Improving Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden’s self-guided experience for first-time visitors
Overview
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden stands as one of Vancouver’s top tourist attractions, located in the historical Chinatown neighbourhood of the city. However, despite its popularity, the Garden lacks in providing educational value to first-time visitors. As a local museum, it falls short in explaining the significance behind its structures, rooms and natural elements.
A Symbolic Discovery Kit offers a solution to enhance understanding of the Garden's hidden symbolism for first-time visitors. It serves as an alternative to guided tours, which have proven beneficial for visitors in the past.
The goal of this project was to partner up with an organization (aka a participant group) and work directly with them in order to engage with and learn design methods in practice.
PROJECT TYPE
User Experience Design
Interaction Design
(Academic Project)
YEAR
Feb 2024 - Apr 2024
TEAM
Jae Eun Kim
Yixuan Liu
Haruhi Hosaka
MY ROLE
Ethnography
User Research
Visual Design
Client Communication
Video storyboard of our final concept
Mockups
Symbolic Discovery Kit
Brochure front
Brochure inside
Symbol Cards
Card 1 front
Card 1 back
Card 5 front
Card 5 back
1
Meet our participant group - Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden!
The Garden is a registered museum and a unique venue for cultural programming and events, including guided tours, concerts, festivals, exhibitions, receptions, and educational programs.
I decided to reach out to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden because it perfectly aligned with our goals and vision of promoting cross-cultural collaboration. Furthermore, it held great potential for innovative design ideas that can enhance visitor experiences and further promote cultural appreciation.
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden
2
Ethnography: initial observations and findings
Our initial work primarily consisted of the insights from Lucy, Marketing and Events Manager, and Garden observations. The main concerns centered around the Garden's insufficient online presence, a lack of engagement with the younger generation, and a stigma associated with Chinatown.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
However, we thought that the identified issues were too generic and based on only one staff member’s point of view (Lucy Lei).
Ethnography poster (in-class deliverable) - designed by me
3
Developing design personas
Our initial cast of personas
The next step consisted of identifying personas to help negotiate our work and narrow down our focus. We chose a staff member, a young local visitor, and a senior regular visitor to distinguish each persona from each other and bring another perspective to our work. I was responsible for creating content and designing the persona of the staff member (Lucy) at the Garden.
Staff persona poster (in-class deliverable) - designed by me
Which persona made sense the most?
The persona that felt the most genuine to us was Lucy, as it was based on the actual ethnographic data obtained from direct interviews. Her persona gave voice to addressing the key issues of the Garden, which were identified as the lack of diversity in activities and events appealing to both locals and tourists.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Based on in-class critique, we needed to diversify the expression of our persona to anchor our design focus. Therefore, before refining our focus, I proposed to gather more ethnographic data so that we can enrich the expression of the personas of not only Lucy’s, but also the others’.
4
More ethnography!
I thought it would be a good idea to visit the Garden again, try to retrace the steps of a potential visitor, and talk to some visitors to gain insights from another perspective.
And that is what we did! As we explored the Garden, we conducted unstructured interviews with a total of 8 Garden visitors and asked them questions.
Data collected during the second round of ethnography
5
What did the second round of ethnography inform us about?
With the updated ethnographic data, we were able to re-construct our personas and create user journeys. Compared to how we felt before our visit to the Garden, we felt more confident as to who our persona should be.
One of the personas remained Lucy, Marketing and Events Manager, with concerns about engaging with the younger audience. However, I suggested recreating our second persona to be a first-time visitor who is hoping to learn something new in a fun and engaging way. In this way, we explored the perspectives of both the staff member and visitor that align better with our initial and later observations.
User journey poster (in-class deliverable) - designed by me
Turning point of our design process
The user journey clarified the pain points in the context of related stakeholders and corresponding design solutions. It suggested that the challenges might not solely arise from a shortage of diverse events, but rather from a failure to adequately communicate the Garden's significance throughout the user's experience. This could be contributing to visitors feeling that the Garden lacks context and is 'missing something'.
6
Conducting participatory workshop
Our workshop took place in the Garden and lasted one hour. It consisted of an icebreaker activity, mind mapping, drawing, and collage creation. As for our participants, we had a chance to recruit 3 Garden volunteers (Thomas, Wei, Frank) and 2 first-time visitors (You Mi and Sean). We also met Lita - a Garden visitor who spontaneously joined our workshop briefly for just one activity.
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“The Garden experience isn't really helpful for learning about its values and history.”
“There is no introduction or anything to read about specific parts of the Garden. This place feels out of context and is missing something.”
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“The Garden is more about learning and observing different symbols scattered throughout the place.”
“Our guided tours are quite extensive. We talk about the Garden’s history and the Garden’s rich value of symbolism.”
“Every aspect of the Garden has been thoughtfully planned out for its symbolic and cultural significance.”
8
Final design direction
Throughout the workshop, the staff members helped us specify that the identity of the Garden stands not only for tangible but also intangible values, such as its symbolism. However, it became evident that these values are not readily apparent to visitors due to a lack of touchpoints, except during guided tours. Ultimately, I concluded that as interaction designers, our task is to integrate the understanding of symbolism into the visitors' journey.
DESIGN FOCUS
Create a self-guided experience that enhances first-time visitors’ understanding of the Garden's rich value of symbolism.
Our persona for the final design concept
Introducing Symbolic Discovery Kit designed for first-time visitors
Our final concept is a Symbolic Discovery Kit designed to help first-time visitors learn about the Garden and its symbolic meaning. Its goal is to provide a self-guided experience at your own pace. I led the design process for the mockup, specifically focusing on designing Symbol Cards and the map in the kit, utilizing tools like Figma and Procreate.
The kit consists of a brochure with a custom pocket on the back serving as a place to keep Symbol Cards which can be collected throughout the Garden.
Inside the kit, visitors can find the Garden map with marked symbol stations where visitors can find a Symbol Card. This empowers visitors to uncover the Garden's rich symbolism as they explore on foot.
And finally, here are the Symbol Cards. Each card showcases a specific symbol and on the back of the card visitors can read more about its meaning and unique connection to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.
9
Learning takeways
This project allowed me to gain practical experience in user experience and interaction design within a professional setting, requiring collaboration with an external organization. I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn more about Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden and the wonderful staff members who supported us every step of the way. Through this experience, I significantly enhanced my skills in interaction design methodologies, including creating design personas and developing effective user journeys/storyboards.
Reflecting on the project, one aspect I would improve is dedicating more time to ethnography and gathering additional data from Garden visitors. However, due to the course structure and time constraints, we had to work with the resources available within the given timeframe.