Pac-Man In the Grad Show:
Project Name: ECUAD Grad Show
Project Client: Emily Carr University of Art and Design
Exploration: Design Research, UI/UX Design - group project (Group leader)
Year: 2018
The Emily Carr University Grad Show is a yearly event that shows the work of graduating students. It is a well-attended show but based on student’s experience and assumptions, we find the show is problematic in its wayfinding signs, exhibit spaces, and communication.
In this project, we not only applied secondary research to other exhibitions, but also performed a wide range of primary research to ascertain the best methodologies in putting together a good exhibition.
We proposed an interactive App that would provide an exhibition map for guests to follow, to play, and offer an online platform for connection with our artist/designer.
For more details research process, please visit my Medium Blog: https://medium.com/@crystalz1506
Project Client: Emily Carr University of Art and Design
Exploration: Design Research, UI/UX Design - group project (Group leader)
Year: 2018
The Emily Carr University Grad Show is a yearly event that shows the work of graduating students. It is a well-attended show but based on student’s experience and assumptions, we find the show is problematic in its wayfinding signs, exhibit spaces, and communication.
In this project, we not only applied secondary research to other exhibitions, but also performed a wide range of primary research to ascertain the best methodologies in putting together a good exhibition.
We proposed an interactive App that would provide an exhibition map for guests to follow, to play, and offer an online platform for connection with our artist/designer.
For more details research process, please visit my Medium Blog: https://medium.com/@crystalz1506
ASSUMPTIONS
DESIGN QUESTION:
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SECONDARY RESEARCH
Our secondary research mainly involved gathering existing data and examples, from both our school and other schools. Through emailing the degree exhibition committee, we received floor plans and student artwork catalogs. We also collected examples from other art schools, looking at their branding strategies, wayfinding signs, and exhibition facilities. PRIMARY RESEARCH 1. ONLINE SURVEY The online survey is created using the online survey software - survey monkey. We posted the link on social media platforms to collect responses. The questions lean towards a more general scope, asking things such as what is the most important element people look for in a Grad show. 2. QUESTIONNAIRES The targeted audiences for our questionnaires are the 3rd-year, 4th-year students and faculty in our school, as they are the students who had been through the Grad show at both our old campus and new campus and they would have more experience and personal stories to share. |
DESIGN TOOLKIT: PARTICIPATORY DESIGN ACTIVITY
We designed an activity to let participants point out the areas in the Grad Show that they find well done (green sticker) or problematic (red sticker), as well as leave some comments, suggestions beside. Photos of the show attached to the floor plan to trigger their memory. During the activity, we talked to people, observed their behaviour and listened to their stories.
The design toolkit helps us receiving different helpful feedbacks from either student or faculty, we got much more useful information than we expected. The red and green stickers visualize the amount of feedbacks, provides the comments from a visual perspective directly. |
DATA SYNTHESIS
SOLUTION: INTERACTIVE WAYFINDING
Targeting the wayfinding and the problem of unfair spaces, we created a mobile technology (APP) that borrows the idea of the classic arcade game - PAC man. The guests would be Pac-man, and the artworks are the dots, with our school being the maze. Guests would navigate throughout the school, and each artwork would have a number that corresponds with the dots on the digital floorplan.
They simply have to tap the number to “eat the dots”, at the end, they would notice any dots that are being left out and could navigate back to that space to view the artwork. This way, no one’s artwork would be missed, and the guests will also easily find their way across the show.
Design Features:
- Clear location and suggestion routes
- Online artist statements
- Online contact box that can send messages to the artist directly
- Data collection for committees
For those guests who don’t have the app, there is a quick QR code attached to the artwork that would also lead them to the online platform, which contains all the information about the artist and their work, with a contact option through which guests can communicate with the artists directly.