Future City
TIME
4 weeks
SKILL
Experience design, Interaction Design, Video Edit
TOOL
Figma, Illustrator, Unity, Snap AR, After Effect
MY ROLE
Experience Designer
TEAM
Visual Designer + Content Designer + Researcher
Collaborating with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH), our team designed a gamified visiting experience using AR, motion detection, and spatial projection to connect exhibitions with real-life impacts, highlighting how human choices shape urban landscapes and advancing the museum’s mission to inspire responsibility for our shared future.
PROBLEM
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH), located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, is a natural history museum established in 1896. Renowned for its research activities, it is ranked among the top five natural history museums in the United States.
Analyzing the patron demographics revealed that visitors under 20 or in their 20s, known as Gen Z, represent a significant portion of onsite visitors. This highlights a promising opportunity to focus on and engage with this group further.
From interviews with Gen Zs, we discovered a disconnect between the exhibition and people's daily lives: everyday experiences and historical artifacts have minimal connection.
This observation led us to formulate our research question, which served as our guiding principle during the ideation process:
How might we design
an experience to help Gen Z patrons connect human choices with nature in urban settings?
PROCESS
The project spanned 4 weeks.
We began with research alongside the Carnegie Museum staff to identify opportunities. The majority of our time was dedicated to ideating and storyboarding to refine the experience details. We then moved on to executing the designs and developing the prototype for demo day, showcasing the key experience.
1 /
Research
Secondary Research
We started by performing desktop research on our target audience, Gen Z, along with field research at the museum location. We discovered that this group desires to form connections with others, frequently discusses sustainability, yet feels pessimistic about the future. Regarding the museum experience, they seek rich, unique, and gamified experiences.
Staff / User Interview
Later, we returned to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History to observe interactions and communication within the space. We studied how people reacted to various installations in different sections and conducted in-person interviews with 4 museum staff members and 10 museum patrons, 9 of whom were Gen Z.
2 /
Ideating +
Storyboarding
Affinity Mapping
Keeping the research question & design principles in focus, we dedicated hours to sketching and detailed mapping on the whiteboard, ultimately creating a gamified experience that we all appreciate.
3 /
Design Execution
UI Decision
Visual elements are essential in the experience, crafted to engage and captivate Gen Z's attention.
For the resources across the 7 sections, we chose a small-pixel retro style to balance reality with abstraction, aligning with Gen Z's aesthetic preferences.
Design System
In this project, our experience integrates phones, physical artifacts, gesture interactions, and a projection wall. An aligned design system ensures consistency and guides progress effectively.
Physical Artifacts
Incorporating physical elements like posters, AR scanning signs, and ticket designs at key touchpoints is crucial for creating a seamless and engaging experience.
Resources
The chart below illustrates the resources to be gathered and their transition states on the wall during the experience.
AR Experience
A hint will be placed around the key object to guide the user on what to scan, deliberately chosen for its connection and uniqueness to Pittsburgh.
When the object is scanned using the AR camera, an information card will appear, overlaying in space. They offer exclusive content and ultimately reward the user with the resource.
The Interactive Wall
We took a cue from Pittsburgh's landscape with the consistent retro style. In addition, we expanded the space to the floor, providing a prompt for users to start the interaction. Changes will occur when users step into the designated circle, to hint at the success of the step and the next steps.
Once the user activates the co-creating mode, gesture hints will appear on the wall, encouraging users to interact and convert the resources into living objects within the landscape.
The system diagram below illustrates how the Future City Wall creates an immersive experience, engaging visitors through advanced technology.
5 /
Demo
Public Demo Day
At the conclusion of the project, we presented our concept to the CMNH staff and demonstrated our functional prototype to the public.
For the demo day, we also incorporated interactive elements to replace the Wrapping Up experience, including a reflection poster and an AR filter that could be shared on Instagram.
SOLUTION
We introduced
a gamified co-creating experience that incorporates AR, motion detection, and space projection to bridge the gap between exhibitions and real life, illustrating how human decisions can impact the urban landscape.
The Space
We chose to create an experience that spans the entire museum instead of concentrating on a single section. We linked 7 permanent sections and established our main interaction area at the entrance to engage the public.
Design Principles
We developed principles grounded in our understanding of the target audience:
Seamlessness
The experience should be intuitive and non-intrusive to the original museum experience. This is the main reason we decided not to choose technologies such as VR headsets as the medium of the immersive experience.Gamification
The experience should incorporate engaging elements, motivate users to join without forcing them to do so.Community: The experience should include content that fosters connection between the local communities and invites people to co-create based on their shared vision or values.
The experience
The experience is seamlessly integrated into the entire visit, starting at the ticket counter and continuing through to the end. It unfolds across 4 stages, each situated in different spaces along the visitor’s journey:
Through this experience, we hope visitors will reflect on their daily choices and recognize that, ultimately, they hold the power to shape the future through the decisions they make.
REFLECTION
Overall, the design was well-received by the CMNH staff and other guests. People appreciated how effectively the experience aligned with the design principles and addressed the project's research question, as well as how the visual style match Gen Z's preferences.
In addition, there are aspects we could explore more thoroughly if we had more time in the future:
How can we broaden the experience and make it accessible to other generations?
Actual visitors range widely in age, from the elderly to children. It is important to consider how we can make the experience more accessible to all audiences and encourage dialogue across different generations.How to encourage next steps in real lives?
This experience has served as an introduction to making people aware of the connection between their decisions and the future. Moving forward, there are opportunities for CMNH and us as designers to intervene in people's actual lives—such as supporting initiatives or through donations—and to genuinely impact the urban landscape we live in.
minjeanchu@gmail.com