This interactive and modular wallet pairs to a mobile interface, giving Convergence Station visitors a chance to unlock content by solving puzzles and cryptic cues.
Problem
Meow Wolf's Convergence Station is an immersive art exhibit that transports people into a new world through art, exploration, and play. Users work to solve the mysterious story by searching for clues in four alien worlds joined together in a rare cosmic event. This event caused memories to become very valuable, and the new form of currency.
The problem is this engaging content is not reflected in the gift shop. The gift shop is full of intentionally weird and wacky items, like avocado purses and hybrid animal plushies, but nothing that brings the immersive story home for visitors to enjoy and relive.
Insight
During our research we discovered that Meow Wolf has an extremely wide demographic of users, people travel to the exhibit from all different ages and backgrounds. One thing we did find in common is the fan's love for puzzles. Many of the die-hard Meow Wolf lovers are still trying to solve the story, even after multiple visits to Convergence Station. We found this is also something that frustrates first time visitors. Our team needed to find a way for users to collect clues and continue solving the story outside of the exhibit.
Solution
Sidereal Connector
si·de·re·al
adjective
Of or with respect to the distant stars.
adjective
Of or with respect to the distant stars.
The Sidereal Connector is an interactive wallet that can be purchased before, during, or after the Meow Wolf experience. With the wallet, users can interact with the exhibit by tapping it at Memports to collect memories. The memories are uploaded and stored inside of the app's memory vault, so the user can rewatch them after their experience to search for any clues or messages they may have missed. During the experience, users can search for AR creatures on the app. Many of the creatures are hidden behind puzzles sent by the app that the user must solve by moving the wallet pieces into the correct position.
Design Challenge
1. How can we create a user experience that allows users to relive their memories of the visit and discover more engaging and puzzling content?
2. How can we add value to their gift shop purchases and promote further engagement with Meow Wolf's installation and products?
Meet the Stakeholders
Stakeholder Interview
Our class has the pleasure of meeting with Patrick and Ben from MaCher to learn about them, MaCher, and the project.
Key Stakeholder Insights:
- MaCher and Meow Wolf are B certified companies, so sustainable and reusable materials and consumer education is a priority.
- MaCher is new to working with digital product design but want to do more in that field.
- The constraints are loose and this brief is deliberately wide open.
Process
Internal Research
The first step was learning more about the Meow Wolf community, and Reddit was the best place to do so with their 7.1k Meow Wolf members.
It was important to know what they loved about Meow Wolf, but also what frustrated them about it.
We found that the mysterious story of the Convergence Station is fan's greatest love and also greatest frustration. People who have visited multiple time still couldn't solve the story. While, other people didn't even know there was a story and completely missed out on that experience.
Our team directed our to focus to the QPASS, a $3 card users have the option to purchase to tap at Memports in the exhibit to collect memories which help solve the story.
Key Internal Research Takeaways:
- Users are both enticed and frustrated by the story.
- QPASS confuses users.
- Users can't easily watch memories from QPASS after the experience.
External Research
After looking into the Meow Wolf community, we researched how museums utilize technology to create a better experience for their visitors.
Augmented Reality is becoming a popular way museums are bringing their exhibits to life. The Smithsonian is taking advantage of social media and making AR experiences over Instagram filters, so users can see a mammoth right in front of them. Museum Alive created a $3 app that lets users learn about and see extinct animals in their own spaces using AR technology. The French National History Museum launched an AR installation in July, 2021, where visitors wear AR googles and see the exhibit come to life all around them.
Key Takeaways from External Research:
- AR adds value for the user, creates an engaging & interactive experience.
- AR Enhances the exhibit unique ways.
- AR attracts new visitors, gives them another reason to come back, and creates a new experience for them remember.
Ideation
Our team took our research to a concept generation matrix, where we wrote down all of the insights we found. We grouped insights that were most similar and wrote down every possible product concept we could think of under those groupings.
Most of our ideas fell into these 3 categories:
- Increased digital interaction during the experience.
- The experience being more accessible from home.
- Integrating the fan's love for puzzles.
Concept Generation Matrix | Team effort
First Sketches
Our team took the ideas from the concept generation matrix and each sketched different possible products down.
Audra's Sketches
A personalized passport into the Meow Wolf world. The Passport connects to a phone app where users can watch memories they collected from the experience.
Dave's Sketches
Dave’s sketches reflected a collection of interactive products. A Tamagotchi style toy connected to the Convergence Station story line, QDOT transit map inspired alarm clock, slime with light patterns that communicates through touch, a "c-street" themed music box, an interactive light kit in the style of Eemia’s cathedral, and a toy replica of a star navigator.
Natsumi's Sketches
In this digital easter egg hunt, users would be able care for a digital fish tank while searching for hidden items in the exhibit then play with those collected items after the experience.
Julia's Sketches
These AR goggles also function as headphones, after purchasing them, users will be able to explore the Meow Wolf exhibit anywhere and get the whole experience with visuals and sound.
Andres's Sketches
The Meow Wolf Injection Station lets users bring their own plastic bottles to a machine, which melts them into a mold that forms a keychain. That keychain can be used as a visitor’s QPASS and connects to a character on a mobile app.
We decided to go forward with the Passport as the physical product, and use ideas from the sketches in the digital product, like an Julia's AR experience, Natsumi's idea of collecting things during the exhibit, and Andres's alternative to the QPASS that can be tapped at Memports.
User Journey
To explore how a user would feel if they purchased their passport before going to the Convergence Station we created a user journey map.
