This week, before we went to the Garden, we had to write a letter for Sean from the Garden. Each member of my group worked on their own part to be turned in by the deadline. I feel like my group within our research team is in a very unique place. We have gotten along and trusted each other from the beginning. This seems very different for other groups that maybe don’t get along as well. I am very grateful for the way that the members in my group effortlessly collaborate and make work that is acceptable and works amazing for a class such as this.

The presentation that was made at the Garden last week couldn’t have gone better. We had Troy as our note taker; and Kasey, Evitt, and I presented our dear Sean letter. I would say that I was confident in what I was saying that day. I was the one who answered all the questions about our plans and ideas about our implementation plan. I remained open-minded to all the feedback given by my other codes peers as well as the staff from the Garden.

            My behaviors in my group have led to me feeling heard by the other members of my team.  All of the interactions that I have had with the staff at the Garden have been upbeat and positive. This shows how excited our partners at the Garden are to work with us on making our ideas come to life. I really appreciate how Sean has been so welcoming to all of our ideas, and we have been able to have conversations about those questions that have been brought up. As a whole, within those who were involved in the discussion last week, I think all aspirations with the teams were respected and the feedback was very constructive.

The one feedback we received from our peers was about the accessibility of our tour for those who didn’t have a phone. The plan for our tour is that to get to it, you would scan the QR code that would be surrounding the plants that we were going to use. One idea that I have thought of to make the tour usable for those who can’t use the QR codes because of no access to a phone would be to make a pamphlet but make it interactive. What I mean by this is, for example, when you open this normally boring pamphlet there are different “pop ups”. These could be something such as a scratch off to reveal a hidden map to show you where to go next. Now the question, what if the person doing this tour doesn’t have a coin to scratch off the hidden message. There could be something small that could be a coin that has some significant meaning taped to the back page of the pamphlet. This is a cheap, and effective way to make sure those who are taking our tour are still interacting. Another way to make this pamphlet interactive would be to hide things within the pamphlet. Whether that is the way that the mastermind herself, Taylor Swift, has been known for hinting things in pieces of work years in advance. There is no way that anyone can pull off the hidden message like Taylor. If we could do something more drawn back from that then we could get our audience to interact. Ideas of this would be to put little hidden letters throughout the paragraphs, or to hide little hints in pictures that we plan on putting in the pamphlets. These clues could lead you to a game at the end of the tour, if you solved the puzzle, you could get a free pass or a gift card towards the gift shop. This is a far-fetched idea, but I feel it is a cost-effective way for the Garden to get more interaction in these pamphlets.

I think one thing I could work on is how I proof my work. In the past when proofing my work, I just read over it in my head. This is kind of a more beginner method since when I get feedback on these works, I always see that there are spelling and grammar errors that can be easily fixed. This time around, I read my work at least three times out loud to myself. I also read my part of the letter to my roommate for her input. This helped me actually hear what was going to be said so I could fix the mistakes before the letter was submitted. For the future, I will also rehearse what I am going to say to my audience so that I can get up and look into my audience. I can’t wait to get to work on our ideas, and to work with the Garden to do this.