Team

with Anna Boyle, Jiyoung Ohn and Nandini Nair

Role

Research, Concept Development, Physical Prototyping, UI design for interactive table

Project Duration

6 weeks

Tools

Adobe XD, Fusion 360, Arduino, RealityComposer, Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Mocha FX

Background

Museums play an important role in society, as illustrated by the Smithsonian’s vision “…to engage and to inspire more people, where they are, with greater impact, while catalyzing critical conversation on issues affecting our nation and the world.” Today, many museums are also facing the challenge of transitioning from rigid institutions to experiential and flexible spaces. Museums are turning to virtual reality, apps, and interactive experiences to keep tech-savvy visitors engaged.

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH), in 2029 is interested to have new ways for the visitors to experience the information in the exhibits in an interactive way and to emphasize the Anthropocene lens throughout the journey.

How might the Carnegie museum of natural history enable visitors to understand the relationships between humans and the natural world?

Outcome

Project LINK

LINK explores the relationships between humans and the natural world and helps visitors see and understand these connections in the ecosystem while giving them the opportunity to reflect on how human actions can make a difference and that working together is a collective effort.

HOW it works

LINK enable visitors to understand the relationship between humans and the natural world through our definition of stewardship which consists in 3 stages.

These stages have touch points to help the visitor understand the journey through experiential learning and social interaction.

01

LINK Device

This hexagonal device is a screen that allows the users to navigate through information about the exhibits in an interactive form. The device has a RFID sensor that activates a vibration whenever the visitor is near an exhibit that has information about the relations of the animal of the diorama and humans. Once the device gives a nudge, the camera behind the device activates and prompts the user to look for the animal in the exhibit.

When the animal is found, an Augmented Reality (AR) model appears so the user can interact with it in a dynamic way instead of just through a glass. Additionally, fun and interesting facts appear while the AR is activated. The device provides different stories about that animal between visitors so they can engage in conversation about their different facts.

Once the user reads the stories about that exhibit, the animal goes to the collection of the device and when they have collected at least 3 animals, the device prompts the visitors to go to the reflection table.

02

Reflection Table

The table is a touch screen that is responsive to the LINK device and once the device is placed on the screen, the user is prompted to select one of the collected animals to see the connections of the animal and humans and other species.

The categories in which the user can explore those connections are the following.

The Tree of Life - Explores the evolution of the animal showing relationships with other organisms, both living and extinct.

The Future of Life - Shows the trajectory of species, populations and ecosystems, especially in the context of environmental disturbances, as well as actions to mitigate those effects.

The Web of Life - Displays the ecological systems relations through the food chain.

The table also allows social interaction because another visitor can place another LINK device in the other corner, this interaction activates a link that connects both creatures and show their common human impact in the Future of Life window.

Further, that section will provide with simple individual actions that can be taken to mitigate the impact of that animal, guiding and reflecting on the experience towards a collective effort.

The video below shows the UI in detail.

03

Kiosk + Collective Wall

The kiosk is at the end of the experience where the users will return their Link device and take a selfie of 3 seconds for the wall projection. The kiosk is also a touch screen that allows users to do a handwritten message for the collective wall about their actions to create positive impact in the environment.

The message goes to the collective wall which is projected in the entrance of the museum, this provides an immersive and collaborative experience of hundreds of users who are part of past journeys and provide inspiration to future generations by acting in a collective to a common goal, taking care of our world.

Design Process

01

Understanding the problem

Our first visit in the CMNH, we had an amazing tour with Becca Shreckengast, the Director of exhibition experience. She explained that the CMNH is moving towards an ecological approach for all the exhibits and that they wanted for visitors to have interactive and informative experiences.

Through our next visits, we found the following:

• Exhibits are static

• They lack an interactive element

• They are very text base heavy

• The scope is often too broad, not intuitive

• Outdated very limited interaction to the environment

Interviews

To have a better understanding of the current experience, we had 10 informal interviews to museum visitors. The questions were around their overall experience in the museum, the main purpose of the visit, the exhibit that had the greatest impact on them, the things that troubled them at some point, if they would come back to the museum and finally what would they change about their journey.

The interviewees were couples with children, couples with no kids and students, most of them were tech-savvy. We spent a Sunday (the busiest day for the museum) just observing the whole experience for each user, including children and the interaction of the parents and adults in general with the exhibits.

We also talked with museum staff including Becca, Gretchen Anderson, Collection Care and Conservation Conservator, Bob Davidson, Invertebrate Zoology Collection Manager and 3 museum volunteers. And from the user and staff research, we got the following insights to go on with our concept development.

1. Museum Staff want to preserve artifacts and share their knowledge

2. Visitors want to have a more personalized and interactive experiences

3. The exhibits have limited information on human connections with nature

The dioramas, as beautiful as they are, they represent a world with no human influence whatsoever.

Eric Dorfman, Director of CMNH

Additionally, we got inspiration from the We Are Nature exhibition from the CMNH that was available last year, and it centered the Anthropocene epoch in the nature. And as part of the museum's mission “Communicate the unity and interdependence of humanity and nature." We came up with the following question.

How might the Carnegie museum of natural history enable the visitors to be stewards of the natural world?

02

Concept Development

With that question in mind, we developed our definition of stewardship as 3 stages.

Empathize → Understand → Take action

And a transition from an individual perspective to a collective action for a positive impact.

ME → WE

Further, we had our museum goers defined as explorers based on the Understanding Museum Visitors Motivations and Learning paper by Dr. John H. Falk, where he describes the different categories of museum visitors. Explorers are individuals with a natural affinity for the subject matter but generally, they are not experts. These visitors enjoy wandering around the museum and ‘bumping’ into new (for them) objects and exhibits. Provide an Explorer with the opportunity for a unique museum experience and you will fulfill his/her need to feel special and encourage him/her to come back for more (Falk, pg. 122). Based on the description and analysis of these visitors, we had white board sketches sessions about the potential scenarios and we did research on existing experiences in other museums and emerging technologies like Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR).

