Digital Nature

As holiday makers start to think about loading up cars, packing picnics and exploring more of what’s great about the outdoors this summer, we thought it was worth a look back at what the Ducks have done to help enhance some of the wonderful places of interest they might like to visit.

We’re proudly telling stories across Britain and beyond through outdoor interpretation, digital design and next generation AV production. Helping bring stories to life coast to coast and around our incredible towns and cities.

Fuzzy Duck are specialists when it comes to heritage and natural history interpretation briefs. Projects that will benefit from a deep digital knowledge and ideas on how to leverage the right technical or physical engagement solutions. Interpretation and activation that will delight visitors and enhance their learning experiences during trips. We’ll provide new & creative ways to delve deeper into the heritage of wonderful outdoor spaces and bring it to life in totally new ways.

We sat down for a brew with?Seb Chadwick, our Head of Design, to talk about creating brilliant visitor experiences and some of the wonderful outdoor interpretation work, we’ve had the privilege to bring to life for clients.

When working on an outdoor interpretation, what do the Ducks look at first with their partners?

Well firstly it’s really important to get a deep understanding from the people with most passion for their wonderful stories and spaces. We explore with them what are the qualities that make the natural spaces so special. We also spend time observing visitors and how they are interacting with these places already and how that could be made even better. We’ll talk and take inspiration from all angles. The team will collate insights, fantastic facts and new ideas to help inspire us. Then we’ll discuss where we can bring more depth and freshness to stories that new visitors need to know and regular visitors will enjoy looking at again through a different lens.? The Ducks will collaborate with partners and suppliers to re-imagine the story in 4D. We’ll find optimal ways to really enhance storytelling. We’ll recommend methods & ideas to add new layers to the storytelling. That’s information and interpretation capable of delighting visitors. We’ve created some brilliant digital interpretation that syncs perfectly with the outdoor space and the stories clients have to tell.?

Seb shared a few examples with us

We’re often asked to convey educational messages in super engaging and highly interactive ways.? As part of a digital media series about transforming the Trent Valley for example, we developed a drag and drop game which challenged visitors to create a ‘perfect’ river. We helped provide a better understanding of the interventions being undertaken to improve the health of the River Trent.

We have some fab examples of rich, multimedia storytelling and how we created these within the constraints of the environment where these stories are told: Of course, as part of our landscape assessment we’ll consider the practical limitations of the spaces we’re asked to bring to life (.. that’s before we slip into full-on Duck creative mode and recommend brilliant ideas to our partners) We’ll explore and discuss what are the challenges and limitations of the space. For example, is the site prone to extreme weather? Is there power, data and internet access available as we consider digital interpretation solutions? Does the site have any historic protection constraints?

At Runnymede Memorial in the Surrey Hills AONB, we created a rich multimedia digital exhibition with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. We helped tell the story of Noor Inayat Khan, in the place where she is commemorated. Visitors access brilliant info through their smartphone, can self guide around the iconic memorial site and find out what it takes to be an undercover agent - just like Noor. The smart solution lets them put their code-breaking skills to the test as part of the digital experience. The use of QR codes is a really effective method of connecting a physical object to digital media.?

The remote locations of the site meant the exhibitions had to be hosted and delivered by an independent WiFi system called InfoPoint. This allows content to be streamed to the visitors own mobile device, without relying on mobile data. A key challenge of using digital interpretation was getting the wifi signal around the site; navigating metre thick walls of solid stone.? Our solution was to include booster boxes, ensuring visitors were always connected as they toured the memorial.

For Staffordshire Council, we created a set of multilingual audio tours across three sites in the Cannock Chase AONB.? Solar panel posts were positioned at key sites and provided an overview to the rich wildlife and extraordinary heritage of each location. We created the project in four languages. Solar panels powered the remote posts, removing the need for a mains connection.

Similarly, at Thiepval Memorial in Northern France, with a lack of access to mains power, we created waterproof solar units, which boosted the signal and ensured visitors remained connected to the digital experience, across the full breadth of the grounds. This allowed us to develop a digital experience and new layer of interpretation for those visiting the memorial. The memorial features the names of 72,000 missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battle of the Somme during the First World War. The digital interpretation allowed visitors to discover more about the lives of those serviceman, using their own smart device.

