Yakun Ma

This study examines the child-participatory design of safety signage in art museums, with the objective of enhancing children's safety experience and sense of participation within these spaces. Amidst heightened awareness of children's rights and the value of education, art museums, as public educational platforms, are transitioning towards child-centered design paradigms. Addressing the 'adult-centric' issue in traditional safety signage design, which overlooks children's uniqueness and limits signage effectiveness while increasing potential risks, this paper explores the application of participatory design in child-focused safety signage. Taking the 'Seed Curator Program' at China's A4 Art Museum as a case study, we analyze children's creative contributions and the actual effects of their involvement in the design process. Through iSTART Children's Art Festival and the Seed Curator Program, A4 Art Museum successfully integrated children into the design process, utilizing in-depth interviews, empirical research, and observation methods to gather and integrate children's insights on safety signage. Our findings reveal that children are adept at identifying potential hazards and proposing innovative design solutions, such as three-dimensional running figure signs. However, challenges such as material durability and placement emerged, which were overcome through iterative testing and optimization. The final designs were well-received by children and significantly improved signage intuitiveness and effectiveness.Furthermore, the paper discusses issues including blurred role definitions between children and designers, as well as imbalanced responsibilities among designers, and proposes strategies such as empowerment-oriented event planning, collaborative relationship building, and multi-faceted thinking prompts. The study concludes that child-participatory design notably enhances the relevance and practicality of safety signage, fostering children's creativity and problem-solving abilities, thereby offering valuable insights and guidance for art museums and other public spaces.

children participate design; safety signs; art museum; public education

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