Effectiveness of family-oriented interpretive media with different design characteristics: A study of family visitors’ satisfaction on the worksheets of a botanical garden

Varying from previous studies that are mostly focused on whether the use of worksheets is effective for environmental education, this study compared three family-oriented worksheets with different design characteristics to explore their effects based on family visitors’ satisfaction. The results revealed that differences in children’s ages influenced family visitors’ satisfaction. Families with younger children tended to be more satisfied with worksheets that featured higher relevance to personal experience and more animal-related content. Families with older children tended to prefer the worksheets with more observation–need tasks and more understanding-based questions. This study contributed to the practical need of interpretive media’s designing and family-oriented programs’ planning in the environmental education field. © 2018, © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.