Congaree National Park Connect

NATIONAL PARK CONNECT MFA THESIS PROJECT DESIGNED BY Jacob Ricks



NATIONAL PARK CONNECT MFA THESIS PROJECT DESIGNED BY Jacob Ricks

© 2020 Jacob Tim Ricks. The book author retains the sole copyright to his contributions of text, photos, and design. Print by Blurb, Inc. San Francisco, California.

This thesis project was difficult and at the same time rewarding. None of this would have been possible without my amazing wife. She stood by me as I struggled through the process and celebrated the successes. She is my rock. To Jeremy Stout, who took me through the majority of this project. I felt like I was lost on several occasions and Jeremy always got me back on course. Thank you for your guidance. A special thank you to William Culpepper for helping me to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and teaching me that even minor changes at the final stages can make a big impact.

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National Park Connect is a project designed to bring awareness to lesser-known national parks and to inspire the people who live nearby to visit and care for these hidden gems. From top to bottom: Dry Tortugas, Norther Cascades, and Congaree National Parks — some of the least visited parks.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 01 BACKGROUND 04 Why Congaree 09 Insights Gained 21 02 AUDIENCE 25 Defining the Market Audience Personas 38 43 03 OPPORTUNITIES 44 DS Chart & Materials Matrix 47 Mobile App In-Park Kiosk 53 In-City Kiosk 56 58 04 UX DESIGN User Experience 74 Brainstorming Functionality 76 Journey Maps 82 05 VISUAL DEVELOPMENT Naming My Thesis Keywords Applying the Visual System

Color & Font Variations 90 Unapproved Uses 133 Approved Uses 134 In-City Kiosk 94 Minimum Size 137 Typography 138 3D Rendering 99 Colors 141 Photography 142 Prototyping 100 Iconography 145 Applications 146 06 USER TESTING 08 FINAL DELIVERABLES Mobile App 152 User Testing & Covid 19 105 In-Park Kiosk 194 In-City Kiosk 208 Reflecting on User Testing 106 Closing Thoughts 222 In-Park Kiosk 108 The Users 111 Insights 112 Takeaways from User Testing 114 In-Park Kiosk Round Two 116 Positive Feedback 118 07 BRAND GUIDELINES Keywords 122 The Logo 125 Variations 126 The Symbol 129 Clear Space 130

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MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS SECTION 01 BACKGROUND

02 NATIONAL PARK CONNECT J. RICKS As of October 2020, there are 62 national parks, 50 of those reside in the continental United States. I focused on Congaree National Park located in South Carolina.

MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS BACKGROUND 03 Congaree National Park

04 NATIONAL PARK CONNECT J. RICKS CONTEXT Why Congaree? We love our national parks — Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Great Smoky Mountains — all of these are well visited and attendance continues to grow year after year, but what about the smaller, lesser known parks? There are currently 62 national parks spread throughout the United States — not all of them are experiencing record attendance. Many of the lesser known parks are understaffed and underfunded. Parks like Congaree, Dry Tortugas, and the Great Basin still have a lot to offer, but these three combined had less than 250,000 visitors in 2018. This story is repeated across many of the lesser known parks and because funding is tied to visitation, these parks get a smaller share of the pie. Add to that a growing backlog of maintenance and increased damage from visitors and climate change and these lesser known parks are really struggling. That is the focus of this thesis project—inspire people to take better care of the national parks and to visit parks that are underutilized. My thesis project is focused on helping the national parks one at a time. For this project, I have chosen to work with Congaree National Park. Congaree is located in the center of several urban areas — 15.5 million people live within a 3-hour drive — but it is one of the ten least visited parks. It is also somewhat accessible to me being about six hours away, so I was able to make several visits over the course of my project.

MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS BACKGROUND 05 Entrance gate to Congaree National Park.



