An interactive natural history
diorama exploring the discovery
of the fossil hominid “Selam”
My Role: I storyboarded and wrote all interactive content, led the user experience design, and collaborated on the interface design. I designed, conducted, and analyzed the front-end evaluation, user research, and summative evaluation.
Who I worked with: Project Manager, 3D Designer, Graphic Designer, Audio Visual Engineers, Animator, Preparator, Sculptors, Scientific Advisor, Content Developer (print), Director of Exhibit Development.
Front-End Evaluation
I conducted targeted observations and interviews with visitors to the African Hall gallery at California Academy of Sciences to get a contemporary baseline for how visitors were interacting with the existing dioramas prior to developing a new exhibit.
+ Methods
Within a 1-month period, I observed behavior at each diorama for two 20-minute sessions, resulting in 544 groups observed (1,202 individuals). I completed 51 interviews (105 individuals).
+ Key Findings
Visitors were engaging for an incredibly brief amount of time at the dioramas—essentially looking at the taxidermy displays, and not much else. Not surprisingly, when I interviewed people, their interpretations of the hall’s messages were fairly simplistic. However, most visitors I interviewed also made it very clear that they loved the hall—despite how they seemed to drift through it.
I compared my evaluation’s findings to a previous timing and tracking study done in the 1990s; the average dwell times were extremely similar for the dioramas observed in both studies. However, though the klipspringer and Kirk’s dikdik dioramas are similar, the Kirk’s dikdik has a small interactive video element now and its dwell time increased while the klipspringer’s stayed the same.
Full evaluation report to stakeholders:
Design and Development
+ Narrative & Structure
I designed the information architecture of the interactive diorama to deliver content in small segments that built on one another. Each segment was about 20 seconds—the average observed attention span of visitors to the other dioramas. Visitor testing with a low-fidelity prototype validated our design direction, both in the interface design and the content architecture.
+ INTERFACE DEVELOPMENT
Initially, we intended the interface to be gesture activated, but early validation testing revealed that that direction was a non-starter, so we switched to a touch interface. In response to our user testing, we designed the touchscreen to be extremely minimalist to signal to visitors that it was solely a control device, not a vehicle for content delivery. Paired with gesture and motion cues, this strategy directed visitors attention well.
We wanted the media stories to animate the diorama in delightful and unexpected ways. We used a scrim projection surface, which could effectively disappear when the diorama was not in use, along with projections on the back wall. The novel format and content complexity required substantial collaborative experimentation to work effectively.
+ 'Learning from SELAM' Story
Segment 1
We have many Australopithecus afarensis fossils.
Among them all, Selam is a special one.
Her bones revealed new information about her species.
Segment 2
By examining her teeth, Zeray learned Selam was a 3-year-old girl.
As the youngest example of her species, her skull holds clues to brain development.
Based on brain size, her childhood was longer than a chimp’s, but shorter than ours.
Our prolonged childhood is unique, and a big part of what makes us human.
Segment 3
The hyoid is a small bone found in the neck.
The shape of the hyoid bone helps determine how we sound.
Before Selam, we’d never seen an A. afarensis hyoid bone.
Finding that tiny, rare fossil bone revealed the voice of Selam’s species.
When Selam called out, she would have sounded more like a chimp than a human.
+ 'FOSSILIZATION' Story
Segment 1
Selam is the fossil skeleton of a child that lived 3 million years ago.
For a fossil to form, the animal’s body must be buried quickly.
Selam died in a river environment, so sand and silt covered her bones.
Segment 2
Layers of sediment built up, and minerals seeped into her bones.
Over millions of years, the ground around Selam moved.
Gradually, the sediments that covered her eroded away.
Her fossil was revealed, peeking out from a layer of sandstone.
Segment 3
Volcanic eruptions deposit layers of ash.
Two layers of volcanic ash were found above and below Selam’s fossil layer.
Since ash layers can be dated, they provided a timeframe for when Selam lived.
Content Development
The challenge with this piece was weaving together compelling and scientifically accurate stories into extremely short segments that built on one another, so that different depths of engagement—from a visitor who watched only a single segment to a visitor who watched multiple segments in multiple threads—would all yield a coherent experience.
Final Design
Final Design
An old art form
meets new technology
Our final design juxtaposed high-tech elements seamlessly with the look and feel of a traditional natural history diorama. Visitors use a minimalist screen interface to select from multiple topic threads to explore this significant scientific discovery.
The Selam diorama quadruples dwell time
The average visit to the Selam diorama is four times longer than that of the other dioramas. Visitors also tend to read more at this diorama than the others.
+ SUMMATIVE EVALUATION
I repeated the methodology of my original study and found that the average visit to the Selam diorama was 86 seconds, and the median visit was 41 seconds. While many visits to the Selam diorama were equivalent in duration to other African Hall diorama visits, the Selam diorama had a much greater incidence of long visits (several minutes or more):
• 1% of visits to African Hall dioramas are long• 21% of visits to the Selam diorama are long
+ Photo Credit Info
Full bleed Selam diorama 1 - Kathryn Whitney © California Academy of Scieces
Full bleed Empty African Hall - Kathryn Whitney © California Academy of Scieces
Somali Arid Zone with visitors - © California Academy of Scieces
Somali Arid Zone detail - © Sarah Goodin
Full bleed Selam sculpture in-process © Atelier Élisabeth Daynès
Mock-up of Selam Diorama - © Ian Hart
Selam as she was found (image modified) © Zeresenay Alemseged
Zeray working on Selam © Zeresenay Alemseged
Full bleed Selam Diorama 2 - Kathryn Whitney © California Academy of Scieces
Selam close-up - Kathryn Whitney © California Academy of Scieces
Visitors using Selam Diorama - © Sarah Goodin
Visitors in African Hall - Kathryn Whitney © California Academy of Scieces