My responsibility was to envision and execute interactive designs that made the museum's exhibits both informative and immersive, enhancing the visitor's journey through the museum. I closely worked the the curators and museum staff to align on their experience goals and the development team over at Ideum to make these ancient artifacts come to life. I created all final assets, worked with the curators and the developers to iterate as we received feedback, facilitated user testing sessions, and oversaw installation leading up to the grand opening of the new wing of the museum.

The design process involved in-depth research into the museum's themes and target audience, followed by the creation of interactive elements that were both visually striking and educational. The the Dinosaur Spinners, we created many iterations on the user interface to tell the full story of the animals and the time period that still allowed for exploration and discovery. In the Digital Dig, I closely interviewed and streamlined the experience of digging up dinosaur bones and translated that to a touchscreen by working with the paleontologist and requesting for a 3D designer from our development partner to recreate environments in Texas where you could find fossil bones and tracks. For the Rock Art, we looked at many ways of displaying the art on the walls, navigation to and from the archeological sites, and even showing how they might have been painted through guided animations. We created click-through and early animated prototypes for all the interactive exhibits that we were able to test in NYC and on-site in San Antonio.

The implementation of these designs included a range of interactive displays and digital interfaces that allowed visitors to engage with the museum's content in a dynamic and memorable way. Each of these exhibits required the user to look closer and uncover different details that immersed them into the experience. Through user testing we added some memorable details like pronouncing a dinosaur's name, using animation to fast travel between different regions of Texas where a fossil site was known to be, and using elements like sliders to see what an element of rock-art currently looks like along with what it may have looked like when it was created.

This was my first project in the museum design space with Gallagher & Associates and highlighted the importance of visual and interactive design in educational spaces, reinforcing my commitment to creating experiences that both inform and inspire.

See the full project at Gallagher & Associates