“When you stop and listen, the whole forest opens up and you can hear every breath of wind, every branch twist and fall, every tiny bird whistle and chirp.” —Stefanie Payne, Photographer and NASA Communications Strategist

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MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS BACKGROUND 09 RESEARCH Insights Gained During the research phase, I looked at various other thesis projects that were in the same realm as mine, to get an idea of possible insights and potential gaps and opportunities based on what is already out there. I analyzed them and wrote down the insights that I found from each. I also did a lot of research about the national parks and issues that they were struggling with. All of these different research directions lead to different insights, which helped form the direction that I ultimately took with my thesis project. The first insight that had a large impact on my project came from my analysis of the information that I had found and read through and was the main reason that I chose the audience that I did. INSIGHT National parks have been seen as areas to get away from the world, and that solitude is a big draw to many of their current demographic — largely retiring baby boomers. Attendance from rising generations has been low. To appeal to a younger crowd, technological experiences need to be explored or even experience based or mental health programs. One of the main attractions at Congaree National Park is the 2.4-mile boardwalk loop trail.

10 NATIONAL PARK CONNECT J. RICKS Perhaps the most powerful insights came from making connections between different events and attractions that were going on in the parks, this was important because it allowed me to see some of the struggles that parks were having. INSIGHT Much of the infrastructure for the national parks was built in the late 1950s and early 1960s during “Mission 66” — a push to prepare for the 50-year anniversary of the park system. The completion of the highway system just prior to this led to a rise in domestic tourism. This infrastructure wasn’t designed for today’s crowds and technol- ogies and is inadequate for modern visitation numbers and needs.

MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS BACKGROUND 11 1954 1966 Mission 66 50 Year Anniversary Crumbling Infrastructure Douglas McKay Maintenance Backlog 1916 Dwight Eisenhower National Parks Inadequete Resources 1953 Highway System Increase in Domestic Travel Increase in Domestic Tourism Not Built for Modern Crowds

12 NATIONAL PARK CONNECT J. RICKS Remains About Same Marketing Push Staffing 2016 Centennial Retiring Baby Boomers Park Visitation Find Your Park Ryan Zinke Lower Visitation Attendance Up 40 million Increase Entry Cost Stagnant for 30 years Further Alienates Minorities and Youth

MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS BACKGROUND 13 From that insight, I wanted to further understand the climbs and falls in visitation and why the audience has not been including as many within the younger demographic, as they were my target audience for this project. I learned about marketing efforts and how those bring in an influx of tourists, but because of the crum- bling infrastructure and lack of funds to hire sufficient staff, parks also raise entry costs to try and curtail visitation — a step that further alienates a younger demographic. INSIGHT Park visitation rises near historic anniversaries such as centennials due to increased marketing efforts, however, the largest group of visitors are retiring baby boomers. There have been campaigns aimed at a younger demographic, but decisions to curtail over visitation — such as raising the entry fee cost — alienate this group.

14 NATIONAL PARK CONNECT J. RICKS There were a lot of other insights that came from many different sources, and ultimately not all of them were useful or went in the right direction for this project — I looked at thought-leaders in the field, qualitative and quantitative data, and researched the WPA posters from the 1930s for inspiration. The next step was to ask probing questions to see if my chosen topic was viable and to really dig deep to understand what was important to know and decide on a direction to take my thesis in. There was a lot of discussion on over-crowded parks and how they were dealing with the increase in tourists, but from my research I knew that not all of the parks were crowded, it was mainly the larger — more well-known parks that were having crowd issues and that lead me to my most important insight — to find a way encourage people to visit the underutilized parks. This really lead me to my breakthrough moment and I was excited! With the direction for my thesis fully researched and chosen, I began to explore possible visual systems for the project. I knew that it would be more modern to appeal to my target audience. INSIGHT Encourage more visits to smaller parks to spread out the tourists and bring in more revenue by using an advertising campaign that focuses on the smaller parks as alternative destinations. National park trail marker.

