Silk Explorers 2024
2024
Kids learning interactive experience to preserve the
Museum of Silk cultural heritage.
The town of Como in North Italy has a history of expertise in the production of silk. Once the epicenter of silk production in Europe, big fashion houses from all around the continent sourced materials from here. The Museo della Seta (Museum of Silk) exists to tell this story and how the exclusive material was produced back in the day.
This was a project on understanding the actors that exist around a museum institution, the
different cultural heritage objects that are part of it, and analyzing the different areas of
opportunity that exist from an Interaction Design perspective to create innovative solutions and
as a result generate attractive and positive experiences.
Tools:
Figma - digital prototyping
Figjam - conducting tests, analysis and notes
Responsibilities:
Literary Research
Ethnography research
Concept development
Digital prototyping (High & Low Fidelity)
This project was done in collaboration with Camila Contreras, Veronica Posti, Sara Sorrentino, and Francesco Scaramuzzi.
Laurea Magistrale in Digital & Interaction Design
1. Ethnography & Research
We conducted ethnography research by visiting the museum and experienced a private tour by one of the main guides, Esther. She shared with us the process of silk production in detail and explained to us the purpose of the different machines that are exhibited in the museum space.
In our visit we could see initiatives taken to implement technologies (QR codes, interactive screens, etc.) to update the exhibition and make it attractive for younger generations.
Ecosystem Map
After the visit we created an Ecosystem map of the museum, which helped us understand the different actors, steps, spaces, heritage stories, and channels in which the museum was expanding and communicating with their audience. This map helped us see the museum’s intention in bringing younger audiences (children through school field trips) to the museum space and conduct workshops for them to learn about the silk production process.
This led us to ask ourselves, what is the opportunity?
To design an interactive experience for children so they can learn the silk process and heritage in an interactive and digital way, something that is missing in the museum right now.
2. Solution
The crafted solution was a kid’s interactive experience:It is a learning tool divided by chapters, each corresponding to a step of the silk process that is explained on the tour, which allows the kids to understand better the concepts and discover the hidden heritage stories.
The chapters contain interactive stories that contain heritage content, minigames, and a quiz at the end.
The solution would be divided into two different touchpoints, one for teachers/guides and one for students:
Teachers’ projected tablet screen
- The adults use a tablet to remotely control the projected content.
- The screen serves as an initial point from which everyone can see the teams’ progress and the progress of activities is controlled here.
Children’s interactive tables
- The interactive tables have a built-in touchscreen in which all children from each team can interact with the contents
- They can interact with an interactive story, Minigame, and a quiz.
about how children learn.