Field walks involve the use of walking as a way to gather insights on the embodied experience of a place. They entail conversations while moving along a path, which are documented as instances that are connected to a particular place. While walking and talking, creative ideas are exchanged and discussed.
Field walks were undertaken with a local community of cultural heritage volunteers at the historic Sheffield General Cemetery in order to inform, inspire and realise concepts for interactive installations that would sup
port the volunteers in engaging visitors and communicating the history of the place to the public. Each volunteer participating was asked by the facilitator to lead a walk around the Cemetery following whatever path he/she preferred. During the walk, the volunteer guides were asked to describe their involvement with the cemetery, their opinions on how the local community and visitors benefit from the site and to show their favourite places around the cemetery. A second facilitator documented the walks visually using video recordings and maps, in order to link the conversation to the physical location.
Following the field walks, a number of interaction concepts that addressed the concerns and needs of the participants were developed as part of further co-design workshops and brainstorming sessions.
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