Master’s Project Encourages Children to Explore and Connect with the Outdoors
Andy Vo, Natalie Chan, Emily Ton, Grace Roseman, and Zoya Abdullah are the winners of the 2024 James R. Chen Award for Outstanding MIMS Final Project for “Playscape”
Andy Vo, Natalie Chan, Emily Ton, Grace Roseman, and Zoya Abdullah are the five recent Master of Information Management and Systems alums behind Playscape: an award-winning final project focused on cultivating children’s connection with nature through an outdoor play experience. To learn more, we interviewed the team —
Describe your project.
Andy: Did you know research indicates that children globally are increasingly disconnected from nature? Playscape seeks to resolve this nature deficit challenge through a two-part system, consisting of an interactive installation and an accompanying digital application to help children ages 7–13 learn more about their local biodiversity and invite them outdoors. The frame installation is a starting point for children to explore the rich biodiversity that lies outside and the digital counterpart extends the exploration of biodiversity beyond a particular location.
What inspired your project?
Grace: From the beginning, our team has been passionate about creating something fun and enjoyable for kids that also provides meaningful education. During our initial research, we discovered how many children today lack a connection to nature and know little about their local species. This is concerning since a connection to nature offers many benefits, such as increased sustainable behaviors. This problem inspired us to develop a project that encourages kids to explore and learn about their local biodiversity, cultivating their connection to nature.
As you learn about Playscape and have the opportunity to take a step outside, begin to immerse yourself in the biodiversity that surrounds you and find beauty in the mundane. It’s a difficult task to talk about climate change, especially to kids, so finding ways to visualize the invisible is key!
What was the timeline or process like from concept to final project?
Zoya: Prior to the start of the capstone project, our group had all expressed an interest in both building an experience for children and exploring both physical and digital outputs. We underwent an extensive research and ideation process at the beginning, where we examined the different problems children have been facing, ranging from media literacy to mental health, and landed on the intersection of biodiversity/nature education and outdoor play. Once we had identified a problem space, we conducted a literature review and semi-structured interviews with parents to further examine the problem of declining outdoor play, while also speaking with biodiversity and nature education experts on campus. Simultaneously, we went through multiple rounds of ideation, sketching, and concept testing to figure out what our solution could look like.
Once we landed on a two-part play system, our team submitted a protocol application with Berkeley’s CPHS to conduct research with children and immediately went into prototyping mode. Our designers created low- to mid-fidelity prototypes for our digital app experience, while the rest of our team mapped out the specifications and materials we would need for our physical installation experience. Once we had working prototypes for both parts ready to use, we conducted usability testing and observation studies on each experience, summarized our learnings, and made additional improvements and plans for future iterations.
How did your I School curriculum help prepare you for this project?
Zoya: The I School curriculum was a huge help during our research and design process. For example, a few of us had taken Tangible User Interface Design & Development (INFO C262) with Professor Kimiko Ryokai, where we not only learned about different types of sensors and how to utilize interaction mediums that go beyond a phone, tablet, or computer, but also how to approach constraints when building physical experiences. We also leaned on our learnings from User Experience Research (INFO 214) with Professor Steve Fadden and Product Design Studio (INFO 215) with Professor Jamie Reffell, where we utilized different research methods, such as semi-structured interviews, observation and field studies, and usability testing.
Do you have any future plans for the project?
Emily: Playscape is proud to have collaborated with the Lawrence Hall of Science and biodiversity experts from the University of California, Berkeley. In the future, we hope that the research findings from Playscape will be thoughtfully applied and expanded to work that empowers children to learn and play outside. The project may also provide insights for other science centers and play organizations. Our team has considered how Playscape could scale as a product, such as expanding the number of frames to a campus-wide or state-wide level. A more portable iteration of the Playscape system has been considered as well.
How could this project make an impact, or, who will it serve?
Natalie: Playscape aims to address the growing disconnect between children and nature. American children now spend 35% less time engaging in outdoor play than their parents did. This is particularly concerning given the rapid decline in biodiversity. With roughly 1 million species at risk of extinction, children today are expected to see thousands of species disappear in their lifetime. Playscape tackles these issues by integrating education and sensory experiences to encourage outdoor play and foster awareness of local biodiversity.
Throughout our project, we have been in contact with biodiversity experts at the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS), and we believe that our project will be informative for future initiatives at the LHS’s Nature Lab, which aims to provide opportunities for children to connect with nature. We believe there is no better time to address this issue as it aligns with the UC Berkeley Campus Biodiversity Report, supporting efforts to conserve and enhance biodiversity around campus.
Additional info to share?
Andy: We hope that as you learn about Playscape and have the opportunity to take a step outside, begin to immerse yourself in the biodiversity that surrounds you and find beauty in the mundane. It’s a difficult task to talk about climate change, especially to kids, so finding ways to visualize the invisible is key!
