Client: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
The Challenge:
Design an activity for Q?rius, the teen innovation space, that engages visitors and incorporates themes from the Outbreak Exhibit.
The Outcome:
The activities were so successful in Q?rius that they were used as the model for a digital interactive in the Exhibit and adopted by museums worldwide as part of a traveling exhibit.
In 2018, the museum opened a new exhibit – Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World. Our role was to create a visitor experience in Q?rius that would connect visitors to the themes of the exhibit in an interactive way.
Project Management
In developing the Outbreak activities, we used the tools discussed here, including a development log, testing forms, photos of prototypes and more. The tools allowed anyone to see the evolution of the activity and helped us track the development over time. In the end, we had an accurate picture of how long it took to develop this successful activity and a visual history of its evolution.
Ideation
The ideation phase of this project was experimental and fun. We used rough concept sketches and spent a lot of time in the halls testing ideas with visitors. Our approach involved testers from different departments, and included educators as well as subject matter experts. The first draft of the activity – solving an outbreak – came together relatively quickly and was so successful that we decided to develop a Part II. We envisioned a ‘lab’ where visitors could be ‘scientists’ and examine the differences between viruses and bacteria. The idea turned out to be a failure! But that was OK. By encouraging experimentation early in the process, failures were anticipated and did not impact the overall schedule. More importantly, the design team hadn’t invested much time and energy into the idea — so it was easy to let go of things not working.
Viruses in prototype
Game Design and Prototyping
My research on game design gave us ideas for what to try next. Good games have a storyline that is compelling. We decided to build on the story we had created in Part I. Now, the ‘Outbreak’ was an ‘Epidemic’! One hundred people were sick and visitors had to look at information used by epidemiologists to identify the pathogen. The sense of urgency and expanded story appealed to visitors — but our first prototype fell flat: It was visually boring and included too much information.
Another principle of good game design is to make the game so visually appealing that people are curious about it before they even understand what it is about. So we rethought the physical design and experimented with making the clues game pieces and creating exaggerated models of pathogens. It worked! Immediately, visitors approached the table to see the strange shapes and colors, and then transitioned easily into the activity. Interestingly, we had many debates about whether ‘instructions’ were needed, separate from the activity. In observing visitors during our prototyping phase, it was clear that they didn’t. Color-coding and icons were sufficient for them to understand what to do. This concept of ‘immediate apprehendability’ (allowing visitors to quickly understand what to do without excessive effort) became a design element we applied successfully to other activities as well.
Measuring Success
Before the new process, one of the biggest challenges in designing a new visitor experience was knowing when it was ‘done’. What did it mean to be ‘done’? We used the principles we developed early on, based on the strategic goals of the Museum, and combined them with our desired learning goals and objectives for the visitor experience. The result was an evaluation continuum that began with sparking a visitor’s interest, then engaging them and finally, inspiring them. Our Measures of Success included thresholds that would be measured via both timing-and-tracking and visitor interviews. Based on our baseline assessment of the activities then on the floor, none of the activities met the new thresholds! The two-part Outbreak activity was the first time we were putting the Measures of Success to the test on a new activity. Could we meet the thresholds? Would the data tell us if an activity was ‘done’ and ready for fabrication?
We collected the data and happily, the performance exceeded our expectations. The data showed that the activity was meeting our goals — a win not only for the activity but for our new process as well. We had put the visitor at the center of the approval process, and objectively measured when an activity should move on to fabrication.
Measuring the Outbreak prototype vs. the existing activities
Fabrication
To finish the activity, I created a design brief that outlined the colors and look and feel for each phase. The design I had developed for the prototype was working well, so this phase came together quickly. I worked with the graphic designer to finalize the design, and ran the options past teens to get feedback. I then worked with Exhibits to complete the printing and mounting. We needed a design that was flexible in order that the Q?rius team could set up the activity as needed, which we achieved with velcro, magnets and plexiglass. We used a Formlabs printer to make 3-D prints of some of the viruses. Three of the five pathogens were not suited to 3-D printing, so I created the remaining viruses and painted them all.
In Production
The two-part Outbreak activity has been a resounding success with teen visitors. Visitors spend an average of six minutes on each phase of the activity. Stop by Q?rius and give it a try! There’s an epidemic looming, and people are counting on you….
Thank God we found this! We were so bored.