Seb goes on to point out that we’re constantly working with the challenges of ever-changing natural environments. Nature is dynamic and we love that! At Wimpole Farm near Cambridge, we designed a set of crop beds which grew barley, wheat and rye. We used tractor tyres as the bases, with giant pot labels showing visitors what’s growing on the farm at that time of the year.

Physical interpretation should be designed to stand up to the weather and visitor wear and tear. At Wimpole we created an outdoor snakes and ladders board game, printed on the tops of picnic tables. To avoid loose parts, we welcomed visitors to use the contents of their lunch boxes as counters for the game - an empty yoghurt pot, a bottle cap, an apple… then encouraged to dispose of their rubbish in the recycling bins afterwards.???

We place huge importance on ensuring that our interpretation solutions are always built to complement their natural environment. Materials at Wimpole included acacia wood and corten steel in keeping with the farmyard site. We applied creative application methods down on the farm to deliver fantastic facts that visitors will love. One example was applying vinyl to individual bricks to position facts about Wimpole that really do pop, right from the walls!

Diligence around landscape protection and the heritage of sites goes without saying. We often work with listed buildings and their strict rules about fixing interpretation. Our solution at Wimpole Farm included freestanding elements, such as wayfinding and feedback stations.

We recognise that dynamic information is so important for our clients and partners too. Seb’s team of Ducks love to think through options and solutions to keep content fresh right across the year and bang up to date!? We work with our partners to design those dynamic solutions, identifying the optimum way to deliver critical visitor information about sites, which change with the seasons. We help clients engage visitors in relevant storytelling and constantly interesting content about these brilliant outdoor spaces.??

We recently created interpretation for the Earth Trust Visitor Centre in Oxfordshire, which featured a large map integrated with a wooden peg board. This allows the Earth Trust team to regularly add to and update the map with project updates throughout the year - using info cards attached to bulldog clips and keeping visitors informed about progress and new developments.

Seb adds that we’ve loved working on static activation ideas with our heritage partners too!

For a separate project with the Earth Trust, whose site resides near to a former Iron Age settlement, we designed a glass panel, engraved with illustration interpreting how the settlement would have looked thousands of years ago.? Visitors could peer through the panel, comparing the current landscape and imagining its iron age heritage.

At Thiepval Memorial, we created a large interpretation made from engraved glass.? The panel not only blended in with the natural environment, but also allowed visitors to the French attraction to look through the panel and admire the view of the memorial.?

As we finished our chat, we asked Seb his advice to organisations considering developing a site to feature digital interpretation??

It’s such an exciting part of our job with more and more opportunities to try new things.

The tech-enabled solutions to instll and inspire visitors are increasing every year. Great ideas are becoming so much more accessible for people to tell stories in new dimensions and complement incredible natural history and outdoors spaces.?

At Elan Valley in mid-Wales, we created a series of digital walking tours, which tracked the visitors location using GPS, and provided relevant interpretation at hotspots along the routes.

Then within a mobile website created for the Transforming Trent Valley project, we used augmented reality to re-imagine how the natural environment would have looked across a series of time periods; Prehistory, Viking, Industrial revolution and WWII.? We filmed 360 degree footage and layered illustration and sound design to bring to life the environment for each time period.?

The possible solutions to create amazing activation and experiment with new interpretation are getting better and better all the time. Digital interpretation can bring a new dimension to storytelling at a physical site. There’s huge potential to tell even more meaningful stories. Physical environment challenges can always be worked around. There is so much experience to draw on from other projects at Fuzzy Duck. We have loads of ideas, we’re constantly exploring new solutions and ways to redeploy ideas that have worked so well for our partners in the past.?

We relish the opportunity to help our clients enhance visitor experiences. We bring these ideas to life through brilliant partnerships in amazing places. There’s always so many creative ways to make the outdoors really great and come to life in totally new ways. We help make experiences interactive and engage visitors in information and history that elevates the quality of their visit.? Stories that help create memories they will want to take home with them too.?