The Sweet Auburn Historic District’s namesake stems from the mile and a half long Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia. Once dubbed the “Richest Negro street in the world” and the hub of the civil rights movement, Sweet Auburn has suffered from lack of investment and abandonment for past two decades. Today, revitalization and preservation efforts are reshaping the face of Sweet Auburn.
My Role
UX Design & Research
Skills
User Interviews, Need Identification, Interaction Flow, Product Conceptualization, Wireframing, Visual Design, Low & High-Level Prototyping
Teammate
Aditya Anupam & Sarah Baik
Narrowing down our problem space
With the changing landscape of the Sweet Auburn community in mind and by frequently observing old historic buildings in the area we decided that we wanted to bring attention to the historical buildings of Auburn Avenue.
My role in this project
• I conducted research by making weekly site visits with my team to understand the project space.
• Ideated on developing concepts through each stage of the project and helped translated these insights into design for our poster
• I worked heavily on the Interaction concepts of developing the format of the questions and the final visual language of the booklet design using Adobe Illustrator.
• Ideated on developing concepts through each stage of the project and helped translated these insights into design for our poster
• I worked heavily on the Interaction concepts of developing the format of the questions and the final visual language of the booklet design using Adobe Illustrator.
RESEARCH
Sources of literature about Auburn
We conducted research through various sources like the auburn Public Library and by interacting with people form places like the Madame CJ Walker museum.
Initial brain storming
We asked "How do we intrigue visitors to interact with the buildings? "
We decided that we wanted to approach the situation by create a puzzle that would be initiated by a small token like a parking pass or a bill that people would receive at Auburn. This token would contain a clue and an incentive for the visitor to find the historical building as part of the clue and thus embark on a puzzle solving journey while learning about the many historical buildings on Auburn Ave.
The initial process of the format of the quiz is explained in the diagram below.
Design system of Idea 1: Auburn Live Puzzle
We created a prototype of "Idea 1" to get feedback from our peers
The main take away...
from this stage of our project was that it wasn’t focused on a clear audience, and reduced the motivation of visitors to find our about the historical significance of the Auburn down to winning prizes or collecting mementos.
REframing the problem
Going back to the drawing board
We tried to employ method ideation that we learns from our Social Justice theory course into our Project Studio. With some of these concepts and our interest in mind we decided to go back to Auburn to find inspiration once more.
This week we made a few of trips down to Auburn with an open mind. On our third consecutive visit we noticed school groups pull up to the MLK Visitor Center and also to the King center. This was out AHA moment!!
We decided to observe this school group to see how the children were interacting with the exhibits at the museum. Soon, it was clear to see that the children were distracted and bored by the museum. Their initial interest in the museum dwindled by the time they has finished the first floor. We though about how we could use our skills to help improve their experience at the museum.
Focus on “What should kids take away from their trip to the MLK National Historic site on Auburn Avenue?”
• Basic knowledge that can serve as a starting point for discussing concepts like segregation.
• An increased interest in the history shown in the museums.
• Fond memories and an eagerness to converse with others about their experience.
• An increased interest in the history shown in the museums.
• Fond memories and an eagerness to converse with others about their experience.
WHy not mobile
From our observation, we realized that it would be ideal is the puzzle booklets we in a physical form of a booklet instead of an app.
Problems of accessibility
Each student has a different model of a phone, and most children don’t always have permissions on the phone to download an App. The school or museum could possibly provide an I-pad but those would be expensive to implement and there might not be enough for each student.
Children tend to remember things better when they write
It has been observed scientifically that children tend to remember things better when they write the content down with their hands.
Opportunity for student get off their devices
Lastly, we wanted to prove and opportunity for student get off their devices for a change, and have less distraction.
Action: Creating an Engaging & Educational Experience for Kids
We decided to make an interactive puzzle set connected to the exhibits in both museums. The puzzle sets are in the form of booklets which students can work together in small groups to solve. They are both informational and interactive, and each puzzle can be solved by examining different exhibits.
Clear audience
Children between the ages of 7 - 11 yrs of age visiting the museum
We took our initial inspiration from various different kinds of children’s puzzle books. They helped us to start understanding the kind of format and language that kids would find appealing. Then we began the complex process visiting the Museums almost two-three times a week to observe the flow of the museum along with the questions. In addition to this we also got to observe which exhibits tend to grab the children’s attention the most. We tried to make sure we would go during school hours in order to be able to observe them.
Format of the first round of questions
Each question is linked to the child answering the previous question from clues provided in the museum complex.
Developing themes and question for the booklet
Feedback from a teacher revealed that children are inherently competitive and so developing different forms of the booklet would be ideal to get them to work independently.
Additionally, the natural flow of the museum helped us realize that this was the perfect opportunity to also apply themes each of our booklets. Namely : Civil rights, Legacy of MLK and Important Artifact Around the Museum,
"“Children are competitive they will try to copy the answers if there is only one version of the booklet!”
User testing
We were able to test one version of our booklet on the theme “Civil Rights” at the Visitor Center on Auburn. Kian, our tester helped us understand how children his age would interpret directions and determine the locations of certain artifacts. He also helped to point our errors that we had made in the writing of the text and the order of artifacts placed with in the museum.
Key Observations
• Questions need to also be clear and concise.
• Picture clues are an effective way finding tool.
• Repetitive questions eg... Only Fill in blank questions tend to cause children to get dis-interested, we needed to add variety to the format of the questions.
• Children don’t need to handle solving the entire booklet on their own, they can involve their teachers or parents to help them understand certain concepts.
• Picture clues are an effective way finding tool.
• Repetitive questions eg... Only Fill in blank questions tend to cause children to get dis-interested, we needed to add variety to the format of the questions.
• Children don’t need to handle solving the entire booklet on their own, they can involve their teachers or parents to help them understand certain concepts.
Revising the format of booklets
From observing Kian and also class discussions we soon realized that it was not possible for us to help children understand complex concepts associated to the Civil Rights movement like “Segregation” just by asking them to answer a couple of questions in a booklet. Instead we could use the booklet as a way to direct students to certain kinds of exhibits that could help spark their curiosity. The goal was to format the questions in way which would encourage children to engage their parents or teacher in a discussion to help them understand the subject matter.
In addition to sparking curiosity, we also wanted to provide open ended question like the one on the right. They encouraged children to think creatively instead of looking for the answer in the exhibit. Taking the sings as an inspiration, we asked children what causes would they be interested in marching for and to create their own signs!
Final booklets can be downloaded here:
