2. Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail 4

Canal Connections: Interpretation Toolkit 1st draft report by Imagemakers September 2010

Contents

1. What’s in the kit? 3 2. Fail to plan, plan to fail… 4 3. Content is king 6 4. Stand… and deliver! 7 5. Some guiding principles 9 5. So…what next? 11

2 1. What’s in the kit?

This ‘Canal Connections: Interpretive Toolkit’ should be read in conjunction with the ‘Canal Connections: Interpretation Strategy’ and seeks to provide practical guidance and advice on interpretation planning and delivery.

This document should, therefore, be utilised by any professional organisation, community group or individual implementing the creative proposals set forth in the interpretation strategy or undertaking complementary interpretive practice within the project area.

We hope and envisage this will ensure that all interpretation on the Rochdale Canal, and within the wider South Pennines, adheres to widely accepted industry ‘best practice’ standards and quality management procedures, and is governed by a consistency in approach, ethos and appearance.

The Heritage Lottery Fund’s ‘Thinking about Interpretation’ guidelines (available at http://www.hlf.org.uk/HowToApply/furtherresources/Pages/Thinkingaboutinterpretatio n.aspx), produced by Imagemakers in 2009, have been used as a reference in the production of this document and should be consulted if further information is required.

1.1: So…what is interpretation?!

‘Heritage interpretation’ can be defined as ‘the process that communicates the interest, significance, value and meaning of cultural and natural heritage assets to the public’. Interpretation has its origins in both the museums sector and the US National Parks Service, and has now become a universal feature of the presentation of heritage sites to the public.

Interpretation is a specialised form of communication for people visiting heritage sites. To connect with a particular audience (young people, families, older couples etc) it must:

 Provoke their attention.  Be pleasurable.  Be interesting and meaningful to them as individuals (what one person finds interesting is very different to another).  Be well-organised and easy to use and understand.  Have a clear theme or idea to communicate.

Good interpretation is done with a passion for its subject, and aims to capture and spark the imagination of its audience, communicating stories and ideas, not just facts

3 and figures, being truthful and authentic and respecting the essential characteristics of the heritage resource. It provokes its audience to think for themselves, thereby coming to their own understanding about what its subject means to them. The resulting personal connections and meanings are the only way in which visitors’ beliefs, attitudes and behaviours can be encouraged to change.

There are many different forms that this interpretive communication can take, including guided walks and talks, displays and exhibitions, panels and plaques, public art, publications and electronic media, such as smartphone apps, websites and audio tours.

Interpretation is part of a spectrum of heritage-related communication activities that includes marketing, visitor information and orientation. These forms of communication often use the same media as interpretation but there are crucial differences between them.

Marketing materials, for example, try to sell a heritage product, whilst visitor information tells people what there is to do and see, and orientation helps people find their way around. Interpretation, on the other hand, reveals the underlying story and meaning of its subject. Just because a site has some information panels it does not mean it is being interpreted!

2. Fail to plan, plan to fail…

To be effective, and to realise specific goals and learning / emotional / behavioural objectives, interpretation needs to be carefully planned. The planning process results both in documents, containing analysis, proposals and costings, and in the participation, involvement and engagement of a wide range of stakeholders and community participants. The objective is to understand what makes a ‘place’ significant and special to people, and then propose ways in which this can be celebrated and communicated to others.

The ‘Canal Connections: Interpretation Strategy’ provides a structured framework for the ‘telling’ of the Rochdale Canal’s story, rooted in the results of this process. It defines a storytelling structure (we call them ‘themes’) that breaks the canal’s broad and fascinating story into manageable ‘bite size chunks’, identifies target audiences (those we hope will use the interpretation – they could be from Mytholmroyd, Madrid or Mars!) and establishes specific things we want them to learn, feel and do (learning, emotional and behavioural objectives).

A number of carefully developed creative proposals for telling the Rochdale Canal’s story are also set out. Each identifies the theme(s) it will reveal, the audiences it is targeted at and the objectives it fulfils. A concept design of how the idea could look, an outline specification of the materials that might be used to construct it and a recommendation as to its location are also included – everything you need to start delivering them!

