When Hope is Part of the Scope of Services

Preface: The University of Utah publishes these RFPs through Periscope S2G, which requires a login to access. If you're interested in reading the document, just send me a DM. This article is part of a larger series of posts that analyze purchaser trends.

The most recent procurement for 'Digital Interactive Exhibits for Natural History Museum of Utah' issued by the University of Utah might be the first time that I've seen an explicit paradigm shift in this kind of writing, in something so technical and (usually) formulaic as institutional RFPs.

This line in particular stood out:

NHMU is shifting away from an older approach to climate change exhibits that was often data-driven or focused largely on the dire nature of the crisis.

We've known since 2008 - and perhaps sooner - that merely presenting data on climate change fails at capturing our imaginations and motivating behaviors. An Inconvenient Truth was the loudest and most piercing of the number-crunching data presentations... But that was 14 years ago, and most people under the age of 30 do not remember the seminal film.

What do they (the Museum) want to use instead of data?

Hope. Or more specifically, a more hopeful future.

Digging deeper into the interactive concept(s), the reader finds that most of the hopefulness comes from a series of voice overs - triggered by a user action.

The desired user experience is outlined as the following, which undeniably sounds quite nice:

A printed prompt invites visitors to tap a hiker to hear about a hopeful future. Each hiker triggers a different conversation to play out when tapped (four total conversations, approximately 60 seconds each).?The dog plays as an Easter egg. As they converse, animated sketches are overlaid on the video to illustrate what each hiker describes.

Sadly, the evaluation is not focused on script creation or recommendations, nor is the ability to conduct professional voice overs and hit emotional buttons (to further inspire that hope we've repeated) mentioned.

This leaves room for a missed opportunity - And frustration from more narrative-based media companies. Using the experts in communicating and spotlighting reasons to be hopeful requires the bulk of the budget and expertise (in my opinion), and should be the largest differentiator, not which operating system the vendor is comfortable using or their wire-framing abilities.

Why open with this ground-breaking direction if you're only going to be asking visitors "What climate challenges is your community facing?" - Yes, that's a real quote. At least with data, people can mirror how to discuss the issues.

Conclusion: Go the full direction and remain consistent to get the Level 10 vendor and service delivery. It might feel like a bait and switch if the values/visions don't align throughout the document from cover to cover.

If you're on the supplier side, I would ask the purchaser about the true intentions here, as well as some examples of hopeful media they find inspirational.

Happy Bidding!