They are having a great time during the experience with the passport as they interact at Memports with it but by the end of their visit, they don't understand the story at all, which lowers their mood. At the end, using the passport app they can continue solving the story which brings their mood back up.
Key Insight:
Being able to continue solving the story after the users visit to the Convergence Station increases the users mood.
User Journey | Audra Walker
Flowcharts | Dave Giammarco & Natsumi Takagi
Flowchart
We created a flowchart of how a user would create an account, the features of the app, and the AR flow to better understand how to create the wireframes.
Updated Sketches
Our team developed our passport sketches to send to the stakeholders for our initial concept proposal. To involve the user's love for puzzles we created a puzzle box that users must solve to obtain their passport.
Product Sketches | Audra Walker & Dave Giammarco
Concept Proposal Feedback
We sent our initial concept to the stakeholders for feedback on the direction we were headed and received really helpful feedback.
Our concept was not reusable, and would be easily shoved in a drawer or thrown away. We needed to rethink our idea and make it reusable long term.
Rethinking Our Concept
The Travel Wallet
Ben suggested for us to look into ways travel companies create re-usable products for clients to take on a travel experience. We came into the idea of a travel wallet, with a notebook inside for users to write down clues and insights during their Convergence Station visit.
Why a wallet?
- Wallet are artifacts that can tell so much about a person. They are not only functional, but a personal statement and part of our identity.
- Wallets are sentimental and emotional for many. People attach memories to wallets.
- Wallets sell well in art museums. In almost any major art museum you'll find wallets in the gift shop, because people want to take something home from the experience that they can actually use.
Product Sketches | Dave Giammarco
Using the sketches, we began creating our prototype. We wanted the wallet to have the same feeling as the Meow Wolf exhibit, creative, otherworldly, and capitative. We brought random artifacts together to make the outside of the wallet textured, like an art piece.
Physical Prototype
Physical Prototype | Audra Walker, Julia Wetterdal, & Natsumi Takagi
Connecting the Physical to the Digital
Once we finished our physical prototype, we needed to find away to connect it to our digital ideas. Our professor suggested we looked into littleBits, a company who makes modular, kid friendly circuit boards.
Putting a circuit board inside the wallet was feasible, and by putting magnets on the pieces decorating the wallet they could connect to the circuit board and be rearranged on the wallet. Using a bluetooth transmitter, the interactive pieces could then be easily connected to a phone.
This idea led us to exploring how moving around the pieces could create an interactive experience in the app. We wanted to re-establish the puzzle aspect we found so important in our research. Users could solve puzzles and unlock features and clues by decoding messages in the app on how to move their wallet pieces correctly.
Interactive Pieces Sketch | Audra Walker
Exploded View | Dave Giammarco
Exploded View
To understand how we could create the wallet, we made an exploded view of all the pieces that would make it up– An embedded circuit board, a RFID shield to protect users data, and the inner liner and card holder for the notebook and user’s cards.
Budget & Costs
We researched material, labor, and manufacturing costs for the physical and digital prototype. These numbers are estimates based on research, we were unable to get quotes due to the time frame on this project.
BOM | Andres Munoz
Wireframes
There are 4 main features we designed on the app's wireframes.
Inside the exhibit:
- AR feature to collect creatures.
- Photo feature to take pictures on with Meow Wolf filters.
Inside the exhibit:
- AR feature to collect creatures.
- Photo feature to take pictures on with Meow Wolf filters.
Outside the exhibit:
- Memory vault where users can rewatch the memories they collect - Forum feature where users can post or read theories and finding and from other people on the app.
- Memory vault where users can rewatch the memories they collect - Forum feature where users can post or read theories and finding and from other people on the app.
Heuristic Evaluation
We tested our wireframes on our peers here were our key takeaways:
- The forum and photo filter feature were unnecessary and “would get old fast”.
- The AR feature should have a tutorial.
- The buttons aren’t intuitive.
- The memory vault was the most loved feature.
Wireframes | Team effort
Our Results
Digital Prototype
Digital Prototype | Team effort
3D Rendering of Model
3D Rendering | Natsumi Takagi
Future Possibilities
Going forward with the project, we have identified further opportunities for the wallet.
- Interactive pieces on the wallet could be powered, making light up, move around and make sounds.
- The AR creatures could be brought into the world outside of the exhibit. This would make the Meow Wolf universe more accessible.
- Lastly, we found there are multiple materials that could work for the wallet such as conductive velcro and magnetic circuit board pieces.
Feedback
We presented our results to the stakeholders for the final round of feedback.
Positive Feedback -
They loved the look of the wallet, and appreciated the reusability of it. From their research, they had also found puzzles to be one of the top selling product right now, so they liked that it was integrated into our product. Ben commented on how having the wallet be purchased before your visit, and shipped with your tickets, opens up a lot of opportunities for users to learn more about the Meow Wolf background, what users will experience when they go, and how to use the app before the go.
Key Takeaways:
- They appreciated the reusability of the wallet.
- Puzzles have been one of the top selling products over the last few years.
- Purchasing the wallet before the visit opens up many opportunities.
Concerns -
Luciano brought up a great point, the app needs to be more accessible to everyone, not just those who buy the wallet. Not everyone will want this wallet and those people who don't should still have access to the AR experience and memory vault. Another concern Luciano had was creating the mold. He explained it could be possible for a factory to source these pieces, but it's not the easiest of challenges to tackle.
Key Takeaways:
- The app needs to be more accessible to people who don't want to buy the wallet.
- Pieces of the mold could be difficult to source.