Cultural Bites
An interactive space designed to facilitate cultural learning for middle-school students.
UX Researcher, Interaction Designer
November 2023
Overview
An interaction experience project conducted for Michigan State University's Museum.
The MSU Museum offers a Modular Science on a Sphere (SOS) Lab; a room-sized, global display system used for interactive learning.
Cultural Bites revolutionizes learning in museums. It pushes the boundaries of design in physical and virtual spaces to creative an immersive opportunity for middle-school students to explore Middle Eastern cuisine through hands-on engagement.
Cultural Bites in action at the SOS lab
The Problem
Middle school students miss valuable opportunities to foster a love for learning, culture, and exploration during a critical stage of cognitive and personal development due to museums being unable to cater to their learning styles.
Our Goals:
Create an educational experience that immerses students in Middle Eastern cuisine, allowing them to explore and appreciate the culture through hands-on activities and interactive exhibits.
Push the boundaries of design by exploring innovative approaches in both physical and virtual spaces, ensuring the forefront of creative and engaging museum experiences.
Cater to the diverse learning styles of middle-school students, incorporating interactive elements, multimedia resources, and hands-on activities to make the learning process more accessible and engaging.
Through glowing features on maps and kiosks, we prioritize user orientation and accessibility, ensuring that all students can easily navigate the space and engage with the content using clear symbols and directions.
Research
User Interviews:
We used a focus group of 2 middle schools students to gain insight into their current knowledge on the topic, past experiences in museums, and their wants and needs for learning in a museum.
Takeways:
​"I've had Arabic food, but I haven't learned about the Middle East"
"Museums are boring, I don't really pay attention. It's all reading."
"I like learning by doing things with my hands and seeing."
User Need Statement:
The middle-school students visiting the SOS lab need to learn about the cuisine from the Middle East, specifically the cuisine in Iraq, in order to have an understanding and appreciation of cultures unlike their own.
User Task Flow:
Designs
Sketches:
Design Styles:
Sketches were made to brainstorm and generate a diverse array of ideas and concepts, especially considering that this was our team's inaugural venture into the realm of physical space design.
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Each team member illustrated their unique design styles to seamlessly integrate our collective vision into our designs.
High-Fidelity: Mockups
Due to time constraints, we skipped medium-fidelity designs and went straight into high-fidelity. Our main focus within our design decisions were:
Students interactions with the kiosk allowed for walls to change based on selections.
Globe will serve purpose of giving students geographical understanding
Red, associated with hunger, psychologically engages students, fostering increased interaction.
Scattered placement of ingredients on globe as
interaction occurs on kiosk
Offering samples of the food they have curated, allowing to fulfill sense of taste and smell.