Future of water: Immersive Educational Modules on Water Conservation

Case study

This project is sponsored by Durham Museum of Life and Science . The aim of this project is to explore new approaches to visualization that communicate future climate change scenarios through the design of high fidelity prototypes of interactive displays and responsive environments in a science museum setting. Our project is based off of the report 'Estimating Future Water Availability and Streamflow in the Southeast' by Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center (SECASC)

Project type

Speculative Design, UX Design, Space Design

Timeline

AUG-NOV 2023

Project type

For this project, I led the ideation, interaction design, and prototyping of our final interface for the touch table. Additionally, I contributed to the creation of animated graphics for the final video.

Approach

To create an engaging museum experience, we translated complex research from SECASC into interactive, user-friendly exhibits. Our focus included:

Data Visualization: Designing clear, dynamic visuals to communicate water availability and prediction data over time.
Interactive Displays: Developing hands-on exhibits to explore watershed scenarios influenced by climate and landscape.
Multi-Sensory Design: Incorporating sound, visuals, and touch for immersive learning.
Collaborative Learning: Enabling group interactions to foster shared exploration of water-related challenges.

Challenge

Some of the challenges we aimed to tackle were

Simplifying Complexity: Converting dense scientific data into engaging, understandable formats.
Data Gaps: Visualizing uncertainty in regions with limited stream gage data.
Audience Diversity: Designing exhibits for all ages and knowledge levels.
Technical Integration: Aligning multi-sensory elements and interactions with the museum’s physical and technological constraints.

Final Design

The exhibit

Here is an interactive exhibition, exploring the future of North Carolina's water conditions based on the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center (SECASC) Research project on, "Assessment of Water Availability and Streamflow Characteristics in the Southeastern US for current and future climate and landscape conditions".

Liatris is not just a proactive tool; it is a reactive augment that facilitates on-the-fly decision-making. For instance, when Luigi receives an alert about an expected temperature rise during a journey, he effortlessly adjusts by selecting a quick action suggested by the AI. He then drags and pins critical data to the dock, prioritising live updates and journey-specific information, ensuring he stays ahead of any challenges that may arise. Here's a walkthrough Liatris, through our scenario.

The Interface

Key features

Intuitive Touch -tables

Seamlessly communicate with large interactive screens for collaborative data manipulation.

Data oriented visualizations

Presents complex data in easily digestible formats, aiding research and understanding.

360 degree projection space

Offers immersive visualisations for enhanced learning and engagement.

Interactive walls

Interactive walls facilitate effortless exploration of the exhibit space.

Gesture controlled interfaces

Utilises sensors (camera, sound, motion, touch) for intuitive navigation and interaction.

Saving your progress

The interface integrates with cloud storage, to let you store your progress. and pick up from where you left.

Design Process

Persona

We chose a college student as our persona, focusing on her need for comprehensive research material presented in an easily digestible format. She seeks a platform that offers quick access to information and facilitates collaboration on her projects.

Storyboard

We developed a storyboard for our persona, which was instrumental in refining the interface and shots for our video. The storyboard mapped out our persona's journey and detailed her actions, guiding the development of our interface's vibe, and interactions.

Interface development

We went through a long process of make-remake and remake again to reach our final interface design. We started off with narrowing down the requirements for our interface, followed by ideation and wireframes.

Intuitive &
interactive

360 •
projection

Gesture controlled

Collaborative

Data
oriented

Easily
Digestible

Easy
navigation

Lo-fi sketch and wireframes

Lo-fi: Order

Timeline

Lo-fi: Dashboard

Sketched ideation

Timeline

Lo-fi: Order

Timeline

Sketched ideation

Lo-fi: Dashboard

Hi-fi wireframes

Touch table entry screen

Touch-table interface : Timeline access for two people. Gestural login

Multiple visual options for digestible content

Upon reaching the table, it prompts you to pick a river basin to begin with.

It populates with a timeline, and overlay options to know more about it.

All overlays open, scroll through the timeline for the data to populate with past records and predictions.

Prompt to login to save your progress.

3D Immersive space design development

We had all the ideas and interface in our hands, and we then moved to creating a 3D space in Blender and shooting a video for our storyboard. We worked on creating an interactive animation of the water basins for the big screen, a 360-degree space, and an introduction animation for our video.

Development stage of the 3D space, created using Blender

Reflection

What I learnt

This project pushed me to think creatively about turning complex data into engaging, interactive visuals that anyone could understand. I explored new tools like Blender, tackled multi-sensory design, and discovered how powerful collaboration can be in bringing ambitious ideas to life. The biggest hurdles were finding ways to represent missing data, simplifying dense research without losing depth, and navigating the technical limits of a museum setting—but each challenge taught me something new and made the process even more rewarding.

What’s next for this case study

Reflecting on the challenges and feedback from the project, there are areas where this project can evolve further,

Conduct User Testing: Gather feedback from museum visitors to evaluate the effectiveness of the interactive displays and identify areas for improvement.
Enhance Accessibility: Incorporate additional features, such as audio guides or simpler visuals, to ensure the exhibit is engaging for a broader audience, including children and individuals with disabilities.
Expand Data Visualization: Add more granular data for regions with limited streamgage information to better represent uncertainty and enhance the learning experience.
Iterate Multi-Sensory Features: Explore ways to incorporate tactile elements or physical interactions, such as water flow models, to make the exhibit more immersive and memorable.