The Process
Flooded! was an extremely iterative and highly collaborative process. Over a period of eight months, we engaged in museum exhibit research, ideation, storyboarding, prototyping (and more prototyping) and implementation. Our goal was to create an educational and engaging experience for visitors of all ages.
Teamwork played an instrumental role in the success of this project. Working with the same group of students over a long period was definitely challenging. I learned early on that engaging in disagreements would only prove to be effective if team members reamained open to the inputs of others. I ensured that I was clearly and precisely articulating my opinions during the decision-making process. By actively listening to the concerns of my team members and offering common-ground solutions I was able to effectively foster collaboration while maintaining a positive and cohesive group dynamic.
As lead activities designer, I created the main interactive components of the exhibit. The first was a two-way shelf built from scratch where visitors had to "save" a personal item from being destroyed in a flood. At the end of their journey, they see the destroyed items. This activity urged visitors to explore the emotional connections that they have toward personal objects. The second activity was a timed game that required visitors to move and stack sandbags as quickly as possible. Lastly, I built a flooded city model to display the various effects that floods can have on infrastructure and society.
I ran into many challenges while I was desigining and building the interactive components of the exhibit. Due to space restrictions, I had to ensure the activities we wanted could remain engaging for the visitors without over-crowding the exhibit. On many occasions, I asked for my team members to offer critical evaluations of my proposed solutions as well as their own ideas so that we could engage in creative problem solving. By challenging my own ideas and building off the ideas of others, I was able to arrive at creative solutions that remained within our constraints. I learned how important it is to encourage multiple perspectives when problem solving.