The study was conducted over a three-week period during the
first quarter of 2012. 200 visitors (N ¼ 200) participated in the
experiment. 100 (N ¼ 100) participants interacted with the “Screen
& Paper” version, of which 11 were part of a family, 63 were from a
group of adults, and 26 were single adult visitors. 100 (N ¼ 100)
participants interacted with the “QR codes” version, of which 14
were part of a family, 73 were from a group of adults, and 13 were
single adult visitors. Of the 100 visitors interacting with the “Screen
& Paper” version, 11 were part of a family and 63 were from a group
of adults.
On any given day, two time slots of 3 hours were chosen and
each panel was displayed next to the saguaro cactus for a period of
time. One researcher was in charge of inviting visitors approaching
the exhibit to participate in the experiment. Visitors who agreed to
participatewere presented with one of the two panels and asked to
take a look at it for whatever period of time they felt was suitable.
Visitors were explicitly asked to do what they would normally do
when they encounter information panels around the Gardens and
to not feel any pressure to read the whole text, watch the whole
video or access online content if they would not normally do so.
When an Internet connection was required to access digital resources
through the visitors’ smartphones (QR codes), this could be
done through the visitors’ own 3G-network or Kew's free wireless network. Once the visitors said they had finished with the exhibit,
they were asked to answer the survey.