Research on Children’s Public Welfare Poster Design Based on Situational Interaction Model ()
1. Introduction
At present, society pays more and more attention to public welfare posters. Under the joint promotion of government departments, public welfare and charitable organizations, and socially responsible enterprises and groups, public welfare posters have developed rapidly. However, the proportion of children’s public welfare posters is still relatively small. As a vulnerable group, children have a low level of awareness and weak awareness of prevention. Especially in recent years, incidents of violations of children’s rights and interests have occurred frequently. As early as 1989, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the “Convention on the Rights of the Child” to protect children’s various rights. Therefore, it is imperative to raise the attention of the whole society to children and call on the public to protect and care for children. As an effective tool for safeguarding children’s rights and promoting social righteousness, children’s public welfare posters have become an important topic that urgently needs to be discussed in depth. Therefore, this article will focus on the construction of interactive forms for the design of diversified children’s public welfare posters, and propose three experience dimensions of situational interactive posters to improve the effective communication rate of children’s public welfare posters. It aims to provide new theoretical thinking in the field of children’s public welfare poster design.
2. Theoretical Overview
2.1. The Meaning of Children’s Public Welfare Posters
Public welfare posters were born in the 1940s. Taking social issues of public concern as the theme is not for profit, and focuses on showing a profound cultural heritage, which is more appealing and appealing. As an information carrier, it can realize the social function of uniting people’s hearts and guiding the public’s public welfare thoughts and public welfare behaviors through concise, clear and intuitive visual language. Form a standardized public welfare order, thereby effectively promoting the maturity and development of a harmonious social atmosphere (Wang, 2017) . As an important part of public welfare posters, children’s public welfare posters aim to protect children’s own rights and interests. It’s a poster that guides children to establish correct ideas and warns the public to protect children. This clearly defines the subjects and objects of communication for children’s public welfare posters, so every member of society may directly or indirectly participate in the practice of safeguarding children’s rights and helping children grow up healthily (Yuan, 2021) .
2.2. The Concept of Situational Interaction Model
“Interaction” refers to the process of interaction and joint participation, “mutual” refers to mutual interaction, and “movement” refers to dynamic and change (Yang, 2014) . “Situation” in the theory of interactive symbols refers to the audience’s internal interpretation of external stimuli in the surrounding human or natural environment. “Situational interaction model” refers to the connection between the subject and the environment, and is a humanized personal experience of common perception and interactive participation. Its more purpose is to arouse people’s autonomous participation (Wang & Zang, 2014) . At present, the concept of situational interaction model has been widely adopted and applied in graphic design which has played a very significant role.
Situational interactive posters are based on the content of the poster itself. Integrate the human or natural environment and objects outside the poster screen into the poster design to create a poster that is easy for the audience to understand and accept. At the same time, the audience is set as the receiver, feedbacker, or even the promoter of information dissemination. The audience can be associated with the poster and influence each other. To put it simply, it is a process in which the audience and the content of the poster are interdependent through information dissemination means such as sensory, behavior, or emotion. In this process, the audience changes from the viewer to the participant and then to the creator. The audience becomes one of the necessary elements of the poster. Because of the participation of the audience, the information to be conveyed by the poster becomes more complete and can be exported. The audience also gets the ideas conveyed by the poster because of their participation, which is a concept of two-way interactive communication and a more novel and unique design perspective. It has a wider creative space.
3. Current Status of Children’s Public Welfare Posters and Analysis of Interactive Influencing Factors
3.1. Current Status of Research on Children’s Public Welfare Poster Design
As a vulnerable group who has not been deeply involved in the world, children lack the ability to think independently. During their growth, they need correct guidance and help from adults and society. In terms of theoretical research on children’s public welfare posters, Zhang (2019) said that as a medium for disseminating information, public welfare posters can communicate with the public through visual elements and certain meanings, and arouse emotional resonance among the public. Li (2020) applied empathy strategies in the design of public welfare posters, and analyzed the value of public welfare poster design works. Wang (2023) started with the poster elements loved by children at all stages, and discussed the influence of children’s public welfare posters on children. According to the literature review, although there are many studies on children’s public welfare posters, there is a lack of novel design research. Therefore, this paper proposes a situational interactive children’s public welfare poster design research method.
