Living West opened November 2013 at History Colorado Center in Denver. The show invites visitors to explore the complex relationships between people, the land, and water. Three stories illuminate these relationships: The People of Mesa Verde, The Dust Bowl, and The Mountains Today.
Using Yucca
This physical interactive guides visitors through making cordage out of yucca twine. Ancestral Pueblo people used similar methods to make cordage 700 years ago. The instructions for this piece took many rounds of testing to iron out. Illustrations helped, and a silent video demonstrates the basic process as well.
What's Your Water Footprint?
Did you leave the water running while you brushed your teeth? Did you wash your face? Did you eat toast? This experience asks visitors to recall choices they made that morning to determine how much water they used. With each choice, visitors are instructed to pump gallons of water into a tall tube. The tube tallies their morning water usage. They can compare their water use to that of the average ancestral Pueblo person and find ways to cut down. Choice was an important part of the architecture of this experience, but it was difficult to incorporate into simple printed instructions. Iterative prototype testing helped design an experience that works.
Mysteries of Mesa Verde
This set of 16 brief videos feature archaeologists and Pueblo people answering visitors’ questions about Pueblo ancestors. The kiosk program allows visitors to guide their own experience, choosing from topics and questions to get the answer they’re most curious to find. Front-end evaluation studies identified which topics and questions were of most interest to visitors.
Shana developed interview scripts, interviewed archaeologists and Pueblo people, and directed video editing for this project. Her goal was to use common visitor questions as lures to direct visitors toward the questions they should be asking, and toward the information that archaeologists and Pueblo people find vital to share. Through the visitor research and interviews, Shana learned a lot about the storytelling process and about speaking volumes in the space of a short chapter.
Water Through the Mountains
This 6’ square interactive water table is modeled after water diversion projects in Colorado that bring water from west to east. Visitors pump water and manage dams, reservoirs, and valves to try to get enough water to everyone. Written instructions and visual feedback, including moving parts and LED light towers, guide visitors through the experience. Through designing and testing this water table, Shana learned a lot about the importance of clear visual feedback for visitors. The experience helped her hone iterative prototyping skills and write clearer instructions.
Carbon footprint
This activity was challenging because the visitor experience goal changed after the physical interactive had been completed. Shana had to find a way to make the new goal fit the old equipment. Iterative prototyping helped identify where to place labels and what words to use to call visitors’ attention to the right things at the right time.
“We learned about the use of carbon gases and how our actions directly impacts our environment. It allows the user to make choices and depending on those choices is the amount of carbon gases being used. Pretty cool to watch.”
