Goals: The designs I worked on this quarter are all components of a large, temporary interpretive display at our Refuge Visitor Center. Our Refuge is remote, so not many people ever actually get to visit, and it is difficult to relate current research to our visitors. My goal with the overall panel is to bring relevant information about Kittlitz’s Murrelet research to a general audience; hopefully, the audience will come away with a better understanding of how scientists study a rare species, what concerns managers have for the bird, and feel a stronger sense of respect and stewardship for the natural world.

Audience: The audience is a wide mix of people. We have all ages, from toddlers to elderly adults. The scientific nature of this display is geared more towards adults, since there are many other displays geared towards children. The audience may have very little scientific background with no previous experience in Kodiak, or could be knowledgeable local community members who are engaged in the scientific community. Most visitors are in groups.

Message: When readers are finished reading my information, I want them to know that: The Kodiak NWR is currently trying to understand more about the ecology and habitat of a rare seabird, the Kittlitz’s Murrelett, in an effort to protect a diminishing population. Sub-messages depend on the subject in each panel.

My first design is intended as a main panel as part of the display, introducing the section about the summer research. I like the color combo and the text contrast, but I broke out some of the info into two separate frames for a better focus in the following week.

The previous two designs were experiments in proximity and alignment, as I moved the titles closer to the text body and played with different left and right alignment.

The previous slide was an experiment with a different panel, practicing contrast through font, color, and the photo itself (the chick in front and the blurred mountain create depth). I ended up liking the title font more than I thought I would…

The previous slide was an experiment in style. I took a similar design from within our visitor center and adapted it for this project. I like the clean, elegant combination of fonts, colors, and the muted background. I think I might use this for most of the text-rich panels, and only use the bright, colorful photos for a few larger panels throughout.

I’m still not sure if I’ll use this as the actual design that goes up in the visitor center, but it is a start. I went back to one of the first panels I worked on and tweaked the image, the fonts, the color scheme, and the alignment, as well as rewriting the text.