In terms of practice, the output of my country’s public welfare posters has increased year by year in recent years, but the proportion of children’s public welfare posters is very small. According to incomplete statistics, my country’s current investment in children’s public welfare posters is far lower than that of developed countries. Looking at the current development of China’s children’s public welfare posters, most of them rely on the promotion of government departments, social and individual public welfare organizations, and the theme of creation is single. The main theme is to spread traditional filial piety and promote moral norms, and it is more preaching than edification. Compared with developed countries, children’s public welfare posters lack creativity, vitality and vividness in terms of expression and communication methods and their effective communication is weak. A complete and effective operating mechanism and channels have not yet been formed. A small number of creative children’s public welfare posters mostly use emotional methods, which can impress the audience if they are used properly, but if they are used in the same way, the effect will be greatly reduced. Compared with the reality that many children are brutally violated in society, public welfare posters that pay little attention to children’s own safety are basically a drop in the bucket. The topic of child rights protection has not received corresponding attention and attention. In view of so many imperfections in children’s posters, it is necessary to establish an effective creation mechanism and active communication channels, which require the common attention and active participation of the whole society.
3.2. Interaction Influencing Factors in Children’s Public Welfare Posters
3.2.1. Implicit Interaction Factors
Implicit interactive factors are the basic content of interactive design, usually referring to the various elements existing in the screen through creating graphics, setting composition, giving colors and other forms to form a novel and unique screen, which will produce implicit stimulation to the audience visually and psychologically. It is an invisible step-by-step interactive factor that arouses the viewer’s thinking and joint participation. The first is the implicit interaction factor of graphics. Graphics are the basic elements of poster composition, and usually refer to the visual elements in the poster screen. Concise and general graphics can not only enhance the visual impact of the work, but also leave the viewer with a certain space for divergence. Furthermore, the viewer associates with the graphics, actively participates in the creation of the graphics, and generates visual interaction with the information on the screen. The second is the implicit interaction factor of composition. Gestalt psychology shows that the ideal state pursued by human vision is visual balance. When the composition of the picture is unbalanced, the viewer will unconsciously reconstruct the relationship between the elements in the picture, and strive to achieve a balanced composition of the picture. This process mobilizes them to participate in the interpretation of the poster—interaction is born. The third is the implicit interaction factor of color. Different monochromatic colors will bring different stimuli to the audience and cause different mood swings in the audience. The contrast formed between various colors will also bring different stimuli to the audience, which is the subtle and implicit interaction between colors and viewers.
3.2.2. Explicit Interaction Factors
The explicit interaction factor is usually based on the content of the poster and expressed through various tools and media. One is the explicit interaction of the plane form. That is to say, in two-dimensional space, through the use of tools with different textures or different types of carriers to introduce interactive forms, such as coated paper, frosted paper and other paper media of different materials will produce different perceptions and touches, and even different olfactory experiences. Multiple haptics can improve the audience's participatory ability (Zhang & Zeng, 2017) . The second is the explicit interaction of the three-dimensional space. The dominant interaction in the space usually refers to the poster display space that breaks through the two-dimensional plane. Specifically, it is an interactive design form that transforms from a single form of expression to multiple forms of expression, and comprehensively uses three-dimensional space media to transform from two-dimensional design to three-dimensional or four-dimensional. Usually, the dimension of information dissemination is more spatial and appealing, which can shorten the distance between the viewer and the work. It has a strong sense of experience and participation.
4. Design Strategies for Children’s Public Welfare Posters Based on Situational Interaction
The creation idea of situational interactive children’s public welfare posters is not a reproduction of traditional child abuse incidents, but the pursuit of the spirit of protecting children’s rights and interests, so that the audience will consciously realize the harm of violating children’s rights and interests, and thus actively join the ranks of protecting children. According to the propagation path and method of posters, the target group of children’s posters can be divided into children and adults. First, it can guide and help children themselves. The ultimate purpose of children’s public welfare poster creation is to serve children’s rights and interests. Only by creating under the guidance of the “children-oriented” concept can it have an impact on children’s behavior and thinking. The second is to warn, remind, dissuade and publicize adults as perpetrators, bystanders and guardians. In the poster design process, the scene interaction mode is adopted to comprehensively interpret the social significance of children’s public welfare posters from the perspectives of sense, situation, and behavior.
4.1. Situational Interaction Principles of Children’s Public Welfare Posters
The key to excellent children’s public welfare posters is to have profound meaning and connotation. Therefore, the following principles should be paid attention to when creating situational interactive children’s public welfare posters.
