Signage in the Innovation Workshop

I observed in the workshop on Thursday afternoon. It was a pretty slow day, so I did not get to make many observations. I continued my observations on Monday morning, and focused mainly on the Ozobots.

For my first sign set up, I observed guest behavior based on the sign already hung up above the Ozobots. A family of two children and two adults approached the Ozobots, and Matthew gave them a brief explanation. I don’t think they looked at the signs on the wall at all. They did, however, look at the quick start guides that were on this table which I think kept them engaged for longer. Whenever these guests had questions, they referred back to Matthew rather than the signs or guide.

For the next sign set up, I took down the sign hanging on the window. I also rolled out a new piece of paper for the table, and before I could even cut the paper, two young children came up and started doodling on it. This could be either because there was no sign, or maybe it was because there were no examples for them to get inspiration from. I explained to guests what Ozobots were, and laid out a few of the half sheets that had paths drawn on them by previous guests. With this activity, there clearly needed to be some sort of instruction or example of what to do with the Ozobots.

For the last sign set up, I wrote on one of the chalkboard signs, “Make a path for an Ozobot!” I found that with this set up, guests were more eager to learn about what the Ozobots do. Again, many guests learned what to do simply by looking at the previous paths that had been drawn, or by using the quick start guide. And if they were still confused, they would ask me how to use them.

In a setting like the workshop, I think that having a Spark to help guide you through activities is much more helpful than having signs that tell you what to do. The activities in the workshop usually require some explanation by Sparks to get started. I would be interested to observe something like this with exhibits in MOXI without guests having facilitation from a Spark, because I think that makes a huge difference in how signage works.