4 However, if the proposals set forth in the strategy aren’t feasible for you to implement and you want to do something different, or you’re running an event or community workshop, that’s fine too. Take a look at the target audiences, interpretive themes and objectives set forth in the strategy and use them to guide your plans – this will ensure that all interpretation on the canal complements each other and an accessible, consistent and stimulating experience for our visitors is created.

2.1: Telling a great story

The interpretation strategy identifies an overarching theme (the overall message we want our visitors to take away) for the Rochdale Canal, underpinned by a series of primary and sub themes (stories). Think of these as individual chapters of a larger book! Every piece of interpretation on the Rochdale Canal should always communicate only a single or limited number of these sub themes (not a jumble of facts). After all, do you normally read the whole story in one big go? Each ‘chapter’ functions as an individual, as well as part of the collective, working with the others to reveal the primary and overarching themes.

Take a look at the themes in the interpretation strategy – you’ll see they’re divided into ‘priority’ and ‘further’ sections. We tell a lot of the ‘priority’ stories in the creative proposals– if you’re doing something different, why not come up with an idea to reveal one of the ‘further’ stories to visitors?

2.2: Getting to know the audience

Each creative proposal identifies the audience(s) each individual piece of interpretation is targeted at. Sometimes this might be very general, sometimes it could be specific – it depends on the nature and location of the proposal.

Identifying target audiences and understanding their characteristics is essential to tailoring interpretation to meet their needs. This will drive the way in which copy is written, the design style is utilised and the depth of content offered. If possible, undertake surveys and consultation with your target audiences to really appreciate what would appeal to them – if this isn’t possible, take advice from relevant colleagues and undertake research.

Often, interpretation will have to appeal to a multitude of different audiences with a broad range of needs and characteristics (this can be challenging - after all, ensuring something is appealing to young children is very different to catering for a canal enthusiast). In this case, try to ‘layer’ the interpretation through clever copywriting (offering an introductory ‘headline’ paragraph and more detailed secondary and tertiary ones) and sensitive design (using a graphical hierarchy), allowing audiences to dig as deep into the canal stories offered as they choose.

Whomever the audience, what appeals to them (not you!) should be at the forefront of your mind when planning and delivering interpretation.

5 2.3: So – why are we doing this?

So, we know our audience. But why do we want them to engage with a piece of interpretation? What do we want them to learn from it, how do we want to make them feel and what influence do we want it to have on their behaviour?

A number of overall learning, emotional and behavioural objectives are identified in the interpretation strategy and attributed to each creative proposal. Use these to help answer the above questions, or set your own objectives. This will ensure that the interpretation has practical and meaningful outcomes.

3. Content is king

So, we know:

 What we’re delivering (either one of the creative proposals in the interpretation strategy or an idea that complements them).  What story we’re telling (by choosing a small number of interpretive themes to explore).  Who we’re creating this for (by identifying our target audiences).  Why we’re doing this (by setting learning, emotional and behavioural objectives).

Now we need to think about the content that will be explored in the interpretation, keeping our themes, target audiences and objectives in the forefront of our minds as we develop it.

3.1: Talking words

If you’re writing interpretive copy yourself, developing it with a community group or commissioning a specialist, the below guidelines should be borne in mind:

1. Written interpretation should always be as concise as possible whilst still conveying the necessary interpretive themes (250 words per panel is a good limit). You should certainly avoid the “book on the wall” approach – people are visiting the Rochdale Canal to relax and have fun!

2. Text should be enlivened by questions, quotations and poetry and should clearly and specifically relate to features, objects, or events in its immediate surroundings. It should encourage visitors to notice and explore the things around them and draw attention to specific features that can be seen, touched, heard, smelt or tasted.

3. Text should relate to the target audience(s) by using non-technical language and making comparisons between its subject and ‘common people’ experiences.

6 4. It is useful to have a non-specialist read draft content to check it is clear and jargon-free. Make sure plenty of time is allowed for proofreading and editing, as mistakes can be difficult and costly to correct later.

