A story/coloring book that allows first-time-campers to picture themselves at camp, learn camp terminology, and understand what a day at camp might feel like before arriving on their first day.
Camp Ramah in Wisconsin is a nonprofit Jewish overnight summer camp located in Conover, WI. I identified during my work as their Program Director that we were missing a key step in our campers' arc of experience: onboarding!
My goal was to teach all first-time campers, regardless of gender, race and camper age, about overnight camp, specifically what they should expect during a first summer at our Camp.
My First Kayitz (Summer) is a story/coloring book that allows first-time-campers to picture themselves at camp, learn camp terminology and understand what a day at camp might feel like before arriving on their first day.
As Camp Ramah in Wisconsin's Program Director, I focused primarily on camper and staff experiences -- how each camper summer would build on the one before and how every program at camp would relate back to one of the organization's 4 core pillars: joy, growth, inclusion, and/or connections.
I realized through my work that we were missing a key step in the arc of experience: onboarding! I worked with my coworkers to address this need to teach young kids about camp before they ever stepped foot on our campus.
Ultimately I had two ideas that would address our need, and fit in a care package that we could send to first-time campers during the off-season!
1. A story book about a kid experiencing overnight camp for their first time
2. A memory matching game to teach campers the most common Hebrew words used at camp
We'll focus on the story book for this case study (though I did design the memory matching game, too)!
My team was busy gearing up to run camp (during the Covid-19 pandemic no less) so this project was not a top priority for our year-round staff. I was driven to have the story book completed for the following recruitment season, so planned a week-long creative writing elective for our rising 9th grade campers during the summer and hired someone to work with them to draft the book and it's illustrations. Below is an outline of the workshop:
Day 1: Research - campers will read story books to familiarize themselves with key features including tone, typography, illustration, etc. and gather inspiration for their book
Day 2: Continued Research - campers will draft questions and interview the youngest kids in camp (first-time campers) to understand what they have learned since being on campus and what they wish they had known before they arrived
Day 3: Writing - campers will develop characters and plot points based on their research and their own experiences
Day 4: Illustrating - campers will think about the design of the book, how text and illustration will interact and what their vision is for characters and scenes in their story
Day 5: Polishing - campers will polish their draft story to hand over to senior camp staff to edit, illustrate, and send to print!
What I learned
This project was great practice in delegation for me. It also taught me (really, reminded me) how much I love working directly with campers (users). I practiced empowering teammates with a unique vision and helped bring their ideas and mine to life together!
What I'd do differently next time:
Looking back on this project from a User Experience perspective it's crazy to think I didn't test the product before sending it to print and shipping it to families! I would have definitely put the book in front of different audiences -- campers who just experienced their first summer, future campers, and camper parents to understand whether the story accomplished our goal.