Project Details
Our team was pitched this project by Imagine Children's Museum to improve the visitor's experience through an app. We conducted ethnographic research to examine the visitor experience at Imagine Children's Museum in Everett, WA to help us find a creative design solution.
We used ethnographic research to propse design solutions that extended to non-digital spaces. The Imagine Children’s Museum pitch allowed them an opportunity to look at how to bring technology and innovation into a space in mindful and specific ways.
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TIMELINE
SEPT-NOV. 2019 -
ROLE
Visual Designer + UX Researcher -
DELIVERABLES
Brand Guide, Wayfinding Mockups, User Journey Map, Personas, Coded Data + Research Findings, Presentation Design -
FULL DOCUMENTATION
Presentation -
TYPE
COURSEWORK
Project Details Continued
Design Process
Our team went through each stage of the design process with our community partner. We conducted site visits, coded our data, created personas based on our findings, and completed a user journey map. Through observation, we found two opportunities to engage visitors.
I worked on the team focused on the physical space and came up with ideas surrounding the experience from the first initial contact of finding out about the museum through their experience navigating throughout the exhibits once they visit Imagine Children's Museum. When doing site visits, I observed vistiors having to ask museum employees for directions to the water fountains, bathrooms, and elevators. The signage around the museum was hard to read and fairly small.
Wayfinding Improvements
I proposed a series of wayfinding materials that used a system familar to people of all ages and backgrounds through the use of large text, solid colors, and icons. The signage I created was translated to Spanish and put on the sign as well, as Spanish was the second most popular language visitors at Imagine Children's Museum spoke. Speaking Spanish myself, it was easy to translate and correctly phrase the exhibit names. I also included icons next to the exhibit names, considering visitors that might not speak English or Spanish, as well as young kids who may not know how to read yet.
Speculative Design
A more speculative idea I proposed that the museum could implement, was a centralized kiosk with a map. Speculative in that this may require a longer timeline than the wayfinding signage, but not completely out of reach for the museum.