3.2: Living pictures

Sourcing appropriate images for a piece of interpretation is a crucial, and often surprisingly time consuming, element of the content development process. All images should:

 Be clear and easily understood.  Be visually stimulating.  Have a clear relationship to the text.  Complement the text, or what your visitors can see, rather than duplicate it.

Try the ‘interpretive resources’ identified in the interpretation strategy when locating images. Remember, they’ll be printed at a large size, so will have to be supplied to designers at a high resolution (around 300dpi, 1024 x 768, about the size of an A4 page), preferably as digital versions. Copyright is also an important consideration – licensed imagery may cost extra and it is always necessary to clearly display copyright holder information on any image utilised.

3.3: Provocative design

A design style for the Rochdale Canal and South Pennines has been developed as part of this interpretation strategy. This identifies colours, typography and illustration styles that ‘embody’ the canal and should be used when delivering any interpretation associated with it. This will ensure the creation of a consistent visual identity that visitors associate with the canal and that will, over time, create a familiarity and loyalty to the canal amongst them. Guidance on applying this design template is provided in the ‘Rochdale Canal: Design Guidelines’ document.

4. Stand… and deliver!

Right, we know what we’re delivering, and have the basic tools (content and design), or at least an idea of what the basic tools are, to deliver it. But now we’ll need some help. We can break the development of interpretive media for the Rochdale Canal into three distinct ‘packages of work’:

 Content development – Rationalisation of interpretation themes, identification of target audiences, setting of objectives, scripting of copy, sourcing of images (as discussed above).  Graphic design – Audience focussed interpretive graphic and multimedia design (using the pre-developed Rochdale Canal design guidelines).

7  Fabrication and installation – Manufacture and printing of all elements and subsequent installation (including production of risk assessments and maintenance plans).

Each package of work can be tendered and procured separately, working with individual content developers (perhaps local community groups could fulfil this function), graphic designers and fabricators, or holistically through the appointment of a specialist interpretation design consultancy (such as Imagemakers).

4.1: Procurement

We envisage that procurement procedures will be subject to the in house arrangements of the organisation commissioning the interpretation. If this were not the case, we would recommend that suitable contractors for each package of work (or the overall package) be procured using a clear and transparent strategy that includes the following:

 A minimum number of contractors invited to tender (at least 3 for each work package).  Selection criteria (e.g. experience, skills, references, financial stability, insurance cover, company policies).  Assessment scoring system.  Timescales for tendering process (inc. potential interviews).  Agreed payment schedule and T’s and C’s.  Methods and timeframe for answering queries.

4.2: Maintenance

Maintenance is an important consideration when planning interpretation and crucial to ensuring it’s longevity. When appointing a fabricator to manufacture your interpretation, specify that a full maintenance manual be provided containing details of necessary maintenance procedures. In conjunction with this, follow these simple guidelines to ensure your interpretation lasts as long as possible:

 Undertake regular (at least bi-monthly) visual inspections of each piece of interpretation (including physical checking of moving parts) to check for general appearance and to ensure no damage has occurred.  If any damage has arisen, this should be reported as soon as possible and appropriate action taken. It is suggested that this responsibility is given to one or two people and a file or document created that provides proof that maintenance and repair work has been carried out correctly.  Ensure ‘general housekeeping’ is completed – this includes bi-monthly ‘wipe downs’ of the interpretation with a non-abrasive cleaning fluid and basic gardening to ensure no weed ingress has occurred.

The fabrication process should also include a primary risk assessment of the materials used, a useful tool for discerning potential ongoing maintenance costs – the

8 table below, including all materials utilised for the creative proposals outlined in the interpretation strategy, is an example of how this might look:

Risk level:

1 – Very low. 2 – Low. 3 – Medium. 4 – High. 5 – Very high.

Material Vulnerability Vulnerability Vulnerability Vulnerability Cost of to weather to theft to print fade to vandalism replace ment Anodised 2 4 2 3 3 aluminium

Lava stone 1 2 1 1 4

Stainless 2 2 - 2 4 steel

Glass 1 1 2 2 1 reinforced plastic

Zinc 3 3 2 2 2

Millstone 1 2 - 1 3 grit

Powder 3 2 - 2 3 coated steel

5. Some guiding principles

Following the guidelines below when developing your interpretation will ensure it meets widely accepted industry ‘best practice’ guidelines.

