Justification Document

Request for Approval under the “DOI Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery”

OMB Control Number: 1090-0011

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Formative Evaluation of Exhibits for Kenai Fjords National Park Visitor Center

PURPOSE: Kenai Fjords National Park (KEFJ), a unit of the National Park Service (NPS) seeks to understand how a general visitor will access and understand identified exhibit components and content in order to best deliver on the exhibition message and experience goal. This evaluation is designed to inform specific components of an exhibit to be installed in the Visitor Center in Seward, Alaska. Formative evaluation is conducted during the design stage of the exhibition in order to detect problems and successes of interpretation before building the final product.

The NPS and its exhibit contractor will use formative evaluation to study how visitors experience four specifically identified exhibit components. The evaluation will test if the directives and content are understood by the public as they there intended by the content specialist and designer. The evaluation will also help the NPS and its exhibit contractor understand the effectiveness of the design choices – are the labels strategically placed, does the interactive work and why or why not, does a headline capture visitor attention and represent the label meaningfully for the public? The components and specific questions of this request were chosen to address areas identified by the NPS and its exhibit contractor as needing particular visitor feedback.

These components including specific images and exhibition labels will be mocked up in such a way that the respondents have an understanding of the materials in context. General public Park visitors who enter the Visitor Center during the three testing days (July 21-23) will be invited to look at and interact with the prototypes, which will be installed on-site. Once they have looked at any of the components they will answer questions about that component, in a brief individual interview. The respondents will be representative of the general visitation at Kenai Fjords.

NPS and its exhibit contractor will use this information in the design development phase in order to provide timely feedback to the design process addressing any questions raised by the evaluation and ensuring the opportunity to make any appropriate adjustments before the exhibit components go into final production.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS: General public Park visitors who enter the Visitor Center will be invited to preview the exhibit prototypes and give their opinions. The goal is to interview 25 respondents about each of the four components for a total of 100 respondents.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [X ] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software) [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus Group [ ] Other: ______________________

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name:

Andrew Anway, Team Leader, Amaze Design, 171 Milk St., 4^th floor, Boston MA 02109

[email protected]

Jeff Hayward, Lead Evaluator, People Places & Design Research, 65 North St., Northampton MA 01060

[email protected]

To assist review, please provide answers to the following questions:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [X ] No

2. If Yes, is the information that will be collected included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No

3. If Applicable, has a System or Records Notice been published? [ ] Yes [ ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ ] Yes [X] No (If yes, please explain.)

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondents	No. of Respondents	Participation Time (in minutes)	Burden (hours)
Private Individuals	100	10	17

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is a one-time cost of $37,889.

_{Federal Employee Cost}

Position	Grade/ Step	Hourly Rate	Hourly Rate incl. benefits (1.5 x hourly pay rate)	Estimated time per task (hours)	Annual Cost
Park Staff	12/5	$41.46	$62.19	80	$4,975
Project Advisor	12/4	$40.24	$60.36	40	$2,414
Totals				120	$7,389

Operational Expenses	Estimated Cost
Contract Support Survey materials preparation, coordination, oversight of survey implementation, data analysis and reporting,	$25,000
Travel (this includes airfare and lodging) and any miscellaneous on-site administrative costs.	$5,500
Total	$30,500

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [ ] Yes [ X ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan). If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them.

Respondent Universe and Sampling Plan: The data collection period will encompass 3 days (July 21-23). The respondent universe is all visitors who enter the Visitor Center during the three days of testing. The exhibit prototypes will be set up in a publicly accessible area of the Visitor Center, so it is expected that some people will naturally view the exhibits, and some people will be invited to view the exhibits (see attached invitation language).

Natural Use: Trained interviewers will approach the next visitor group or individual that finishes looking at (using) a mock-up exhibit, and ask the adult who is physically closest to provide feedback about the new exhibits (serving as the randomly selected spokesperson for their group). Visitors who leave the exhibit while an interviewer is busy with another group may not be interviewed. When the interviewer is ready for the next interview, he/she will select the next visitor who uses and finishes with the exhibit.

Invited Use: Trained interviewers will approach visitor groups or individuals circulating in the Visitor Center (as available, or who cross an imaginary line in the floor) and invite them to view one of the exhibit mock-ups. Visitors will be told that we would like to talk to them afterwards, to get their opinions and reactions.

A total of 100 visitors will be interviewed, assuming the flow of visitors is sufficient on the days when the evaluation will take place.

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[ ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[X ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain - on-site survey card

Instrument Administration:

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [ X ] Yes [ ] No

A structured interview (see attached) will be conducted by trained interviewers. The questions will be the same for each of the three exhibit prototypes. Interviewers will record visitors’ answers on the paper interview form (e.g., verbatim comments).

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

ATTACHED

INSTRUCTIONS

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Provide the name of the collection that is the subject of the request. (e.g., Comment card for soliciting feedback on xxxx)

PURPOSE: Provide a brief description of the purpose of this collection and how it will be used. If this is part of a larger study or effort, please include this in your explanation.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS: Provide a brief description of the targeted group or groups for this collection of information. These groups must have experience with the program.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: Check one box. If you are requesting approval of other instruments under the generic, you must complete a form for each instrument.

CERTIFICATION: Please read the certification carefully. If you incorrectly certify, the collection will be returned as improperly submitted or it will be disapproved.

Personally Identifiable Information: Provide answers to the questions.

Gifts or Payments: If you answer yes to the question, please describe the incentive and provide a justification for the amount.

BURDEN HOURS:

Category of Respondents: Identify who you expect the respondents to be in terms of the following categories: (1) Individuals or Households; (2) Private Sector; (3) State, local, or tribal governments; or (4) Federal Government. Only one type of respondent can be selected.

No. of Respondents: Provide an estimate of the Number of respondents.

Participation Time: Provide an estimate of the amount of time required for a respondent to participate (e.g., fill out a survey or participate in a focus group)

Burden: Provide the Annual burden hours: Multiply the Number of responses and the participation time in minutes and divide by 60.

FEDERAL COST: Provide an estimate of the annual cost to the Federal government.

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents. Please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them. If the answer is yes, to the first question, you may provide the sampling plan in an attachment.

Administration of the Instrument: Identify how the information will be collected. More than one box may be checked. Indicate whether there will be interviewers (e.g., for surveys) or facilitators (e.g., for focus groups) used.

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

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