The evolving interpretive planning context

Interpretive practice has evolved rapidly this century in response to new manufacturing and digital technologies. The interpretive planning processes guiding and informing these initiatives however has not kept pace with this innovation.

Traditional interpretive planning models were developed as signage technologies and visitor communication media (including brochures, guided tours and visitor centres) remained functionally the same across the late 1900s.

Are the interpretive planning foundations built around such products still fit for purpose in a modern setting?

Consider for example the issue of user accessibility. Conventional interpretive planning requires us to identify and define the intended interpretive audience as a foundational element. Such narrowcasting however is at odds with modern user accessibility practice. This requires government departments to not only communicate in plain language, but to also dual publish content in HTML and PDF formats so that it can be accessed by everyone irrespective of their native language or physical ability.

User accessibility obligations for interpretive planning to address

The issue of user accessibility should be a foundational consideration for all interpretive enterprise in a mobile optimised world. It does not mean that all interpretation needs to be digital: just that it must be accessible and relevant to all users and in this digital has a vital role to play.

This priority is not recognised in current interpretive planning contexts. When digital content is used, its role is often to deliver value add content without addressing the need to dual publish signage content to meet essential user accessibility obligations.

The problem in part lies in the way interpretation has traditionally constructed its own operating paradigm governed by its own rules and norms. Standing outside of the mainstream of corporate communications can sometimes foster creativity. It can also however risk product stagnation and irrelevance as mainstream agency communications teams simply integrate hybridised interpretive products into their daily operations.

Personal experience for example in a recent client working group remembers how an agency branding officer denied the validity of interpretation claiming all signage was marketing. Leaving aside the specifics of this case, it highlights the extent to which interpretation must integrate with and advocate its utility in a modern context, if it is to remain a valued and relevant part of the social fabric in natural and cultural heritage settings.

Modern influences on
interpretive planning

While it’s easy to think of mobile digital technologies as being the biggest change to interpretive practice since the year 2000 this isn’t the case just yet. What is fully established are the manufacturing technologies now delivering outdoor full colour signage. This takes colours and nuanced graphic designs that could once only be delivered within the indoor spaces of a visitor centre and makes them fit for purpose in outdoor settings.

Additionally the development of precision CNC (Computer Nominated Control) fabrication processes allows for bespoke interpretive sign and installation design solutions to be used in a cost effective manner. This approach has been massively assisted by the utility of 3D design platforms operating on tablets like the iPad Pro.

This brings creative signage and installation design options into the reach of the everyday project design team. From here concepts once developed and approved can be taken over by signage sub contractors and turned into construction ready cut files.

Impacts for interpretive planning

The impacts this manufacturing revolution has had on conventional interpretive theory and practice is easy to overlook.

Traditionally all interpretive planners had to work with creatively in outdoor spaces was words. The technology to deliver simple screen printed (or equivalent) graphics and maps was very basic and limited. This meant that you had to actually read the sign to connect with its inherent subtlety and meaning.

This is no longer the case. In a modern setting signage is a form of public art. It should be beautiful. It should also be supported by nuanced landscaping that invites people to break their journey and step aside into a place of repose preferably supported by seating.

In this setting signage can be as compelling as an illustrated storybook where the text sits in support of the visual narrative. This approach is more in accord with modern user accessibility principles. Its visual storyline reaches out to people of any age or ethnicity. Thereafter the text can be read, translated or narrated as appropriate.

This shift in the primacy of the written word however is not generally appreciated. Some agencies still require text to be approved prior to design work commencing. This takes no account of the visual storytelling that should wherever possible/appropriate underpin the interpretive process. When the picture array is telling a thousand words, supporting text needs to thereafter respond to this context in a careful and nuanced manner.

Interpretive planning for different personality types

The real power of these modern interpretive options can be best appreciated by remembering our present day understanding of personality types as first described by Carl Jung in 1927. He recognised that we have four functions by which we connect with and understand our world: thinking/sensation and emotion/intuition.

While we all use these qualities, people tend to prefer one or other of these base pairs as their prime means of orienting themselves to new settings.

Those who like to get the “facts of the matter” straight before deciding what they think of things are prioritising their thinking /sensation functions. Others who prefer to get “a feeling for a place” before delving deeper are approaching things from an emotional / intuitive perspective.

When considered in this context it is apparent that traditional interpretive responses prioritise thinking / sensory points of connection. Integrating access points for the emotive / intuitively aligned visitor seeking to first get a feeling for a place requires a broader focus on the entirety of the user experience.

This simple appreciation highlights the importance of interpretive planning going beyond the headline delivery of interpretive media to also consider the overall context and landscapes within which these experiences are delivered.