The first is the principle of less is more. The picture elements in children’s public welfare posters should replace complicated information with symbols. When selecting, combining and creating visual images, they should be optimized and typicalized. Use the most representative and symbolic graphics to trigger the audience to think further, refine the visual communication language with richer levels of expression, reduce the ineffective stacking of elements in the picture, and enable the viewer to make accurate judgments on its attributes at a glance (Ju, 2020) . For example, Figure 1 is a public welfare poster with the theme of caring for left-behind children in mountainous areas. Although it only shows a little girl holding a pencil and staring into the distance with big eyes, it can clearly read the little girl’s longing for her parents and the desire for knowledge and the yearning for the future. Without too much textual explanation, complex colors and patterns, it vividly shows the current situation of left-behind children in mountainous areas.
The second is the iceberg principle, which is the literary creation method and artistic style proposed by Hemingway, emphasizing simple art and unique artistic connotation. The purpose conveys the meaning of the taste through the omission of experience. Use the exposed visual language to implicitly convey the submerged thoughts and emotions (Ju, 2020) . This principle is also applicable to the creation of situational interactive children’s public welfare posters. Figure 2 is a public welfare poster for the global anti-trafficking of women and children. In the picture, a pair of immature hands is opening the eyes through the cardboard box. The blank picture can make the viewer infinitely imagine the fear and helplessness of the child in the cardboard box, thus showing the unpredictable future that will be faced after being traded.
The third is the principle of co-perception, that is, simultaneous sensations. Co-perception is an unconscious “cross-modal synthesis” experience that recognizes objects without the will or rational control of the subject. And compared to the memory produced by a certain sense, the memory produced by common perception is more impressive (Li, 2021) . Applying common perception to the design of children’s public welfare posters can arouse the emotional waves deep in people’s hearts, arouse the emotional resonance of the audience, and form an ideological interaction, thus making the poster more attractive and influential. Figure 3 shows several transparent boxes placed by the NGO Chetana Foundation in Mumbai, India, in which there are life-size three-dimensional statues of naked impoverished children standing. This has undoubtedly aroused people’s strong attention. Viewers will unconsciously bring themselves naked to endure the pain of the cold, and actively cover these children’s bodies with clothes to keep them warm. Donors feel great relief when they see that these children are no longer naked.
4.2. Situational Interaction Forms of Children’s Public Welfare Posters
4.2.1. Sensory Experience Interaction
The senses are the most direct channel for people to receive information. Even when the most mediocre graphic poster is conveying information, it is an interaction for people to read its content. Traditional poster design usually only focuses on the dissemination of visual information, ignoring that other sensory systems such as hearing and touch can also meet people’s needs. Therefore, in the design process of situational interactive posters, we should focus on multi-sensory experience interaction, seek new breakthroughs with the support of technology, and seek stimulation of multiple senses. Secondly, it focuses on attracting the audience to participate in the experience in multiple directions through the interaction of vision and other senses, and stimulates the “passive interaction” of the audience, so as to more effectively appeal to the audience’s heart (Nie, 2019) . At the same time, diversified technological means can be used to break the limitation of plane space and achieve multi-dimensional development. The benefit is that audiences can receive multi-sensory experiences at the same time (Yuan, 2022) . The most common is to take visual innovation interactively. Usually presents as a change in viewing angle or movement of the line of sight. Viewers can see different pictures and texts in a specific dimension by changing their perspective or moving their eyes without other actions, and receive different information, resulting in different psychology. Visual innovation interactive posters are different from traditional posters. It is an intuitive and internal process for audiences to receive information. Audiences actively participate in it and seek different information by themselves, which will produce more direct visual effects and psychological reactions.
4.2.2. Situational Experience Interaction
Situational experience is indispensable to achieve interactivity. Whether it is sensory experience or behavioral experience, it needs to be set in a certain situation, which is also relatively easy to achieve for the design of children’s public welfare posters that “express feelings and ideas”. Usually the designer will subtly set a specific scene by combining poster elements and the surrounding environment, and make the viewer a part of the scene. Break through the inherent concept of the audience, and better attract the attention of the audience through its unique creativity. In this process, the audience themselves are also media and communicators, and can even determine the final effect of poster presentation and dissemination. Therefore, when arranging posters, designers need to choose an appealing and suitable creative space, focusing on arousing the emotions of the viewers, so that the audience in this environment can naturally receive the information that the posters want to convey. The designer gives the poster an interactive form, and the viewer enriches this form. The viewer participates in it through the situational experience, recreates the poster, and designs his own ideal new picture. Excellent poster design does not rely on complete presentation of information, but a kind of vigilance and enlightenment, which can make the audience have a new experience every time they see the poster. For example, Figure 4 shows a poster in the shopping cart of the Feed SA supermarket showing a thin child, with the slogan “It’s easy to give them food”, which can effectively touch the emotions of the viewers. Especially when people put the goods into the shopping cart and see the hands begging for food and the eager eyes in the shopping cart, the heart will be touched immediately. In the supermarket situation, people will no longer be stingy, and will actively contribute to these poor children.