5.1: Protect the environment

9 Environmental sustainability should be considered when developing your interpretation:

 Procure contractors with an environmental policy and, ideally, ISO14001 accreditation (an environmental quality benchmark).  When choosing materials and manufacturers, use local suppliers (so long as their quality is good enough).  Build your interpretation to last by combining a high specification, high quality and durable infrastructure with easily updateable content. This way, when you want to change something you won’t have to manufacture everything again.  Use recycled materials (e.g. timber, stone, glass, metal or complete display cabinets) as far as possible.  Use local and natural materials as far as possible, including locally or UK grown FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified timber.  For publications use chlorine free recycled paper printed either digitally or by a litho print company that recycles its aluminium printing plates.  Use low-energy ‘A’ rated technology for any technology-based interpretation. LCD screens, for example, are much more efficient than plasma screens.  Apply ‘green’ architecture and eco-design principles to any new building or renovation works.

5.2: Access for all

Interpretation should be accessible to all. Try to apply the concept of ‘Universal Design’ to your interpretation. This aims to design things and places to be as usable as possible by as many people as possible. This means that interpretation for people with intellectual, sensory and physical disabilities should be integrated into a scheme rather than being presented as ‘special’ or separate, which can lead to the separation and stigmatisation of disabled visitors.

Universal Design also means being aware that different people have different ways and speeds of taking in information. Some visitors will prefer to read whilst other will prefer to play a computer game or listen to an audio presentation. You should therefore try to accommodate different ability levels, concentration levels and paces of reading through your interpretation.

Universal design means you should also consider comfort levels for your visitors. Providing seating with your interpretation is an obvious though often overlooked way to ensure that everyone can either rest or access the interpretation in comfort.

Under the Disability Discrimination Act it is unlawful for service providers to treat disabled people less favourably. Service providers (and this includes organisations providing publicly accessible heritage interpretation) have to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to the way they deliver their services so that disabled people can use them. This means that if you provide interpretation you should do this in a way that considers the needs of people with disabilities.

10 Examples of ‘reasonable adjustments’ cited by the Government (see www.direct.gov.uk) include:

 Installing an induction loop for people who are hearing impaired.  Providing larger, well-defined signage for people with impaired vision.  Providing disability awareness training for all staff and volunteers who have contact with the public.

5.3: So…is it any good?

There are three key forms of evaluation relevant to interpretation:

 Front-end analysis aims to find out what the audience might feel or know about a topic.  Formative evaluation would be done with design mock-ups/ proofs to test that graphics, text, and design work as intended.  Summative evaluation is done when implementation is complete in order to determine to what extent the desired outcomes are being achieved.

Within these forms of evaluation there are a number of techniques that could be applied:

 Audience questionnaires to test levels of knowledge and interest in a subject.  Focus group discussions to test reactions to proposed text, illustrations or physical locations. In the case of public realm installations, these are best done on site.  Quantitative counts of visitor numbers visiting the canal, attending events, downloading the app or using publications, and walking the trails.  On-site questionnaires to test what visitors have learnt and feel about the canal.  Behavioural observation using a checklist of behaviours such as ‘reads panel’, ‘talks to companion’, ‘listens to audio’, or ‘watches video’ to measure what proportion of visitors read or interact with the interpretation.  Behavioural observation using ‘stopping power’ and ‘holding time’ – numerical indices of an installation’s effectiveness.

5. So…what next?

Please see the accompanying PDF file for a ‘step by step’ flow chart methodology for implementing the creative proposals set forth in the interpretation strategy. This breaks the process down into a number of manageable stages, providing scheduling information for each, and is equally applicable for other complementary interpretation projects.

As mentioned previously, each particular ‘package’ of work can be tendered and procured separately or a specialist interpretation company (such as Imagemakers) can be appointed to undertake all elements and oversee the whole process (NB: A supplier handling charge will be charged for this).