As the main experience designer on these three spaces, I was responsible with refining the visual branding and style that had begun with the exhibit design created at the beginning of the project. With each of these I also created many animated prototypes that would then be used as inspiration for animators and motion designers when creating the final films for the Hall of Fame Film and Writer's Room. In the Juke Joint, I was given full creative responsibility and worked with one of our creative technologists to fully immerse ourselves in the space and be surrounded by the Blues artists and music of the time.

Our process involved deeply understanding the cultural and historical context, then translating it into visual narratives that are both informative and evocative. In the Hall of Fame Kiosks, we had 40 inductees for the inaugural class. We created a CMS system and templates for the storytelling in order to have a great way to tell future inductees stories that incorporated images, audio, and video. I began the Juke Joint experience with two prompts: An interactive that tells you the stories or blues musicians, and an interactive that allows you to create your very own blues super group. I worked out all the UX with our content developer and creative technologist to create the experience of being in an authentic Juke Joint, where the proprietor, Maxie, tells you the stories of these great artists while you listen to the super groups on the speakers inside the physical space. For the Writer's Room, I created technical prototypes and animated elements on a typewriter that was then shared with our motion designer. I would continue to supervise this exhibit as art director with our developer.

We iterated upon the designs and conducted user testing sessions in NYC. Implementing our beta versions took place mostly on-site in Meridian, Mississippi, where we made further refinements to match the space. The Hall of Fame Kiosks were coming along really well thanks to the work I did designing the templates. Out content developers had no problem creating stories with all the combinations I provided. I spent most of my time refining the Juke Joint experience adjusting colors and animations. The animated coaster I created was so liked by the client that they made it into a refrigerator magnet available in the gift shop. I also spent time creating the projection mapping assets that we then passed to our motion designer to create the Writer's Room animations.

This project underscored the importance of visual storytelling in creating meaningful visitor experiences, blending history with contemporary design. The people at the MAEEX did an amazing job of collaborating with us along the way. I was able to lead my first small teams on two areas of the museum as well spend my time in my craft making digital experiences that are really special.

See the full project at Gallagher & Associates