The Mungo Meeting Place example

A useful example of how interpretive planning can actively engage with all four functional qualities of thinking, sensation, emotion and intuition comes in the case of the Mungo Meeting Place in the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area.

The venue interprets Mungo's 20,000 year old collection of ice age human fossil footprints as well as recognising the significance of Mungo Man and Mungo Lady to the Aboriginal communities who care for their Country at Mungo.

As no visitors can visit the actual sites associated with these artefacts, a venue including special 3D scanned footprint recreations was created beside the park visitor centre.

Here people immediately have a sense of entering a special place with intuitive and emotional resonance. Once on site they can learn more about the precinct on a guided tour or through the venue's interpretive signage.

From a sensory point of view they can walk amongst a selection of the re-created footprints and appreciate the giant strides made by figures running across the landscape during the height of the last ice age.

User Experience (UX) interpretive planning focusses on the totality of the visitor experience – not just the component part that is traditionally dedicated to intepretive media.

Establishing the user experience as the primary foundation of interpretive planning recognises that people unconsciously attach values and meanings to every aspect of their heritage encounter. This extends from the time of planning their outing through to their post-visit memories and ongoing connections. A user experience (UX) focus seeks to positively influence the value/meaning sets visitors attribute to the heritage setting.

The UX interpretive planning approach accepts that people are already attaching meanings and values to a place prior to ever encountering a designated interpretive medium like signage.

Quality landscape design speaks to a location that is valued and cared for, while effective orientation panels recognise that the first priority for visitors in an unfamiliar setting is to get their bearings. They first must access key facilities like toilets and gain a simple understanding of the experiences on offer to them in the precinct.

By extending the interpretive process to actively engage with the design and delivery of this infrastructure, UX interpretive design aims to assist in the visitor forming positive meanings and values from the outset of their connection with a precinct.

Interpretive planning and placemaking

Interpretation is the process by which we assist users to attach positive meanings and values to their heritage experience. Responding to this is best appreciated within the context of placemaking.

Placemaking is now well understood as a special discipline that has evolved in relation to urban spaces and the communities they nurture. Its procedures and insights are of direct relevance for interpretive planning to utilise when developing user experiences for heritage settings.

The focus of placemaking is to activate existing assets and improve accessibility and attractiveness. It seeks to foster a sense of connection and purpose that encourages people to connect with and value a place. It requires active participation from a wide range of community stakeholders to co-create the desired future for a place.

Perhaps the most important difference between interpretation and placemaking is that interpretation is inherently something we do for others: by our actions we want you to understand/ experience/ value/ support this heritage asset. Placemaking by contrast is something that communities do for themselves. Collective action creates a vibrant place that supports community identity and cultural connections. As part of this process they may then invite others to share in a special place to appreciate its cultural and/or natural significance.

This appreciation understands that interpretation is a part of a community’s investment in placemaking. Placemaking is an ongoing process that precedes and typically activates the interpretive process as part of its desire to share heritage values with others. Interpretation is the tool placemaking uses to achieve this community outreach. Placemaking delivers a process. Interpretation delivers the outreach products this process may on occasion require.

Traditional interpretive projects can be assessed via a WYSIWYG approach - 'What you see is what you get". A sign is a sign, a brochure is what it is. When placemaking is in play however there is more to things than meet the eye.

Whereas the interpretive media are a tangible endpoint in themselves, the community building process that called them up moves on - hopefully much enriched and enhanced as a result. The placemaking / interpretive mix hence invites us to consider and assess two elements - the tangible and the intangible.

Natural heritage and placemaking

While these considerations are fairly easily understood in relation to interpreting cultural heritage assets, their relevance to natural heritage interpretation may at first seem obscure. Natural heritage interpretation has traditionally focussed on the plant and animal communities as being inherently important in their own right.

This has changed over recent decades with the increasing integration and recognition of Aboriginal connections to Country and the crucial role that an understanding of place plays in this.

This same awareness today invites a cross cultural approach to natural heritage that understands its dual role as an inherent asset in its own right and also as a cultural reference point for local communities in a modern world.

This is especially significant in urban bushland settings where civic development has often changed the landscape to the extent that a sense of place and of the unfolding human connections and engagement with that place are all but obscured. Here bushland can often provide the only easily read reference point by which community identity can understand its foundations and how these have evolved over time.

Indigenous connections understand that caring for Country is not something done independent of community. Rather it is the very essence of nourishing and maintaining cultural connections with a place.

Placemaking is not an either or in relation to interpretation. Together they open a field of endeavour that can assist interpretive messaging and outreach to grow and remain relevant in a modern context.