A fun, immersive visit to the Orto Botanico in Padua: an audio tour for younger visitors

Since May 2024, the Orto Botanico in Padua, the world's oldest university botanical garden, has offered a brand-new visit experience dedicated to children, thanks to a partnership with CoopCulture and Sycomore, built around the Audiopen, a simple and intuitive interactive device that enriches the visit through sound.

The Audiopen: a tool designed for children

The Orto Botanico approached Sycomore specifically to design a tour dedicated to children, in order to meet a growing need for accessible, fun and interactive educational tools, and to make the visit more rewarding for families, a loyal and regular audience of the garden.

The Audiopen is an interactive stylus that plays audio content when pointed at a printed map. This highly intuitive system was chosen for its ease of use: with no screen or complicated buttons, children activate the commentary for each point of interest simply by touching a dedicated area on the map.

For this project, Sycomore supplied the Audiopen devices along with the associated audio content. A total of 14 points of interest were developed, in English and Italian, to address both local and international audiences. Each stop blends anecdotes, simple scientific explanations and little touches of humour.

Discovering the garden at a child's height

Named "AudioPen Kids", this tour was designed to spark the curiosity of the youngest visitors. Thanks to a map with illustrated points of interest, each child can easily find their way and freely choose which parts of the garden they want to explore. The tour leads them from the impressive Oriental plane tree to the Botanical Museum, via memorable stops such as Goethe's palm and the poisonous plants section.

The Audiopen, available free of charge at the entrance to the site, makes this exploration accessible to everyone, with no need for a screen or constant adult assistance. Children thus become the drivers of their own discovery.

An illustrated map as the guiding thread

To accompany the device, a specially illustrated map was designed, printed and made to be reusable. It guides children through the garden and clearly identifies the 14 stops on the tour. The map becomes a tool that is both functional and educational, which children can handle, keep and take home as a souvenir of their visit.

Accessible, engaging interpretation

Thanks to this solution combining simple technology with tailored content, the Orto Botanico offers a form of cultural interpretation accessible to all. Families, schools and young visitors discover the garden's living collections at their own pace, in a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere. By combining technology, graphic design and dedicated content, Sycomore, in partnership with CoopCulture, enables the world's oldest university botanical garden to offer a fresh, fun and engaging look at the wonders of nature.