Immersive Pop-up Exhibit
Role //
Interaction Designer, Prototyper
Duration //
Dec 2022
Tools //
Physical Prototyping, Adobe Ai/Ps, Sketchup
An immersive Pop-up Exhibit experience designed around Charles and Ray Eames’ iterative design process, concept of innovating as a last resort, and attention Human-Centered-Design. As users move through the exhibit, they will feel as if they are moving through time and seeing how the Eames’ work builds on top of each other.
Problem Space
Current museums often use digital technology in ineffective ways—for example, films are often playing on loop becoming background noise, and the mental mapping of lighting and text to artwork are confusing. In this project, I look at how to use digital technology to enhance the visitor’s experience in ways museums are not currently doing by exploring how technology can augment content, increase learning and/or make the museum experience more interactive.
Moodboard
Through creating a moodboard, I began to conceptualize how my exhibit should look with regards to type, flooring, and walls.
Moodboard
Process
Moving forward with the concept of users feeling as if they are moving through time when walking through the exhibit, I began to design the layout of the exhibit. Users will first move through an artist introduction space, then a hallway of work, and finally a domestic space that exhibits the Eames’ work in context.
Exhibit layout
Moving forward with the concept of users feeling as if they are moving through time when walking through the exhibit, I began to design the layout of the exhibit. Users will first move through an artist introduction space, then a hallway of work, and finally a domestic space that exhibits the Eames’ work in context. This is done so that users first learn about the Eames’ work, and then see and interact with the Eames’ work in the space that they were designed for.
Exhibit Layout
Parti Diagram
Physical Prototyping
Rather than actually creating the exhibit in real size, I decided to understand the scale and considerations to space with the next best thing—building the space out in foam core. Following a 1-inch to 2 feet scale, I began to understand the placement of objects and the scale of interactions using a scaled-down physical model.
Physical Model
Close-ups
Lo-Fi Prototyping
Through the use of an arduino to LoFi prototype how interactions would look in real time, I began to conceptualize how I wanted users to interact with and move through the exhibit.
Prototyping with touch sensor and LED light
Hardware diagram
Main Interactions
The main interactions that happen during the tour are:
1. Film that automatically starts when the user enters the introduction space
2. Lights that light up chronologically as user walks down the hallway
3. Directly interacting with the Eames’ work in the domestic space
Auto-playing film
Walking down hallway
Directly interacting with Eames’ work in living room space
Project Reflection
Through creating an immersive Pop-up exhibit for the Eames, I learned a lot about how to effectively incorporate digital interactions in a physical space—interactions do not necessarily need to be complex to completely change a user’s experience with a space. Through the help of physical prototyping, Lofi Prototyping, Moodboards, Parti Diagrams, and simple visualizations, concepts and ideas can be effectively communicated without needing to go through the effort of creating a High-Fidelity prototype. These methods also allow for myriad interactions to be experimented with, allowing for the most complex interactions and ideas to be visualized and a “fail fast” approach to iterating.
And more importantly, I was also able to learn more about the Eames’ revolutionary contributions to the world of design.