IDAT101 Group Project Interactive Installation Location Options

When we we're first given our brief we discussed the possible ideas of the location of our installation and the positives and negatives of using each place as our main location:

The Hoe
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• It is a large open space so there are not many spacial limitations allowing us to think of different possibilities for our installation regardless of size
• The Hoe is a really popular with our target audience
• Popular area of Plymouth where people often spend lots of time relaxing so they would have time to use our installation and watch others use it

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• Popular choice for others groups, we want somewhere more original and unique to our group
• Weather limitations, the Hoe tends only to be busy when the weather is nice, would be a risk to put an installation there when there may not be many people there during bad weather

  Drake Circus
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• Popular area for members of our target audience
• There are a number of different places that we could use for the location of our installation depending on its function so we can play around with lots of ideas

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• Already has a number of interactive installations installed within it from other companies and designers so may have trouble thinking of something original that draws out audience away from the other installations
• Again, could be a popular choice with other groups
• People shopping in this area may be more interested in going into the shops rather than standing outside using our installation
• This is a very popular area, could be too busy for people to be able to stop and use our installation especially on a Saturday when the shopping centre is very busy

Sun Dial
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• This is a popular area for people to sit and eat their lunch on their breaks or whilst shopping so there would be a lot of people standing around
• Popular area for teenagers, most of which are very computer literate so they could be quite keen to use our installation

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• This area is already popular for various temporary technological installations so the addition of another one may not get the attention of the audience

Royal Parade
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• This area is very popular with many people because of the various bus stops along this road which are connected to every bus route in Plymouth
• People waiting for the bus do not have much to look at anyway so adding an installation here may prove popular

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• Although the area is often busy with people waiting for the bus they may not be too keen in interacting with our installation as they may be waiting in a long bus queue and do not want to lose their space or may not have time to try out our product whilst waiting for the bus
• There are not many popular shops along this street as the audience is limited because they are not attracted to the area already

Children's Playarea
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• This area is popular with many ages, children who are playing in the area, their parents, people walking past through the shops, so it is accessed by our target audience
• This area is in the middle of the main shops outside, although it is not in the main shopping centre this area can still be busy at peak times of the day especially lunch time as many people walk past it to Tescos
• There is already a theme within the playarea which is the jungle animals, this could be incorporated into our installation to make the playarea more interactive to the children and the passersby
• The playarea is surrounded by popular shops like HMV and House Of Fraiser which would encourage people to come to the shops where they would see the installation and maybe try it out

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• Popular shops are nearby which could distract our audience
• This area is in a small densely packed location so we would have to adapt our installation to suit these conditions

Our final choice of location was the children's playarea, we thought this location would receive the largest number of our target audience throughout the day because of the shops surrounding it and it is an interesting space so we would be able expand our ideas into what we could design and install. It already has a theme so we can adapt this to our own ideas. The space is highly social because of all the people walking through it and there is a high volume of people around during the day. Most of the people walking through the space are probably shopping so may take some time out to use our installation especially if they have children as it is located in the children's play area. Next we need to do some research other technological work in a similar area to what we want to design and see if we can gain some inspiration from other pieces of work.