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MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS SECTION 17 “While the country’s least-visited parks can take a bit more planning to reach, they offer incredible experiences to all those who make the trek: Watch synchronous fireflies, hike among the world’s oldest trees, take in views of the Northern Lights, or enjoy wildflower blooms at these lesser known national treasures.” —Talia Avakian, Author

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MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS SECTION 19 AUDIENCE

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MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS AUDIENCE 21 PERSONAS Defining the Market To really refine who my target audience was, I took it too far in either direction to find the best options of who to market to. I chose an audience member who would never visit a national park as one extreme and another who visits parks regularly for the other. I chose vehicles to represent my personas because that is usually a part of the park experience in some way, even if it is just the drive to the park. My personas are set up as WPA style postcards because it felt like a natural fit. My final target audience became millennials — 25 – 35 — that are middle-class and reside primarily in urban areas within a three hour drive of one of the smaller national parks. Since this project would need to have buy-in from the National Park Service, they became the stakeholder. A young woman reading about some of the attractions while walking down the boardwalk at Congaree National Park..

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MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS SECTION 23 “If we were a business and our clientele was millennials, then over the long term, we would probably be out of business. The question is who’s going to be the next generation of park supporters?” —Johnathan Jarvis, National Park Service Director

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MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS AUDIENCE 25 #1—University Student I love being outdoors, I often go there to Gender: Female clear my mind. I think these are important Age: 22 to my mental health. I live near a forest, Occupation: Retail (Full-Time Student) where I like to go and take walks, but I don’t Income: $22K have a car, so I can’t travel very far. I have Location: Coleraine, MN never visited a national park even, I just Marital Status: Single don’t see the point because I have a forest • Loved her Biology class near me that is free to visit, and I can’t drive • Participates in several outdoor activities there anyway. • Lives on the edge of a national forest • Has never visited a national park American Avocet Postcard style persona cards.

26 NATIONAL PARK CONNECT J. RICKS #2—Road Warrior The idea behind national parks is good, Gender: Male but I’ve never actually visited one. I need Age: 48 to stay connected for my job and an area Occupation: Medical Equipment Sales where I can’t be reached doesn’t appeal Income: $98K to me. I think that national parks need to Location: Chattanooga, TN update some of their technology and get Marital Status: Married in line with the times to appeal to more • Wants to stay close to home for vacations people. I might be more inclined to go if • Enjoys escaping the hustle and bustle I knew I could still connect electronically. • Lives within two hours of a national park • Has never visited a national park Black Bear

MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS AUDIENCE 27 #3—Young Father I like to jog, I typically go to a nearby park, Gender: Male it beats running along the road. I remember Age: 27 visiting Yosemite National Park, as a child Occupation: Information Security Specialist and hope to share similar experiences with Income: $95K my son. I get tired of all the pollution and Location: El Monte, CA wish I could get away from it. I haven’t Marital Status: Married visited a national park because I don’t • Has fond memories of national parks really think about them, I usually go to • Wants places of wonder for his new son Disneyland when I have time. • Doesn’t like the smog around Los Angeles • Hasn’t visited a national park in over 15 years Sea Otter

28 NATIONAL PARK CONNECT J. RICKS #4—Weekend Hiker I wish there was a national park closer to Gender: Female where I live, it seems like we don’t have Age: 31 very many in the East. It is too far to go for Occupation: Human Resources Representative a weekend trip, but that is all I can usually Income: $76K devote to my hikes. I don’t want to waste Location: Boston, MA time driving. I like to escape the crowds, Marital Status: Single I try to find trails that are less travelled • Goes hiking on the weekends anyway, which is typically not those in • Likes to unplug periodically national parks anyway. • Tries to find places where she can avoid people • Hasn’t visited a national park in five years Muskrat

MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS AUDIENCE 29 #5—Urban Dweller I think natural areas are an important part Gender: Male of life and I try to incorporate them into Age: 35 my architectural designs. I feel like nature Occupation: Architect elevates manmade structures. I strive to Income: $105K live by the “leave no trace” motto as I visit Location: Henderson, NV backcountry areas. I think if more people Marital Status: Married could see areas that are untouched by • Takes vacations for the experiences people, they would appreciate them more. • Lives within a day’s drive of 16 national parks • Enjoys backcountry camping trips Desert Bighorn Sheep • Visited a national park last year

