A Space Experience Prototype

The Constraints

Design an experience prototype of a new museum installation.
To make it interesting: pick your own topic area and make it accessible to those who have disabilities. You must also experience a “disability” for a day.
The group included: Lorelei Kelly and Xuan Wang
How I helped to contribute: sketching, concept generation, storyboarding, video editing, video production

So How Did We Do It?

We first began to start this project by concurrently researching how the disabilities we chose affect how people think and interact with others. After researching about cerebral palsy, functional illiteracy, and OCD, we created small experiments in our everyday lives to feel how this disabilities affect people and how we can then design for them.

While participating in these experiments, we then started to research how large the problem of space junk is. It is such a large problem that the slightest miscalculation in the trajectory of a shuttle could have catastrophic implications for astronauts. We then began to design with this in mind and still make the experience fun. So then we started sketching on how to make a fun experience that brought in the elements of fun, danger, and education.

Through many rounds of sketching and iterations, we came up with a concept that put the participant in the role of a “cleaner” – a cleaner of space junk in front of the Hubble Telescope. To make this experience happen, we placed “space junk” around a dimly lit room to simulate the feeling of the participant in outer space. We tested our experience with many participants, slightly adjusting the locations and number of space junk each time based upon the feedback and suggestions at the end of each run-through.

Take a Look at the Installation and Process
(if the video doesn’t show up, please refresh and it’ll appear)