The Project Marlin
A participatory design project to create experiences for India's first interactive & immersive children's museum that evokes wonder, empathy and curiosity around various topics.
2023
The Caregiving Lab, Noora Health
team
Manju Pothen, Charley Vincent
& Simran Toor
role
design researchers, visual strategist
Field Visit, Bellary District
Group Co-creation Session, Bellary Distrcit
Key Role
My role on this project as a part of the Design team at MuSo was working towards experience design for MuSo Discovery Lab and structuring, conducting any research or workshops required for the process.
One of the two designers on an interdisciplinary team of educators, architects and researchers. The composition of our team gave me a lot of freedom as a designer to pitch and try new things especially in workshops with children. I brought a design research-led perspective and participatory approach to the process on the team through tools and methods for creative learning practices.
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Collaborated on research planning to ensure a structured and strategic approach.
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Led the recruitment of extreme users, identifying and engaging participants with unique perspectives to enrich insights.
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Directed the visual strategy, crafting clear and compelling visuals to communicate research findings effectively.
Overview
Being a caregiver for someone with a high-risk or life-threatening illness is highly demanding and comes with complex challenges. Often, the nuances of these experiences remain hidden. To develop interventions that support caregivers holistically, it is crucial to deeply understand different aspects of their experience and their unmet needs. Project Marlin is a deep dive into caregivers’ experiences in the context of high-risk or life-threatening illnesses using design research methods. We conducted field research in urban Bangalore and villages in the Bellary district of Karnataka, uncovering numerous insights and design directions that can enhance existing support systems and potentially lead to new interventions. This report highlights our approach, field learnings, key insights, and design directions.
Why Participatory Design?
The project adapted the participatory design research model to understand a child's point of view. In the duration of this project participatory design has been used as a tool to relocate children into research and development of the museum. During this boldly child-led model, we gave children the tools to create and design mockups of the museum and co-created with them. These co-creation sessions gave us insight and context to areas we may have overlooked if we hadn't used this model.
Spot me conducting a sprint!
A co creation session with children from Angel Xpress NGO
A co creation session with children from Angel Xpress NGO
Project timeline
The Discovery lab experiences are built on research done with children at MuSo, through a set of participatory workshops, children’s panels and also inputs from educators and other experts. The key design journey for this project was converting these insights into interactions that would provide a rich learning experience for children.
Research Processes
The Discovery lab experience has been built through a set of participatory workshops Children’s Panels and also inputs from educators and other experts. The key design journey for this project was converting these insights into interactions that would provide a rich learning experience for children
01
Starting point
What we knew
MuSo Learning Methodology
I play with friends,
We discover new things together,
Connect with problems around us,
Make solutions and take action for a better
Learning goals for the space
Personas to design for
Key insights from participatory research with children (research process)
Infinity Mapping Experiences we have found children engaging with
Studying feedback books that children have filled in during previous panels
Ideas explorations around
MuSo Learning Goals
Based on the insights content points, we started visually thinking about what could the experiences in the space be.
Prompts
Learning goals and action-driven insights keywords (role-play, discover, connect, etc) used as sketching prompts
Key Outcome
Selection of directions for further concept development
Need strong subject context for children to be engaged
Ideation
Idea Selection
Ideation sketches
02
03
Mapping Content To Space
A mapping exercise is done with the larger MuSo team to get insights from education and spatial experts on how would they learn journeys for the best experience.
Tools Used
Mixed teams of educators, designers and architects created their version of ideal experience journey in the space with the range of ideas given on the prototype of the floor plan
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Help us start visualising the experiences with respect to the space and proportions
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Evaluate what points in the journey connected well & what needed work
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Mapping hierarchy of experiences
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Floor plan prototype
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Experience idea cards
Key Outcome
Explored floor plan
Added connector exhibits (sprinkles) to the journey
Mapping Experience Journey
Add supporting experiences termed as ‘sprinkles’
04
Journey 1: Giving form to
hero experiences
Visualisation of experience concepts and narratives around those to get a detailed understanding of how they would play out in the museum. Mapping learning goals, design insights and content touch-points for each experience.
Process
Exploration through mix and match of different elements for each experience
Key Outcome
Detailed understanding of what each experience would look like and how would it engage the child in the museum journey.
Exhibits need multiple entry points
Content Narratives
For Experiences
Content Narratives
For Experiences
Concept Visualisation
05
Co-creation with children:
Telling a story in space
The Design team used co-creation as a method to capture the children’s expectations and aspirations for this space and understand what experiences would they like to have in a space like Discovery Lab
Process
Who are you telling the story to?
What is the story about?
How are you telling this story? (what tools are you using?)
Map the journey of the story in space
Tools Used
Mad-libs
Sorting Cards
Experience maps
Key Outcome
Through two co-creation sessions, conducted children were able able to create their own journeys through a museum they created. These insights were taken ahead in the next steps.
Magical realism & sci-fi narrative work well to talk about difficult topics
Participants
8-14-year-old children
MuSo Design Team + Educators
Tools used during the session
Context setting & facilitation
Tools used during the session
WIP
Children wear bands with their strengths written on them
Tools used during the session
Journey 2 & 3: Refining
experiences and detailed design
Final integration of insights from workshops, synthesis and design principles into the experiences and journey. Development of interactions at each station with respect to learning, spatial and technical considerations for design development
Process
Storytelling
Sketching
Tools Used
Mad-libs
Sorting Cards
Experience maps
Magical realism & sci-fi narrative work well to talk about difficult topics
06
Final Concept Design
Due to a non-disclosure agreement, I'm not at liberty to share the concept. Email me at simrantoor64@gmail.com for a walkthrough.
Where are we now?
We consult a panel of 20 children, from schools all over Mumbai. These children meet us once a month and provide us with feedback on different aspects of the Museum. We incorporate their feedback in the design and content of the museum.
At present (2021) we are in the process of testing out exhibits with children and incorporating their feedback through the creation of low fidelity prototypes.
