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Ah, designers… those professional imaginers, who follow their ideas wherever they lead, [Designer drawing a picture on a piece of paper]

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to make whatever they want.

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…Right?

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Eh, not exactly. [Builder telling a designer that the design is too fancy]

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Unfortunately, reality's not as glamorous.

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Generally designers have to work within a bunch of preset limits, and design something

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that balances the needs and desires of all sorts of people.

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And sometimes these people can be a bit bossy and annoying, which is never that much fun. [Designer's boss barking instructions]

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So without further ado, let's get a sample of this process, as we attempt to design a

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park.

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Our goal is to design a park that includes some combination of four different features:

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a field…

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…a garden…

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…a playground… [different features of a park]

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…and a recreation area.

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The challenge is getting them all in there, and still making sure that it feels like a

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nice, comfortable park. [People cycling through a park and people sitting on the grass]

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For example, we probably don't want to stick a baseball field right next to a garden.

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If you're picking tomatoes, you're probably not in the mood to be bonked in the head by [Woman hit by a baseball while picking tomatoes]

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a fly ball.

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Fields are pretty easy to design.

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After all, they're mostly just big empty spaces…

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…where people can have picnics…

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…fly kites…

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…or just relax. [People flying kites and laying down on a park field]

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As long as there's a lot of open space, lots of grass, and no huge pits of snakes, your

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field's gonna be a-okay.

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When it comes to gardens, we've got lots of choices.

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We could stick with a small, simple garden…

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…or make a huge botanical garden, with ponds, fountains, and greenhouses. [Large botanical garden with a pond and trees]

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All we have to do is make sure we don't put any flowerbeds in the ponds.

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It's tough to enjoy flowers when they're six feet underwater. [Girl unhappy with the under water flower beds]

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Playgrounds also give us a lot of choices.

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We could go with a humble swing set…

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…or go wild with a sprawling, gigantic playground with slides, a jungle gym, the works.[Child whizzing down a slide in a park jungle gym]

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Or, if we really just like swings, which…who doesn’t…maybe just a hundred swings.

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Swing-fans will certainly thank you. [Child standing up on a swing in a park]

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With recreation areas, we've also got a crazy amount of choice.

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There are different recreation areas for different sports, from tennis courts for tennis…

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…basketball courts for basketball… [Boys playing basketball]

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…baseball fields for baseball… [Little children playing baseball]

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…and even hockey rinks for hockey.

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Just don't try to put them all in the exact same space.

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As important as ice is for hockey, it doesn't really help much when trying to play most

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other sports.

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But it is kinda funny to watch….heh…. [People falling over playing basketball on a hockey ice rink]

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