30 NATIONAL PARK CONNECT J. RICKS #6—New Citizen I loved visiting the parks in Argentina Gender: Female when I was growing up and I would love t Age: 25 o compare them to the parks here. I don’t Occupation: Pharmacy Aide trust my car to get me all the way to Big Income: $32K Bend, and I tend to not leave the city very Location: Houston, TX much. It would take some planning to get Marital Status: Single there, but hopefully I will make the trip • Is excited about new citizenship someday. I believe that nature is important • Want to experience new things and places and we should definitely protect it. • Loves to walk in parks • Has never visited a national park Javelina

MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS AUDIENCE 31 #7—Outdoor Enthusiast Many of my happiest memories throughout Gender: Male my life are associated with the outdoors. Age: 38 There is a peace that I find when I am Occupation: University Instructor surrounded by nature. Almost everywhere Income: $60K that I’ve lived has been within an hour drive Location: Buena Vista, VA or closer to a national park and so they Marital Status: Married hold a special place in my heart. I have not • Loves outdoor activities been able to visit lately because of weather • Lives near a national park and time constraints. • Typically purchases an annual pass • Hasn’t visited a national park in over two years Whitetail Deer

32 NATIONAL PARK CONNECT J. RICKS #8—Serviceman I grew up in Colorado, and my dad would Gender: Male always take our family to RockyMountain Age: 33 national park. These types of places are Occupation: U.S. Marine Gunnery Sergeant very important and I want to help protect Income: $40K the parks. After serving our country, I am Location: Jacksonville, NC excited to start on the next path and go to Marital Status: Married school. I want to be a park ranger, I think • Just finished military servide that would be a great way to continue to • Becoming a park ranger give back to this country. • Grew up near national parks • Visited a national park this year Beaver

MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS AUDIENCE 33 The main boardwalk at Congaree National Park.

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MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS SECTION 35 OPPORTUNITIES

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MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS SECTION 37 “I encourage everybody to hop on Google and type in ‘national park’ in whatever state they live in and see the beauty that lies in their own backyard. It’s that simple.” —Jordan Fisher, Actor

38 NATIONAL PARK CONNECT J. RICKS DIRECTION DS Chart & Materials Matrix With my final direction, desired outcome and audience chosen the next step was to outline the insights, strategies and deliver- ables that would make up the thesis project, then outline exactly what I was going to accomplish. Topic Area: Helping the National Parks—One at a Time. Outcome: Inspire people to take care of national parks and to visit parks that are underutilized. I will focus on Congaree National Park as one of the ten least visited parks. Audience: Middle class millennials (25 – 35) that reside in urban areas with 3-hours of Congaree. Stakeholder: National Park Service will need to buy-in and implement.

MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN THESIS OPPORTUNITIES 39 INSIGHT 01 National parks do not draw as many millennials as other demographic groups. To appeal to a younger crowd, technological experiences, experience-based programs, and/or mental health programs need to be explored. STRATEGY 01 Advertise parks that are underutilized, provide transportation into these parks and incorporate technological experiences that help people explore the park by leading them to different attractions within the park. DELIVERABLE 01 A prototype app that acts as both a game — rewarding park visitors that clean up the park, or explore different areas with different ranks, badges, and frames. These would be shareable on social media and will leaders will appear on the interactive walls. Additionally the app will function as a location-based field guide that will give information on what is around the user, such as flora, fauna, history, trail maps, experiences, etc. The app would also allow users to view the bus schedule, purchase gear, and reserve in-park experiences.

40 NATIONAL PARK CONNECT J. RICKS INSIGHT 02 Parks are not being cared for like they should be and whether or not damage or littering is done on purpose, it still causes issues for the park service. STRATEGY 02 Inspire to take care of national parks by making it easy and fun. DELIVERABLE 02 Onsite interactive walls that provide information pertaining to being in the park. Content such as how to avoid causing damage to sensative areas, trails, daily game opportunities, park maps/ guides, etc.