UX Design · UX Research · UI Design
AquaQuest is an interactive journey that allows visitors to explore and learn about the various aquatic animal exhibits located in the Vancouver Aquarium. Visitors will receive an aquatic egg at the beginning of their journey and hatch it during their exploration in exhibits. By the end of the experience, visitors will obtain a physical keepsakes card of their animal, offering a personalized collection from the aquarium’s journey.
Scenario Video
Filmed and produced by the team
Role
Team
Strategies
Tools
UX Designer
UX Researcher
UI Designer
Christy L.
Vincent Z.
Eugene Z.
Winkie N.
Chen Yi N.
Ethnography
Customer journey
Prototyping
Storyboarding
Scenario Video
Figma
Adobe After Effect
Adobe Premiere
Duration
7 weeks client-based project for a user experience design course
Period
November 2023
Client
The Vancouver Aquarium is home to thousands of incredible ocean species and diverse aquatic life. They offers a diverse range of experiences for visitors. These include interactive exhibits showcasing various marine ecosystems, educational programs about aquatic life, opportunities to learn about a wide range of marine animals.
In 2017, the Vancouver Aquarium has agreed to a cetacean ban as part of a new 35-year lease agreement with the Vancouver Park Board.
Problem Space
The introduction of the cetacean ban in 2017 has had detrimental effects on the aquarium’s revenue. As a result, the institution encountered financial setbacks due to the ban’s impact on visitor experience, leading to a decline in visitor numbers.
Framing
How might Vancouver Aquarium maintain its appeal as an entertainment anchor to increase its attendance among younger audience?
Feature 1.
Receiving a Gift
The intention behind presenting a gift is to captivate children, as a gift box imparts a sense of anticipation and positivity. In addition, assigning names to animals aids in expressing emotions, and helps establish a long-lasting connection with the Aquatic-Egg.
Value in Gifting and Naming
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For kids, they relish every aspect of receiving a gift.
—Amanda Enayati, CNN (2012)
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We name individual animals when we regard them as special and it is often an expression of fondness.
—Sune Borkfelt, human-animal studies scholar (2011)
Feature 2.
For all Visitor
To elevate the visitor experience beyond the physical exhibits, we introduce various levels of difficulty at the start of the journey. Higher difficulty settings involve fewer displayed hints, introducing an additional layer of challenge and engagement. Notably, rarer eggs will exclusively hatch at higher difficulty levels.
Why Level-based?
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Children are motivated to work toward an achievable goals and games harness this basic principle of learning effectively, constantly increasing the level of challenge based on an individual child’s performance.
—Harvard University, Centre on Developing Children (2018)
Feature 3.
“Hatching” the Animal
We aim to introduce a 'Hatching Egg' micro-interaction for children, fostering lessons in compassion, nurturing, and understanding life cycles. The symbolic hatching of the aquatic egg emphasizes the significance of conservation in aquatic life, instilling these values in children.
This also evokes a sense of anticipation, encouraging visitors to reflect on the acquired information from the exhibits.
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Hatching process opens up numerous possibilities for conversations, including: how life begins, how babies grow across the animal kingdom, and caring for those we love around us, and in the wider world.
—Karen Hart, Early Year Educator (2022)
Feature 4.
Drawing Feature
To elevate the entertainment experience at the Vancouver Aquarium, we incorporated a drawing feature in the experience. Our goal is to offer visitors the opportunity to craft and interact with their personalized unique sea creatures, which can then be showcased at the Teck Connection Gallery.
How do arts and crafts engage children?
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Coloring is more than just entertainment for children, in fact, they offer numerous educational benefits that can help children develop essential skills while having fun.
—Melody Milbrandt, professor of arts education at Georgia State University (2022)
Why colors with patterns?
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Children use arts to stand for or to represent something other than themselves... Meaning can be made by the positioning of elements in space as well as by elements of color or texture.
— Cathleen S. Soundy, author of Making Sense of Children’s Drawings and Semiotic Explorations (2015)
Feature 5.
Save and Release
To release their custom sea animal design, visitors are required to hold their device near an NFC tag and project their work onto the Teck Connection Gallery. Every visitor who has participated in this journey can showcase their hatched sea animals.
The simulation of saving and releasing the animal to its habitat encourages empathy as children connect with the animal's needs, promoting a sense of responsibility for its safety and protection.
Feature 6.
Viewing Experience
After visitors have released their hatched sea animal, these sea animals are projected onto the Teck Connection Gallery. This process seamlessly bridges the gap between the virtual and real worlds, allowing visitors to witness their animal come to life in its natural environment.
Value in Video Wall
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More than 90% of teachers who used interactive technology in the classroom agreed that it had a positive effect, successfully capturing students’ attention and making learning more active.
—BenQ Education(2019)
Collectible Animal Cards
Feature 7.
To enhance the visitor experience beyond the physical exhibits, visitors will receive a collectible card of the animal they hatched at the end of the journey.
Physical collectable cards will be printed for visitors which contains information about their hatched animal as well as a scannable qr code to entice visitors to continue their experience with the newly hatched aquatic animal.
“
Tangible objects create an emotional connection to services even before their first use.
—Springer Link, Platform of Science, Technology and Medicine, and Humanities and Social Sciences (2020)
Extending the Experience
Feature 8.
We want to offer all visitors the opportunity to take on the role of a responsible caregiver for the virtual aquatic animals they have previously ‘hatched’.
The Aqua Quest app serves as an extension of the visitor’s journey, allowing them to release the fish in the virtual fish tank, revisit their information including conservation value, attributes, habitat details, and acquire a collection handbook.
Value in Fish Tank
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Aquarium care can teach a child lessons in being responsible, respect for living creatures, and how their actions directly impact the outcome of a situation.
—Eric Dockett (2023)
Value in Animal Collection
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The new experiences and social connections in virtual pet collecting raised the fun-factor and provide users with endless hours of entertainment.
—Tara Badie, Senior Director of Brand Strategy at Bandai America. (2020)
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Simulation games are typically considered well-suited to support educational programs fostering empathy, because they allow players to adopt new perspectives in an immersive way.
—Sierra Rativa.(2020). The Influence of Game Character Appearance on Empathy & Immersion
Art Direction
We've decided to maintain brand consistency by using Century Gothic and Gill Sans MT, the two fonts employed by the Vancouver Aquarium on their website and signage. These rounded and geometric typefaces are also beneficial for clarity on the digital screen and are more legibile for children.
To match the current aesthetic of the Vancouver Aquarium website, we used their color palette for an easier transition for visitors. While dark blue is the background colour, it can be complemented with brighter or contrasting colours for the interactive elements, ensuring the app remains visually engaging without causing discomfort to children's eyes within the specified age group in a dark space.