The Paradise Project

A Virtual Reality Exhibit Experience

Company and Product Overview

Think Round

Think Round is a non-profit whose goal is to demonstrate life's fullest potential through the arts and sciences.

Company Mission

The goal is to create the Center for the Human Family - a destination for families where they will go (physically or currently virtually) to have an authentic experience of being a member of the human family.

The Paradise Project

The paradise project is an exhibit located on the third floor of The Center for the Human Family housed within a dome that includes a series of 7 multimedia instillations that feature different faiths and cultures.

The Problem

Create a virtual space that explores ideas about cultural self-definition, the pervasiveness of the American dream, and the universality of the human family within the paradise project exhibit.

The Solution

The objective of the project is to create a user experience with the dome walls of the exhibit to demonstrate unity in diversity, and create an interactive experience through human’s walk out of Africa and into paradise.

The Details

  • Figma, Google Meet, Slack

  • 6 UX/UI prototypers/designer

    2 UNITY developers

    2 Full stack developers

  • UI/UX Prototyper/Designer

  • Approx. 15 weeks

Decide what are critical elements to include

Define the purpose, elements, audience, and strategy

Define the main tasks users engage in

Understand potential customers motivations

High- fidelity and interactive prototypes

Preliminary sketches and low-fidelity prototypes

Brainstorm

Purpose of the Paradise Project

An educational, inclusive environment designed to illustrate humanities shared existence highlighting human's walk out of Africa into the cultures and religions of the seven continents.

Audience

Families, persons of all ages with a focus on children.

Study Existing Museums

Analyze traditional and virtual museums to understand successful UX patterns.

Interactive Elements

Create interactive dome walls the highlight art history, religious iconography, flora, and fauna that bring people together and show the shared human experience.

Launch Strategy

Launch the exhibit through a hybrid in-person and virtual presentation to the community at Think Round's headquarters in San Fransisco.

Critical Features and User Needs

Hotspots: Interactive frescos and artwork linking the dome walls that depict the flora and fauna of the seven continents.

Display Screen: Immersive displays that when clicked on tell a story of the history and iconography of major world religions.

Settings Screen: Customizability, allowing users to see different categories of artwork as well as change their viewing experience

Features

Needs

-Interact with the dome walls efficiently, understanding how it functions without continuous instruction

-Giving user control over what the user wants to see/experience and for how long.

Persona Development

We created a persona to build a better understanding of how potential customers would want to interact with the product. The persona revealed key aspects that should be taken into consideration during the design process such as the goals of the user.

Daisy is a busy professional who is always on the go and has a lot of responsibilities both at work and at home, where she lives with her husband and two young children.

Description

  • Daisy is looking for a way to reduce stress, connect with her past heritage, and find inner peace in the midst of her busy life.

  • She wants a convenient solutions that fits into her schedule and doesn’t require a lot of time or effort.

Goals and Motivations

Task Flows

Task Flows

The main tasks users were engaged in was interacting with the images on the dome walls and altering the settings for the dome walls. The settings were located on the side panel and could be altered by the user at any point in their journey. Interacting with the hotspots and the display screen for the dome wall required users to approach the wall.

Wireframes

I initiated the design process by creating preliminary sketches and wireframes with minimal detail, aiming to expedite decision-making by visualizing concepts promptly. These initial sketches were discussed with the design group, revealing any issues or points of consideration. Throughout the entire design journey, we revisited these sketches regularly, ensuring our focus remained on our core goals and ideas, preventing any deviations from the intended design direction.

UI Design

Once the design team finalized the sketches, I moved on to design the final screens in Figma. My goal was to create a visual identity that’s aligned with the brand’s values and message, which is: "Earth is home. Humans are family". Additionally, interactive museum exhibits were researched to provide additional inspiration.

Screens

  • Main screen

  • Interaction screens

  • Setting screen

Presentation Images

This project was presented to stakeholder and future users, garnering a crowd of over 100 individuals. I had the immense privileged of being one of the presenters, and getting to display my work alongside my fellow creators.

Ongoing involvement in this project will entail incorporating additional setting features, enhancing user interaction with a wider range of artworks. Moreover, we plan to introduce more interactive elements, including multimedia components, to enrich the user experience further.

Next Steps

Learnings

01

Collaborating with developers as a designer taught me the invaluable skill of translating creative visions into functional, user-friendly digital solutions through effective communication and mutual understanding of design and technical aspects.

02

Embracing VR as a designer has empowered me to explore the boundless possibilities of immersive user experiences, integrating innovative technologies and interactive storytelling to create engaging virtual worlds that captivate and delight users.

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