The Scale of Emissions

Interaction Design/Exhibition Design
Overview
The Scale of Emissions is a prototype for an educational exhibit that teaches users about how different carbon emitters and sinks compare to each other by allowing them to physically balance them out on a scale.
Download Process book

The Scale of Emissions

Interaction Design/Exhibition Design
Overview
The Scale of Emissions is a prototype for an educational exhibit that teaches users about how different carbon emitters and sinks compare to each other by allowing them to physically balance them out on a scale.
Download Process book

Understanding Project Needs

Project Overview
For our single term spanning project, we were tasked to create a product, wearable or exhibit that addresses environmental topics, social justice, or public health. We were not allowed to do anything digital. We worked in groups of 4, and my group chose to create an interactive exhibit that addresses the main problems we identified with most climate change messaging: a lack of focus, and lacking a sense of scale.
Goals
  • Create an interactive exhibit that educates users of all ages and backgrounds about emissions
  • Help users understand the scale of different carbon emitters and sinks, and how they compare
  • Honestly portray the realities of how carbon emissions swamp sinks, but still allow hope for change
Timeline
Oct 16-Dec 5 2024
Disciplines
Interaction Design
Exhibition Design
Responsibilities
Research
Project Management
Procedure Planning
Fabrication
Main Visual Designer
Tools
Adobe CC Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign
Rhino 8, Blender
Procreate
Notion
Foamcore, Resin, Acrylic, etc.
Problem Statement
The public needs to be aware of the fact that none of our current emissions sinks outweigh our current sources of emissions. Alongside that, the public needs to know about lesser known emissions sources, such as cows, or cropland conversion.

On the other hand, we don't want our exhibit to alienate viewers by being too doom-and-gloom. We want it to be friendly to all ages, and to motivate viewers to seek out real, possible, avenues of change.

All of this must be done in a way that requires little upkeep, no supervision/employees, and is accessible to all.

Research and Analysis

Desk Research
I started by researching effective interaction design for public educational exhibits. Most of my takeaways came from Chandler Screven’s Information Design in Informal Settings: Museums and Other Public Spaces.
Some key contributors to lasting education:
Design Efficiency
A user's motivation to actually learn from an exhibit must be fostered through design that lowers the amount of energy required to receive the information.
Mindful Attention
Only mindful attention is useful for information retention. Mindful attention requires facilitation of selective attention, and flashy displays are amusing, but tend to diffuse attention.
Interactivity
Ways of fostering mindful attention include: comparing and contrasting, searching for information, sharable facts, customization, and challenging questions and puzzles.  
Competitor Analysis
For initial competitor analysis, I created a moodboard of climate exhibits that I felt addressed most of the problems and goals addressed above. For this round of competitor analysis, we stayed very general, as we had yet to start the ideation process for what form our exhibit would take. (Sources included in Process Book)

Synthesis

User Personas
Next, I came up with the primary audience members the exhibit would be catering to, their needs, expectations, and frame of mind. As an all ages exhibit, I decided on 4 personas:
Person 1
A 7 year old boy who likes active play and has been introduced to topics around climate change but nothing specific.
His parents would prefer that his learning builds hope rather than inspiring anxiety.
Person 2
A 14 year old girl who isn’t very interested in “learning” on her visit, but is aware of climate change and amenable to new information. She enjoys interacting with anything exciting looking, but loses interest in things quickly.
Person 3
A 30 year old woman who is  sympathetic to the cause, but doesn’t invest much time into learning about it, due to her busy work schedule. She doesn’t want to do anything too physically active during her visit.
Person 4
A 60 year old man who knows a bit about climate change, but has lived during a time when information on the topic wasn’t as accurate or easy to find. He needs glasses to read small text, and never brings them anywhere.
Rapid Ideation – Crazy 8's

My group used the Crazy 8's technique to come up with a total of 36 ideas in 8 minutes. Then we voted (with stars pictured below) on the best ideas, and decided to combine the top three.

My Crazy 8's
Group Crazy 8's
Top Three
Refinement
Decision Matrix
    Sketch Solutions
    Scale Diagram, User Interaction Sketch, Storyboard, Empathy Maps
    I made the Scale Diagram, while I tasked my teammates with the User Interaction Sketch, Storyboard, and Empathy Maps. I assigned the tasks based on illustration skill, understanding of the project, and availability. My teammates contributions are included in the p.
    Structure and Prototyping
    I created a simple scale 3D Render, so that I could get a better understanding of how the parts will all fit together. This was very important because it made me realize that our pull tabs would take up more space than planned, and that we would need to install lights in the dioramas.
    We started prototyping with the moving parts, because I already knew how to make the dioramas, the outer shell and the blocks. I created two rapid prototype of the pull tabs from cardboard, as well as iterating on the layered acrylic panels behind them.
    User Feedback
    At this point, we pitched the prototype to our demographic of users for the final prototype, and collected their feedback. We compiled the top pain points.
    From this process, we found that the dioramas would be too small to present the final prototype on demonstration day. Because of this, we changed from three 2-inch dioramas to two 3-inch dioramas, and created extra labels for the blocks.(Note: the real exhibit would be much larger and wouldn't have this issue)

    Materialize

    Palettes
    The palettes chosen all reflect audience expectations for environmental topics. Greens and blues evoke eco-friendliness, mixed with calm clean grays. However, to avoid coming across too clinical, warm tones are introduced with grounding wood textures. The fonts have been chosen to look clean and future forward, with Bebas Neue being imposing and matter-of-fact, balanced with a slightly more approachable Avenir.
    Fabrication
    I created both dioramas, the text wrap, the shell, the platforms, and installed lighting. I assigned my teammates the rest of the tasks based on ability, and walked each of my teammates through the process of crafting with foamcore, the measurements of the project, what the scultpted coral should look like, and how to design and put together the blocks in Illustrator.

    Delivery

    Results
    On presentation day, we displayed our project for other students and visitors to test our prototype. Many were surprised by the interactive component, and many learned new facts about emissions from the exhibit that also surprised them.
    Takeaways
    After presenting, we learned where our project still had room for improvement, so we elected to add labels to the tabs. This project provided me with great ideation techniques, as well as frameworks for putting yourself into the shoes of an audience member. Finally, I got lots of practice making elevator pitches, and telling the story of a project, as seen in my process book.
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