Mystery Box Challenge is an educational program
by the Children's Creativity Museum in San Francisco
focused on inclusive and accessible learning.
Client
Children’s Creativity Museum
Jan 2023 - Aug 2023
Contribution
Service Design
UX/UI Design
Team
Yuha Kim
Jiao S, Serena S, Kshitija J
Context
Reimagining A Scalable Mystery Box Challenge
We collaborated with the Children's Creative Museum in San Francisco to redesign their flagship program, the Mystery Box Challenge. Together with their LEGO Playful Learning Network, our goal is to make scalable and inclusive experiences that could be implemented in various museum settings while promoting the program's educational philosophies.
My Role
As the lead experience designer for this project, my responsibilities include working closely with stakeholders to synthesize user requirements, prioritizing tasks, and leading visual language for the program.
Project Deliverables
Personalizing service design, program interactive website platform
Project Impact
Remarkably increased the engagement level of the program participants and created a pipeline for a sustainable feedback loop to help the program scale over time.
Current Experience
What is the current
Mystery Box Challenge experience like?
The Mystery Box Challenge empowers children to tap into their inner inventors. They receive age-appropriate challenge prompts and a box of random recycled materials to creatively tackle the task. While observing children at the museum, we could identify areas where enhancements could be made to enrich their experience.
Experiencers
Who are the
Target Audiences?
Continuing our journey, we identified three distinct user groups within the program. To comprehensively understand and enhance the experiences of each group, we actively engaged with them through methods such as interviews, intercepts, and observations, all while setting a clear project goal.
Project Goal
Make the program scalable and inclusive,
adaptable to a wider audience while ensuring an
enhanced end-user experience and smooth operation
Project Scope
On-site experience for the end-users,
Off-site experience for the Scalability
On-Site Challenges
The prompts don't resonate with children,
making the program guidelines ineffective for parents,
leading to repetitive questions that exhaust facilitators.
"How might we enhance children's
engagement, offer better guidance to parents, and support smooth facilitation?"
On-Site Solution I
Help children engage with the program
better by giving them a sense of ownership
with personalizable prompts!
On-Site Solution II
Provide parents with more inclusive
and comprehensive program overview,
leading to smoother facilitation
No Voice Over Instructional Video
During our research, we noticed that the museum's visitors reflected San Francisco's diverse population. However, language barriers often leave parents struggling to guide their children, leading to frustration. So, we created a "No Voice-Over" video that relies on visuals rather than language, aiming to provide a more inclusive program overview for both parents and children to enjoy.
Multi-Language User Manual
Along with the video, we created a multi-language program manual brochure for parents. This manual is designed to provide comprehensive guidance and to assist in smooth program facilitation. Our key takeaway from this experience is that the best solutions should prioritize addressing users' real needs over flashy or complex approaches.
On-Site Solution Impact
As children become more engaged, parents experience
higher satisfaction in having quality time with their kids,
while facilitators' workflows become more efficient
User Testing Result
The user testing results clearly demonstrated the positive impact of the redesigned puzzle prompt on user engagement. The puzzle pieces' design heightened users' curiosity about the prompts' meaning, proving that the program's intention resonated with participants. Most importantly, the children seemed very happy and excited during the process, leaving us with great accomplishment.
“I’ve never seen my kid focus on something for so long. This is a remarkable experience!”
Off-Site Challenges
We're all set to expand our horizons.
Now, it's all about enhancing the program's scalability,
and here are the issues we've identified.
"How might we strategically expand the program's outreach and increase visitors?"
Off-Site Solution
MBC Interactive Website broadens the audience
and make the program more approachable
Interactive Personalizing Prompts: Keeping the Essence of the Core Program Experience for Remote Audiences
As we transformed the program into a digital experience to provide museum-like enjoyment remotely, our main challenge was conveying the excitement children experience during an in-person program. After conducting user testing, we created a mini-game for building prompts that included gamification elements, as they were proven to engage children effectively.
Visionary Guide for Step-by-Step Engagement: Empowering Off-Site Participation and Facilitating Program Adoption
Our next goal was to ensure parents could effortlessly grasp and oversee the program even without on-site guidance. Along the way, we recognized what we were creating could be a valuable asset for other museums interested in adopting the program. So, we assembled step-by-step instructions, supportive images, and answers to common questions, all from the perspective of those looking to facilitate this program.
Building a Social Media Funnel: Children take pride in their creations, and that becomes compelling promotional content
After the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a significant drop in museum visitors. As we redesigned the program, promoting it also became a focal point, and our strategy was to boost the museum's Instagram account. Where having a consistent flow of content was crucial to actively managing the social media channels, we secured a gallery space on our website where children could proudly showcase and share their creative works and use this as a valuable promotional asset. Then, we designed a flow that connected it to social media sharing events to encourage posting.
Design System
A Design System for Sustainable
website maintenance and development
Success Metrics
Theory of Change Logic Model
Design Principles
The key principle was to embody
the museum's philosophy in our design solutions
Project Process
Co-Creative Design Approach:
Connecting Education to Children's Worldview
Inviting users into the process overcomes limitations and closes the distance
When we started our research, we faced a significant challenge. The museum had never gathered feedback from children involved in the program. Although the program's goals were clear to us, the children struggled to grasp its significance.
We adopted co-creation, recognizing the need for a unique approach from the children's perspective. This required more time and effort but provided valuable insights, such as why gamification was crucial to engaging children initially, identifying eye-catching colors, and determining topics they could both understand and find intriguing."
As We Conclude…
I learned the importance of considering
Integrity, Causality, and Scalability, taking a
Holistic Approach to extend Potential Improvement
Throughout this project, I had the opportunity to extend my focus beyond digital product user experience. I could delve into the domain of service design, where the harmonious integration of systems and design thinking allowed me to perceive projects from a broader perspective and unveiled holistic possibilities.
Thank You!
CCM X CCA’s 6 months journey,
Thank you for giving us the amazing
opportunity to work on this beautiful project!
Click the image to learn more story!