4.2.3. Behavioral Experience Interaction
The audience perceives the content of the poster through the tactile organs, or participates in the poster through body movements, resulting in psychological changes, and responding accordingly in behavior. This process is called “behavioral interaction”. Behavioral interactive experience is based on sensory experience
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Figure 4. Poster inside the shopping cart of Feed SA Supermarket.
or situational experience interaction, and the audience can independently participate in poster interaction through practical actions. This kind of interactive behavior usually takes the theme expressed by the poster as the premise, changing the audience’s static reception mode. Then actively guide the viewers to receive information independently, participate in and complete the expressive intention of the designer (Guo, 2020) .
The current interaction design technology covers a wide range of fields, including voice control, somatosensory, touch, eye tracking, infrared sensing, etc., as well as networking, mechanization, and automation in the Internet era (Li, 2018) . By guiding the audience to perform interactive behaviors and actively receive information beyond the visual senses, the distance between the audience and the poster is shortened. Realize the zero-distance communication between the audience and the poster, making the poster information easy to understand and easy to grasp (Zhang, 2016) . This not only deepens the reception and understanding of audience information, but also makes the audience a link in the transmission of poster content, making both of them in the overall context, and unifies the process of creation and reading.
4.3. Children’s Public Welfare Poster Design Methods Based on Situational Interaction Model
4.3.1. Reconstruction of Old Elements
The vast majority of creativity is due to a change in perspective. A unique perspective often dictates the degree of creativity. The creativity of poster design is nothing more than various elements in real life. The new and old of elements are relative terms, the elements themselves are not old or new, only outdated and repeated in combination and expression. Try to think from different angles, different positions, and different states, and reconstruct the combination of elements to discover the potential of the old elements themselves. It is not only necessary to transform the old elements, but also to integrate new elements into it, releasing the effectiveness of the elements themselves often leads to some unexpected sensory experience interactions (Yuan, 2015) . For example, in Figure 5, the creative scene is set on the packaging bag, and the bag becomes a mobile publicity tool. People carry the paper bag by the tab as if they were leading a child. The content conveyed is clear and the effect of dissemination is direct, calling on people to pay more attention to children and give them enough love (Gao, 2009) .
The reconstruction of old elements can also promote the innovation of reverse thinking design. In public welfare posters with the theme of protecting children and preventing child abuse, the tragedy of abused children is often used to express the intention of the poster. Shocking pictures usually make the viewers feel uncomfortable. Although the picture effect with strong impact can quickly attract people’s attention, it can also make people look away, which is not conducive to the dissemination of information. Therefore, the tragic status of children can be replaced with more acceptable pictures and texts, or the creative language can be reorganized by using old elements that are well-known to the public. In the poster in Figure 6, the scene of beating a child with a belt is not directly shown, but the production process of the belt is shown. Inform the public that belts from demand to production are not used as a tool for abuse, and warn people not to beat children with anything around them, so as to reduce child abuse.
4.3.2. Application of New Materials
The design of traditional public welfare posters relies on the arrangement of visual elements, and the materials for making posters are usually ordinary paper media. However, paper media is difficult to communicate with the audience at a high level, and it is difficult to realize the interactive expression of posters. With the development of printing technology, the use of interactive poster materials has become more and more widespread. Breaking through the limitations of traditional materials, various forms of poster design have been developed, so that the audience can obtain different degrees of spiritual aesthetic enjoyment. The transformation of materials has played a significant role in the information dissemination of situational interactive children’s public welfare posters, and the number of excellent cases incorporating new materials has gradually increased (Guo, 2020) . For example, Figure 7 is an interactive poster of new anti-child abuse materials designed by a charity in Spain. What makes this poster unique is that it uses a lenticular printed material. Adults and children see information differently. Adults are tall and have a high viewing angle, so they can only see part of the information on the poster. When children under 1. 35 meters in height (or everyone under 1. 35 meters in height) watch the poster; they can see all the complete information and the helpline hidden under the poster. Figure 8 and Figure 9 are the perspectives of the poster seen by adults and children respectively. From an adult perspective, there is only a boy with a glassy-eyed look. But children under 1. 35 meters tall saw a boy with a bruised face. And only they can see the message of the helpline: “If you are hurt, please call this number and we will help you”, so as to prevent adults from blocking children’s hope for help.
