Engagement at the Color Mixing Wheel (Revisited)

Engagement Revise language and complexity of engagement

The levels of engagement I noted at the Color Mixing Wheel exhibit are as follows:

Seeing the colors.
Turning the wheel.
Making the connection between the wheel and colors.
Changing speed of the wheel.
Changing the direction of the wheel.
Finding different colors or types of vibrancy on the palette.
Watching the spinning colors and repeated turning.
Noticing other components on the exhibit (i.e. what on the steering wheel controls the color palette).

Observations Inserting engagement levels at each observation

Toddler in stroller (less than 1 year old):

Turns wheel very slightly with tiny hand. Mother pushes stroller away after short moment.

About 2 - 3 year old girl:

Spins wheel and hesitantly leaves with parent after stopping briefly to look at spinning color palette.

8 - 9 year old boy:

Spins wheel and tells mom to look to which the mom says “come on!” He leaves with parent.

5 - 6 Year Old Boy:

Turns wheel, tells mom “watch this!” The mom says “cool”.

Toddler that can barely walk:

Mother sees toddler by the pole the wheel is attached to and says “do you want to do this?” and spins the wheel. The toddler grumbles (pacifier in mouth) while slapping the white pole. The toddler stumbles away after a short moment. 

Adult woman late 20s early 30s:

Sees the exhibit (unsure which part she sees first) and exclaims “Oh my god, does this move?” She spins the wheel, looks at the colors, and says “I’m like a child again!” Leaves after brief moment.

Adult male early 30s:

Spins the wheel as fast as possible while looking at the color palette.

Young adult woman:

Approaches wheel slowly and turns. Looks and sees the colors moving. Stays for a moment, turning the wheel at a moderate pace.

At this point decide to approach her and ask a few questions. I received this information from her.

Short Q&A Responses
The exhibit is calming.
The colors appear to become more vibrant.
She didn’t think the wheel and colors were related at first. This is not intuitive but most first time users don't automatically make the connection between the wheel and the colors, so I think that this may cause confusion for those reading my engagement levels.
The colors are what drew her to the exhibit.
The colors are her favorite part.
She couldn’t think of any immediate connections outside the exhibit during short use.

Additional Revisions
Suggested I change language and engagement levels. My group also utilized categorizing each observation with an engagement level. Someone also remarked I add more complexity to the engagement levels at the exhibit. At first I felt that it would be an inference to state that someone was trying to figure out what the colors on the wheel are rather than observation, but I think that the engagement matrix does afford making some inferences.

- Samantha Brown