Visualizing the Zoo Visitor Experience, Intersecting Space and Meaning-Making

This study explores how the educational intentions of a site of informal science education, the Toronto Zoo, as well as, its potential for meaning‐making, are translated in the lived experience of its visitors. It explores these experiences geographically by tying the spatial and physical environment to the interpretations made by visitors. It cartographically juxtaposes "objective" investigations of space, namely space syntax and wayfinding analyses, with "subjective" measures of the visitor experience, obtained through an on‐site Visitor Study, which revealed possible links between space and visitors' use of the site and meaning-making experiences. The value of geographically representing visitors’ experiences to a cultural institution through the unique use of mobile digital technology is discussed. Conclusions are drawn about the connection between space and the visitors’ meaning‐making experiences, and about how an institution’s educational intentions might be better realized or even re-defined with reference to the insights gained in this thesis