MASTER THESIS
My team collaborated with the Children's Museum of Atlanta to reimagine the “Pick a Seed” exhibit. I led the user research, providing evidence-based guidance to the design team as they created a hands-on digital experience for children. This approach increased visitor engagement, improved accessibility, and transformed learning into immersive play. We also supported the museum manager in drafting a $100K funding proposal to enhance the exhibit’s impact.
OUTCOME
Won Most Outstanding Project Award for the Human-Computer Interaction (MS-HCI) program at Georgia Tech in Spring 2024.
PROBLEM
The interactive is overshadowed by others, garnering minimal interest and participation from visitors. When used, families, particularly children, depart prematurely. An ineffective digital interactive experience largely contributed to low retention.
SOLUTION
Plant Maze is a hands-on digital interactive that takes children on a journey through each stage of plant growth. Children move the rod to follow a seed's journey, answer questions using the console's buttons, and discover ways to care for plants. In the end, they snap a picture of themselves as farmers proudly displaying the crops they've grown and learn their nutrients and practical ways to include them in their daily meals.
PROJECT GOALS AND HYPOTHESIS
What do we want to accomplish with this project?
Our main goal is to improve a children's museum exhibit on plant lifecycle education, enhancing engagement while adhering to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and accessibility standards and meeting stakeholder objectives. Following brainstorming, we identified the following points:
USER RESEARCH
Methods
The surveys were completed via Qualtrics. A total of 48 participants, consisting of parents with neurodiverse and neurotypical children, took part. The 13 interviews were completed in 45-minute intervals and included 4 parents, 3 child psychologists, 2 occupational therapists, 3 elementary teachers, and 1 inclusive museum specialist.
i. Survey
The surveys were completed via Qualtrics. A total of 48 participants, consisting of parents with neurodiverse and neurotypical children, took part of.
Survey takeaways
Children learn best by doing
Parents believe that integrating hands-on activities can enhance their child's learning experience and enthusiasm when acquiring new knowledge.
Be engaged in imaginative role-playing.
Parents seek exhibit experiences that promote creative thinking, cognitive and physical development, and readiness for real-world situations.
ii. Interviews
The 13 interviews were completed in 45-minute intervals and included 4 parents, 3 child psychologists, 2 occupational therapists, 3 elementary teachers, and 1 inclusive museum specialist.
Interview takeaways
Differentiation
A multimodality experience can enhance learning, motivation, and creativity for children and help cater to different learning preferences.
Imaginative play & role playing is critical
Prompt divergent/open-ended questions to children to promote independent exploration and learning on their own terms.
Promote autonomy & freedom of choice
Encourage children to make their own conclusions; there are no right answers.
Provide real-life connection
Parents and child specialists agree to include some element within the exhibit that children can personally connect with.
Synthesis
To consolidate our findings, we conducted an affinity map to guide us toward a specific problem space. Our focus was on extracting prominent ways to address children's diverse learning styles, necessitating differentiated approaches to meet various educational needs. We segmented the information into different topics to identify areas where students require assistance.
only 1/3 of our entire board!
Personas
Based on our user findings, we have listed below the types of users who will benefit the most from the product. We created three diverse stories about children of varying ages, abilities, and genders to ensure we align with the core value of the project: ensuring every child in the museum is included and represented.
Key Research Findings
The main insight was that children learn best by doing. The other insights helped us confirm our hypothesis that
Freedom of choice
Create a product for diverse socio-economic backgrounds. Integrating a feature to educate users on practical pet financial expectations that will ease their financial burden.
Promote Divergent Thinking
We found that the primary motivation for pet owners to adopt a pet was companionship. The rest were either influenced by friends/family or had other reasons for adoption, such as saving a life, preventing overpopulation at shelters.
Connection/Knowledge Sharing
By pairing new owners with experienced pet owners, we could facilitate understanding pet behaviors. This connection also offers resources and tips for addressing common behavioral issues others encounter, providing valuable support.
Design Requirements
Our main design challenge was to determine whether incorporating hands-on activity might enhance traction and popularity for Pick A Seed. Our product also needed to, based on our insights and constraints:
Functional requirements
01
Incorporate hands-on physical element to invite children’s natural curiosity and personal experiences, motivating them to keep exploring.
02
Showcase information in various forms (captions, adaptive story visuals, kinesthetic) and differentiated levels to accommodate children with cognitive abilities and aid in learning retention.
03
Allow for children to reach different personal conclusions. Incorporate multiple ways of play and ways for children to succeed.
04
Immerse children within the crop lifecycle by engaging the 5 senses through bright colors, animations, music/sound, and short videos.
Non functional requirements
01
Intuitive and flexible, allowing children to use it in a manner that suits their abilities and preferences.
02
Relatable examples (ex. child’s personal life, culture, real-world examples, school examples, etc) and have familiar elements to promote a memorable experience.
03
Accessible and adaptable to cater a wider audience (ex. parents, museum staff, teachers, etc) by abiding to Universal Design for Learning.
04
Promote inclusivity and diversity by celebrating the diverse museum population.
IDEATION
Co-Design Session
To kickstart our design phase, we invited 12 graduate students, a mix of industrial design and HCI backgrounds to collaborate and brainstorm potential design solutions for the re-design of Pick A Seed. The session took 1 hour. Here are some of the sketches:
Sketching
Following the co-design session, we brainstormed ideas as a team and presented them to stakeholders for feedback. The images below showcase the type of experience we aimed to enhance, aligning with our user findings.
Plop-it!
Children choose a crop to care for and grow. By using the quirky handles and knobs, they can control the growth process. For example, the spin/rotate knob controls the rain, while the pull knob represents digging.
Grow a plant!
Interactive hands-on activities featuring sensory experiences that simulate gardening and planting real crops. Learners will be guided by a friendly animation on the screen, which provides tools and poses questions.
Concept Feedback with CMA Stakeholders
After presenting all the sketches and analyses demonstrating how they align with the research findings, the stakeholders unanimously agreed that "Plant a Maze" was the best overall concept. As a team, we saw the potential of this digital interactive to enhance children's understanding of plant growth. Below are the reasons for their decision:
- Physical and digital elements for all concepts
- Durability and longevity
- Tangible quality of fruit prizes
- Farmer photo opportunity
- Recording and written in bilingual
Digital Prototype
Scroll through the carousel and see the development from sketching to Hi-Fi wireframes of plant maze!
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