Written Proposal - Intech

·        An analysis of the project brief and the outcomes that you will produce

In our second project in semester two we were tasked to do a viral campaign for the INTECH Science Centre & Planetarium. We were asked to help them improve their way of providing information about their exhibits, current or future ones.

We were meant to do this by designing an e-flyer and a viral campaign for them promoting the interactive exhibits, furthermore to create a newsletter/e-shot and a mobile / web game app taster as well.

The INTECH already has a website but the brief also stated that we have to provide a critique of it, making suggestions how to create “stickiness”.

The first two weeks we used to brainstorm and to visit the Science Centre & Planetarium. There we learnt more about it, what is expected from us, about their new exhibition (Science of Sport) and of their target audiences.

After the meeting we were shown the Science of Sport which is not ready yet, afterwards we were allowed to have a look at the other exhibits and to try them.

It was fun getting the experience, trying to imagine ourselves as a ten year-old who is one of the targeted audiences.

From Phil Wilfield we learned that the new exhibition called “Science of Sport” will open on 21^st of March for VIP visitors and fully on 22^nd of March to general public. It will be a permanent addition to INTECH and is to be featured for the Olympic Year.

It is planned to open just before all the other Easter attractions open, but they are hoping to benefit from having theirs open first. The market team manager told us Easter is the ideal time to open new attractions, because that is the time of the year when families like to get away from home and visit places.

INTECH is advertising Science of Sport as a secret construction to get people interested in finding out what is so secret about it.

There are several hands-on interactive exhibits; these are the most exciting ones:

There’s one that measures your jump then calculates approximately how fast it will take you to run ten meters. You can then try to run it yourself.

Design an Athlete is based on a touch screen terminal that allows a player to create an athlete they think will win three Olympic events.

Smash Ball is an interactive game where participants must press their coloured balls on the screen before their opponent can press their own. The game has a number of levels.

Mindball is a very thrilling game; its goal is to use the power of your thought to move the ball from one end of the table to the other. The computer registers your brain activity and displays it on the screen.

Because the brief states that we have to design a game taster and to help INTECH generate stickiness we thought of doing one of their new exhibits.

Our initial ideas were based on the logo (exploding, performing experiments to melt it), having a small insect travelling around the exhibits and inside them.

We also tried to come up with a slogan such as:

• INTECH - Where you can experience ideas in action - David
• INTECH - Where ideas flow - John
• Build your imagination - Chris
• Have an Explosive time at INTECH – Chris
• Have a smash up time at INTECH – David
• Have an Experimental time at INTECH – Sammy

On their current website and leaflets a blond boy appears who seams to be completely enthralled, excited. Probably by using him INTECH wants kids to be curious, what can this centre be that it astonishes you so much. You can only understand it, if you visited the place: INTECH offers 100 amazing activities where you can get involved and find out about science and technology in a fun way.

Using the boy is a good idea, but it’s not scientific enough. We thought about designing an alien and a robot, called AlIN and RoboTECH. The robot would represent science and the alien the planetarium part. These characters then would be the base of our theme; they would be part of our viral campaign and the game.

John asked us to draw how we imagine them. Most of us were inspired by the Pixar animations Wall.E and Monster Inc.

We discussed with Lesley their website and came up with the following ideas on how to improve it:

• Have more images, possibly vectors about robots or other Sci-Fi things
• Use social media to promote themselves, have a Facebook and Twitter account, maybe a Youtube channel
• Get rid of the white background, use one that reminds people of space or just have animation with changing background
• The architecture of the website should be reorganised
• Use less text and update the website regularly (some information are misleading, the headers are confusing)
• The Logo should be a link to the home page for easier navigation
• Have a Fact of The Day
• Include live feeds from NASA
• Forum, create a community for hobby astronomers
• Interviews with people
• App with image of the day
• Have a quiz, raffle each month, with a science gadget to be won
• Online drawing competitions
• Online game

• Background to your design strategy identifying needs of both the primary and other audiences

Because INTECH is an educational resource supporting learning in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) it is not only targeted for families, but also for teachers.

INTECH primarily relies on 5 – 11 years old and school market. The Science of Sport broadens the niche family market, in the new exhibit all ages may participate in its activities. “A 7 year old could take on a 17 year old and win.” was one such example Andy gave, another was “An autistic could take on a professor and win.”

Andy’s key focus was on the levels of subtly: create something that mothers will see and then want to take their children to, kids watching adverts on television could be influenced but most of INTECH’s visitors come by way of word of mouth.

Exposure is the main issue, they’ve been based in the family market niche for so long that expanding outside will be difficult but according to Andy that’s our job.

INTECH is accessible to all levels of people: disabled access for wheelchairs, exhibits for the blind or deaf is just one set of examples of their diversity.

Unfortunately the teenage audience aren’t interested, so our directive was set out clearly by Andy: “Make them! Try to make things sound FUN!”

It is pretty clear that INTECH doesn’t just think outside the box, they think of everyone’s needs, they understand they audience. We have to do the same in order to fulfil the brief.