From this creative sessions, we developed a concept with a journey that had 4 touch points. A guide, a table, a kiosk and a wall, each of these touch points would be part of the journey towards stewardship for the natural world.

The first idea we had was to assign an animal in the entrance with the device and your journey would be explained through the lens of that particular animal, this being a bird, a mammal, an insect or a reptile (as an example), but the team discussed the limitations of the journey from this approach and that people may not be comfortable with their assigned animal following a certain path and learning only about some types of animals, instead of the ones that actually got their attention.

So, for the second iteration and after a few rounds of peer review and feedback, we removed the assigned animal and had the rest of the elements connected by the human impact as the common theme between all the stories of the exhibits. All of this, based on the ecological future approach of the museum, and the Anthropocene epoch impact in the natural world.

Also, we changed our how might we question, since many people would not be familiar with the definition of stewardship and our approach talked about the connections of humans and the natural world, instead of advocating for stewardship, since the museums can only do so much, and are not responsible for the visitors to take action, but they could be beacons of inspiration to have a different perspective on the natural world.

How might the Carnegie museum of natural history enable visitors to understand the relationships between humans and the natural world?

03

Design Decisions

We decided on different touch points to engage the visitors in different parts of the museum and not have a monotonous experience with just one exhibit, that is why we insisted on having this concept applied to the whole museum.

For our logic of having a separate device instead of an application in a smartphone, is that people take care of things that provide a different interaction with them. Additionally it would avoid another distractors like email notifications or calls, and it would allow the user to be immerse in the museum information instead of the phone. Also, because we thought that in 10 years, smartphones or applications in general would not be the same or as popular to interact with other things, since the technology advances so quickly that our approach would be obsolete by that time. So, that's why we decided on a physical separate artifact to engage the visitor in the experience.

The hexagonal shape came after some deep research on natural forms and we found out that the hexagon is a common shape that appears in the natural world and represents growth and harmony. And since we wanted to link the interactions between nature and humans, the hexagonal shape fit perfectly for that concept, also with the name: LINK.

For the typography and colors, we decided to go with a more modern and user friendly typeface and simple platte that took a step back from current color trends with a pop of green color to highlight the connection to the natural world. Our brand rational was further defined through the use animal silhouettes and wildlife photography.

04

Prototyping

LINK device

To prototype the hexagonal device, we first had a prop to test the measures and edges of the LINK. Then after some user testing with the size, we had the first prototype with laser cut wood and acrylic. This prop helped us with the first prototype user tests with the interaction gestures, since it was a new shape, we had 15 people select the most comfortable position to hold the hexaguide and to interact with it if it as if it were a screen.

We were also experiments with Arduino code for the vibration nudge and we had a mini motor connected with the Arduino and coded to be activated every 5 minutes, it worked beautifully. In the end, we had a remote control interaction for the final prototype that worked with a microchip and a battery attached to it. Once we had the shape confirmed on size, depth and interaction, we made a thumb map for our device and a 3D printed model made in Fusion 360.

Reflection Table

For the table prototype, we had the screens animated with time so the interaction would be timed correctly with the clicking. We wanted to use the hexagons as part of the brand in each of the touch points, so for the table we included them in the selection of the animal and the display of the buttons.

At first, we only wanted to show the negative impact of humans in the natural habitat of the animals who are labeled as endangered but after some review with peers and the professors, we realized this approach was to grim to show in a museum and it would require several levels of interaction that people could find confusing and not that entertaning for a museum experience. So, in the end we discussed and prototyped the table with the tree categories shown in biology to explain the evolutionary trajectory and conservation status of the species: Tree of Life, Web of Life and Future of Life.

For the table we had some iterations before the final design, as shown below.

Kiosk + Collective Wall

For the kiosk and the wall, we thought of an AR model with a particular animal (one that was part of the endangered list) to have a pledge to protect that particular creature. During the brainstorming sessions and thanks to the feedback of the professors and our peers we realized this part was the end of the journey could be more about the collective action instead of a particular effort to protect one animal, and have categories of animals and people, that approach was getting a little bit complex. So we tried the question:

What do you do to have a positive impact on the natural world?

Additionally, we thought on having a takeaway for the visitor. Stickers with your picture and the AR animal, to promote positive behavior from the individuals, yet it took us some time to remove this idea from the kiosk since our purpose was more about to inspire, and not to force actions in people.

For the wall, we took advantage of the hexagonal shapes fit to make a pattern. So that idea was easy to understand, but we had to take shoot 15 different people and do have 8 different messages about positive impact in the natural world for it to look legit in the video. At first we thought on having color coded categories in the wall to show the specific actions each of the visitors chose for a specific animal, but due to a limitation on time and the shift from the AR animal in the kiosk, we decided to not move forward with that idea.

05

What did I learn?

Team Collaboration:

I loved working in this project. It helped me understand the dynamics of a short-term design project and how to focus everyone’s effort based on their strengths. I also learned that is important to maintain a positive attitude and always have a break from time to time in order to avoid stress and confrontations, and if there is conflict… is better to always discuss it with a good cup of coffee.

There is more than meets the eye:

The amount of work that requires just to put up an exhibit in a museum is immense and there is so much happening behind the scenes that the visitors don't account for.

Complex Systems:

Additionally, the links between humans and nature are so complex that our idea is just a glimpse of these connections. And through the research, I realized how humans have as much negative impact as positive one, giving me enough hope to advocate for foundations that take care of the natural world and be part of their community.