Get on My Frequency Interactive Exhibit

Museums, zoos, and aquariums are prime locations for learning about history, art, science, and more. I was a part of a multidisciplinary team of mechanical engineers, computer scientists, and visual artists. We were tasked to design and fabricate an interactive, multisensory exhibit about waves for the Birch Aquarium at Scripps in La Jolla, California. I was the UX Team leader, in charge of all aspects of exhibit design.

However, the sound matching frequency game did not particularly reflect any of the research being done at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. As a result, the exhibit concept and design was pivoted to include some form of research into our exhibit.

Thus, the exhibit concept pivoted from a sound matching game about a single frequency tone to a noise pollution filtering game. Noise pollution is a major problem that marine animals face. They must tune into a frequency range to distinguish meaningful signals (i.e. other animals) from noise (i.e. ship engines). This exhibit concept still utilizes frequency as the method for signaling sound frequency ranges to listen to.

When the exhibit is at its orginal baseline, all the sounds of the ocean play. Fish and whale calls to ship engine sounds all play at once. As the guest interacts with the exhibit to narrow down to specific frequency ranges, the sounds that a guest hears dynamically changes to reflect the position of the sliders.

In order to create a floor-ready exhibit by the end of 10 weeks, many rounds of usability testing was performed on all aspects of the exhibit design. We performed testing from the game play software, the number of bars to make a waveform, the number of buttons to place, to the instructional panel. The results of usability testing informed the design decisions that were then reflected in the 3D Solidworks renderings of the exhibit. The renderings were used to build the final exhibit.

The biggest challenge during this internship was working in an interdisciplinary team. We all came from different backgrounds, so communicating with each other was a constant battle for us. I had to learn how to both talk to and listen to other team members. While it sounds simple enough, I found that we would often hear what we wanted to hear, or simply not entirely understand what the other person was saying. This led to quite a few miscommunication problems and key decisions were left unaddressed or unimplemented. Communication is not just telling someone something. It is understanding why something was being said, comprehending what was said, being able to have a discussion about it, and transforming words into action.

Additionally, because I was the only member who had experience with UX, I had the opportunity to teach other team members about the human-centered design process. It was a unique opportunity to teach others about how to create detailed interaction flows, conduct usability testing sessions, and think from the user's point of view. This made me a better designer because it made me more cognizant of what kind of designer I was and how I communicated design decisions to other people, especially those who do not come from the same background as me.