The Pacific Science Center is the nation's first science and technology center and serves nearly 1 million people in the Pacific Northwest, providing exhibits on STEM education. In 2020, the Pacific Science Center sought to commission my design agency for our data visualization expertise to create a new museum experience focusing on educating the public on data collection and analysis. My role was to provide the core visual direction and interaction flows.
Working with the client, our creative director, and a content strategist, we had several brainstorming sessions outlining our goals for the exhibit. As a result, we decided that the ideal outcomes of the experience should be to:
To understand what features we should incorporate into the exhibit design, I audited 8 of the most visited museum displays. I took note of several observations to help guide the creative vision for our team:
With the goals and best practices for the exhibit defined, we worked collaboratively with the client to analyze museum displays and web experiences that featured shared data collection or translated information inputs into visual forms. After reviewing the examples with the client, we determined that having an interactive survey would be the best way to capture and analyze the data of museum visitors.
To ensure the survey questionnaire was engaging, we brainstormed towards an idea where digital avatars represented the culmination of each visitor's responses. The response provided by each visitor captured from the questionnaire would tie to a unique visual property of the avatar and be available for the public to view in a communal space.
The content of the survey questions would relate to the broader Pacific Northwest and also inquire about personal preferences. Some of the inspiration for the interactive survey design concept came from examples like the "Space Needle Skypad Interactive Wall," "Tomorrow's World," and "Codeology." Through multiple workshops with the client and a content writer, we wrote several themed questions and used affinity mapping to categorize them.
The exhibit's site featured six large paneled walls approximately 12 feet high with an open kiosk area. To utilize the real estate, our creative director and developer decided that using two side-by-side projectors together would be the best option for displaying a large volume of avatars instead of tv screens. The common area adjacent to the projector wall would contain the kiosks where visitors fill out the survey.
For each touchpoint, such as the large projection area and the individual touchscreen kiosk, I wireframed sequential flows for what screens and actions users would see and make. Then, with my creative director and lead developer, we reviewed all the interaction flows and refined them removing interactions that would take too much time to develop or detract from the experience.
In an internal team workshop, we created mood boards and prototyped several ideas for how visual properties could apply to modular avatars using a visual programming language called "Processing." Some of the early visual themes we took inspiration from were in nature, such as sea creatures, grains of sand, and bubbles.
However, when presenting the options to the client, we received feedback that each direction felt too literal and needed to be abstracted. As a result, we explored a more abstract approach and developed a visual framework based on simple shapes, textures, and patterns to address this issue.
Applying the visual framework to mid-fidelity screens, we were finally able to get buy-in from our client on the visual direction and make further improvements to typography, placement, and sizing of filters and buttons. In addition, we had another internal design review and removed non-essential screens to let users dive straight into the content.
The visual combination of playful abstract shapes, bright, colorful gradients, quirky survey questions, and small multiples over a dark background worked exceptionally well for exhibit immersion and engagement. The reception was well received, with many visitors on opening day.
The original RFP for the exhibit stated that "We Are Data" would temporarily exist for only a year. However, speaking with the staff and client at the Pacific Science Center, it seems that "We Are Data" is now one of the most popular exhibits and is being considered for an extension. Here are some of the numbers in terms of outcomes:
This project was particularly fascinating because the outcome of what the data looked like was unpredictable for us. The beauty of a project like this is that it is a true experimental sandbox with endless possibilities. The outcomes change every time the Pacific Science Center resets the software program and data is input from new visitors.
This project encouraged me to be comfortable with uncertainty and thinking abstractly. As a designer, you rarely receive wholly blue-sky and open-ended work, so having the opportunity to work outside of a project with a well-defined product and problem area to solve was a great challenge.
Furthermore, I am proud to have my work featured in a museum supporting curiosity and learning. I originally come from a STEM background and want to inspire people to ask questions, develop hypotheses, conduct experiments, and evaluate evidence in all aspects of their lives.
Unifying human development data teams through a shared design language
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