4.3.3. Application of Installation Art
Installation art is a commonly used form of expression in poster design, covering static and dynamic media. By using photoelectric and acoustic devices to optimize the visual effect of the poster, a special creative space is formed to express the creative idea and appeal of the poster (Yuan, 2015) . Designers need to create ideas according to the concept and content of the poster to be conveyed, and form a comprehensive and dynamic interactive form with the audience through technology. Combining installation art with human behavior, the relationship between the poster and the viewer is shortened. For example, Figure 10 is a group of anti-child abuse public welfare interactive posters designed by Korean street designers who comprehensively use photoelectric and acoustic new media technology. The shadows of a father and son in the picture are realistic. The father is holding a wine bottle and is about to hit the child. People can stand between the father and son and use their own actions to stop the father’s atrocities. In this process, the enthusiasm of the viewers is fully mobilized. Through the participation of the viewers, the images of the viewers are naturally integrated into the poster works. Viewers unconsciously become a necessary part of the poster, extending the creative space while making the poster information complete, the form of communication is direct and interactive, and the dissemination of poster information is strengthened. The behavior triggered by viewing the poster is connected with the core idea of the poster, so that they can truly feel the ideological connotation of anti-child abuse posters in the aesthetic experience. They cannot stand by and only take action to better protect children.
4.3.4. Organic Integration with the Environment
In the current era of information overload, many posters ignore the environmental factors of the media, which seriously weakens and limits the expressiveness of interactive posters. Taking the environment as an important element in the design of scenario-interactive children’s public welfare posters makes the display space a natural part of the poster design. Emphasize the organic combination of the poster itself and the space, environment, and character activities of the location where it is placed, making the poster more three-dimensional. In addition to ordinary display spaces, the space for poster creation can be extended to natural environments, urban facilities and even virtual spaces (Tan, 2013) . Make the information conveyed by the poster merge or conflict with the environment where it is located, and then make the formed atmosphere more visually impactful. Through the expansion and expression of multi-dimensional space, the display form of posters creates “surreal” interactive poster works, which can better realize the expected effect of poster communication. For example, the South Korean poster in Figure 11, which promotes the protection of children by the police, breaks the two-dimensional space. Hanging a swing on the policeman’s arm not only shows the strength of the policeman, but also embodies the meaning of protecting children and giving them a better childhood. Similarly, Figure 12 is a situational parent-child interaction poster advertisement of COA Youth & Family Center. Use the protractor as a creative element of the poster, teach children how to use the protractor by swinging, and let parents accompany their children to learn knowledge while playing games.
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Figure 12. Parent child interaction—swing chapter.
5. Design Suggestions for Children’s Public Welfare Posters
5.1. Adhere to the “Child-Oriented”
In order to better protect children’s rights and interests, uphold the “children’s standard” and put this principle above the traditional ethical constraints to ensure that children’s rights are given priority. Respect the nature of children, raise the awareness of protecting children’s rights, create a healthy and safe living environment for children, promote the public’s participation in and safeguard children’s legitimate rights and interests, and jointly create a harmonious and beautiful social environment.
5.2. Focus on Innovative Quality
Public welfare posters are instructive, especially children’s imitation ability is relatively strong, and they are good at imitating and learning their favorite behaviors and actions. Therefore, children’s public welfare posters need to create positive, concise and powerful image subjects. This greatly promotes children’s cognitive guidance, and at the same time, it can better attract adults’ attention in a short time.
5.3. Increase the Intensity of Publicity
The publicity of children’s public welfare posters can be strengthened from the following two aspects. On the one hand, it is to increase the coverage of posters and the frequency of poster contact through the combination of media, and try to organically combine public welfare communication with new media such as computers, mobile phones, and digital TVs, and root them in real life through various communication methods. On the other hand, it is to improve the creativity of posters, enhance the fun of posters, and deepen the audience’s memory of posters, thereby increasing the attention to children’s rights.
6. Conclusion
Children’s public welfare posters are an important means of publicity to promote the healthy growth of children and create a good social environment. It is necessary to pay special attention to its creation form and dissemination. In the future, it is an important responsibility of the designer to explore the innovation of the communication form of children’s public welfare posters, and there is also a very large room for innovative design. The purpose of this study is to explore the creative forms of children’s public welfare posters, and through case analysis, to find out the design strategies of situational interactive posters that are really conducive to the protection of children’s rights and interests. Specifically, through various forms of experience such as senses, situations, and behaviors, the purpose of attracting the attention of the audience is achieved. In this way, the audience is guided to participate in the dissemination of poster information, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of children with a proactive attitude. At the same time, it provides a new perspective and useful reference for the design innovation of children’s public welfare posters.