiences but lacked clarity around their internal goals, long-term visions
WHAT WE DID
We collaborated closely to reimagine the Field Station’s identity as a “basecamp for adventures,” positioning it as a launchpad for exploration and learning. We also designed an Outdoor Adventures Wall to bring that identity to life
IMPACT
Increased visitor engagement in outdoor adventures
Offered a foundation for future growth and decision-making within the team
ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND
The Presidio is a beautiful national park in San Francisco, it's managed by the Presidio trust. The Presidio Trust is a federal agency established in 1996. They work to create a dynamic and sustainable park that offers cultural, recreational, and educational opportunities.
We worked alongside the Presidio Field Station- an organization under the umbrella of the Presidio trust.
History
The Field Station is a new destination opened to the public in 2022, they wanted to bring in a design team to assess how they could improve visitor experience.
What is Field Station
A multi sensory investigative center in the Presidio. The Field Station provides resources and support for visitors.
Understanding the Field Station's Philosophy
The Field Station describes their mission is to inculcate a sense of curiosity, with autonomy and showcase the value of ecoliteracy.
A visitor entering the Field station is greeted with the sight of ecological artifacts, maps from San Francisco's history and mini activities that one can do. Unlike a traditional museum/science center visitors are encouraged to touch and play with all the artifacts.
Creating a roadmap for the Field Station's future
We struggled with identifying where we could best help the field station. To understand the situation better we conducted a workshop with the Field Station staff and a couple of visitors.
INITIAL OBSERVATIONS AND INTERVIEWS
We started by interviewing visitors and observing how visitors interacted with activities in the Field Station. We also asked about how they got to the field station and their feedback about it.
We summarized our findings and created a customer journey map.
Workshop- Mapping an ideal experience
Our journey map showed the customer's journey before, during and after visiting the field station. During each step we highlighted the mental and physical steps of the visitor's current experience. We conducted a collaborative workshop with the staff at field station. This ideation session helped us brainstorm ideas for activities the field station could do in the future.
Emerging ideas- rejected, pinned and taking forward
Our hero concept and the focus of the rebranding: The outdoor adventures
After the workshop we took a pause and created a document with all the ideas written down. The field station staff was leaning towards the idea of a 'basecamp'. A strong metaphor for the starting point for a journey. The Field station has carefully curated adventures for visitors to engage in. These adventures take visitors to all around the presidio.
What does 'basecamp' mean for Field Station?
Currently Field Station is focused on it's indoor activities. The visitors love the indoors experience. Field Station gets swamped with visitors exploring about the Presidio's history and ecology.
Field Station wants to extend this kind of experience to the Presidio outdoors.
This is how the field station displayed these adventures
PROBLEMS
Invisible
The board is lost amongst the surrounding displays. It does not have an impact on the viewer.
Unclear
What’s the information being communicated here? There's no call to action for visitors.
Messy
Where do you look? The board lacks hierarchy and visitors thought it was a display.
INFORMATION VISUALIZATION NEEDS
Making Decisions about information visualization
There was a ton of information to be communicated to the visitors in a small space. We needed to design to capture attention and communicate 'how to get started?' From testing and feedback about the current board we found that:
Accidental visits
Visitors stumble into Field Station, visits are unplanned and short
Unfamiliar Concept
Visitors aren't really familiar with adventuring. What imagery does it invoke?
Visitors look for trails
Visitors liked the idea of going on a trail with their family.
Unknown Destinations
The Presidio has beautiful destinations, but local visitors do not know them
Guiding Principles for the adventure board
We conducted a workshop with the Field Station staff to make decisions about the information to be displayed and how to communicate the adventures idea. The board needed to be:
A visual demonstration of the adventures and instructions about how to get started.
A visual tool to help staff members communicate various destinations and trails
Flexible and changeable to seasonal changes
PROTOTYPE TESTING
The next 3 months we did 6 rounds of tests at the Field Station, we were lucky enough to test with actual visitors and get feedback. Our strategy while testing was to not defend, instruct or pitch, we just simply asked them to think out loud and asked them 'what do you think this is about?'.
VISUAL EXPLORATION
The field station had one signature font that they used in the designs, but no specific visual design guidelines. A challenge for us was to figure out what visual styling matched the vibe of the place.
REJECTED IDEAS
These designs felt crowded and really difficult for the field station team to replicate. We felt there were also too many colors and fonts being used.
We ultimately decided to go with something simpler and minimal, while still maintaining the organic styles we saw at the Field Station.
STYLING DECISIONS
Our final design showcased organic shapes, photos and a 'call to action'. We made templates for the field station team to recreate these kind of layouts with any new activities they wanted to introduce.
FINAL DESIGNS
We took advantage of the metal board and used magnets to attach our designs to the wall. We included step-by step instructions at every step. We chose to go for a modern and clean design aesthetic.
The Map
The final map is A0 sized and clean and easy to read
Focused on trails and destinations within the Presidio
Overlaid with destination cards. These are designed to be changeable seasonally
Trail Highlights
This part is called ‘along the trails’ and showcases 5 trails near the field station. (Color coordinated with map)
Each envelope is stacked with cards that showcase destinations that the visitors can see
Informs visitor about trail distance and time taken to complete it.
Menu of adventures
The adventure menu displays all the available adventures and the associated gear that the visitors can borrow.
Every card has a call to action for the visitor
Gear is displayed on shelves besides the adventure menu items
IN THE FUTURE
The adventure's board is a starting point for the Field Station's vision. It informs the visitors of these adventures and guides them on how to get started.
Look and feel of the space
How does the space outside the field station reinforce the idea of 'basecamp'. Can there be events and a community around this idea?
Designing for a specific persona
How can we showcase an adventure experience for group of school students. Can there be an educational element to this?
LEARNING
01
Designing along with stakeholders
I'm glad that we got to involve the Presidio team from the start. Facilitating workshops was fun for us and the participants loved the ideas and vision that we set together.
02
Design ecosystem > One Solution
Working with the Presidio made me consider so many touchpoints in visitor experience that would need to be designed. My biggest and kind of obvious takeaway was that any design cannot exist in silo.
