Visual and Experience Design

MSU Museum

  • Name: MSU Museum

  • Field: Physical, Virtual, and Visual Experience Design

origin

Transforming traditional museum exhibits into immersive digital experiences that bridge the physical and virtual experiences.

Timeline

  1. Visit museum, researched and laid out current mission approach and floorplan
  2. Reorganized floorplan with interactive displays and aesthetic visuals
  3. Designed and prototyped a Virtual Reality space
a secondary preview of new visuals in the exhibit
Journey

Problem

Smaller museums, often operating with limited audiences and funding, face increasing challenges in staying relevant and competitive in the digital age. As technology continues to evolve, these institutions struggle to engage modern audiences who expect interactive, immersive, and accessible experiences.

Strategy

Don't compete with the digital age, embrace it. Build an experience for the museum involving technology.

Research

In visiting the MSU Museum, we engaged with both guests and curators to gather valuable insights and perspectives. In addition to capturing stakeholder voices, we conducted a thorough assessment of the exhibit's floor space. This allowed us to identify opportunities to maximize the physical area effectively, integrating technology in a way that aligned with the vision of stakeholders, including the audience, curators, and administration. Our research prioritized creating a balanced, technology-enhanced design that met the needs of all parties while maintaining the museum's mission.

A sketch of the initial new floor plan
A sketch of the initial new floor plan.

Challenges

A key challenge was finding ways to innovate with technology within the constraints of the existing physical space. This required solutions that avoided extensive renovations or construction, as these could disrupt the current exhibit and potentially deter an already limited audience from visiting. Balancing innovation with practicality was critical to maintaining accessibility and engagement throughout the project.

Response

To address this challenge, we reimagined the exhibit's floor plan to optimize the existing space. This redesign accommodated the integration of visual enhancements, interactive panels, and a dedicated Augmented Reality area, ensuring a seamless blend of physical and digital elements without requiring extensive renovations.

Moral

Solution

In making museums more interactive, and more of an experience, through technology, we approached the Michigan State University Museum Hall of Evolution exhibit to move further with the redesign—an effort to augment reality and the human experience (apologies for how cringe-worthy that sounds).

New brand for the Evolution Exhibit as part of the redesign
New brand for the Evolution Exhibit as part of the redesign.
New Evolution Exhibit brand and color scheme implemented in floor of exhibit
New Evolution Exhibit brand and color scheme implemented in floor of exhibit.
New Evolution Exhibit brand and color scheme implemented in display case of exhibit
New Evolution Exhibit brand and color scheme implemented in display case of exhibit.

As part of the interaction design, we developed prototypes of multi-touch interactive planets rather than static poster-board cards and used the large, empty space in between the display to create an AR experience.

We prototyped the Virtual Reality (VR) experience using javascript to demonstrate a 3D scene surrounding the user that one could view through moving their phone as a lens. This experience strove to convey a lesson, apart from setting the scene in different parts of the evolution of life, by allowing users to interact with the environment in different ways and see the impact humans, might have or have, had on the environment at different points in the planet's history.

Growth

Conducting research as part of a team and deriving a physical experience rather than solely web or digital from that experience.

Impact

Rapidly prototyping in javascript with a 3D parallax effect for a physical experience to immerse visitors to further promote call to action rather than a single button (on a website/app).