Major Project
University of the Arts, London
FLEXIKIT - A PREPPING BUNDLE
A toolkit for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
The aim is to provide information and guidance about the Museum's settings to the individuals who are on Autism Spectrum and their families to plan their visits according to their comfort and convenience.
Our Aim
How can we enhance experience of museum visitors with autism disorder?
E M P O W E R E V E R Y O N E
Autism Spectrum Disorder + Inclusive + Visitor Centered Museum + Preparation-in-advance + Family Visits.
My Role
Processing objective
Ethnographic Research and design thinking
Deliver concepts, personas, user journeys, system maps, user flows, visual design comps, and prototypes with Figma.
User research and usability testing to iterate on solutions.
Design decision making, both verbally and visually
High Fidelity Physical Prototyping
Challenge
Museum outings can be stressful and uncomfortable for families, specifically for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The research study includes the concerns families had while visiting a museum, starting with what is Autism Spectrum Disorder, how can museums bring change for people with special needs.
Approach
We gathers current knowledge of museum interventions and ways to facilitate the preparation and encourage frequent participation by museum patrons with ASD. The analysis indicated that families require material to engage their children's attention on exciting moments and help children plan what they want to do during their experience.
Design Output - The Prepping bundle
An Interactive Sensory Map,
Functional Visual cards and
A VR Experience of the Exhibits.
VIDEO CLIP - Experience at Science Museum
Research & Study
In-depth Directed Storytelling + On-Site Findings + Observation of Special Education Classroom + Surveys
The research approach I endorsed was to spend more time with the audience who have been challenged with it in their everyday lives; as a result, we opted to locate our research and design conclusion for the Science Museum, London, in order to build our ideas for creating a pre-visit experience. Examining museum spaces, evaluating how the target audience interacts with museums, witnessing neurodiverse children's activities and sensory perceptions, and talking to parents about their child's difficulties and wants in
the museum environment were all part of the research. Methods to make it happen, un-structured in-depth storytelling sessions were scheduled, as well as more museum visits and on-site observations, interactions with ground staff explainers at the science museum, and a ten-day observation of special needs children in a classroom environment.
To fully visualise the existing system and consider new possibilities,
I divided it into User Flow in three parts: PRE-VISIT, ON-SITE, and POST-VISIT experiences when a person decides to visit a museum. In my perspective, creating an experience for Science Museum should not just be for the science museum, but also for other museums as a system design concept that could be used in the future for people of various abilities and limitations. System of museum would be needing both Digital and tangible products to facilitate the problem area.
Below are User journey and some experimentations with materials to understand the depth of experiencing museum with different perspectives.
''When you give someone a special tool, you express that you value them and that you care about what you ask them to accomplish, which transforms into what they do in return - Nina Simon.''
Findings and Results
A meaningful system for the neurodiverse audience through a tool that can help them feel free, breathe and grow.
In considering the needs of the child and parents, the focus for results became towards creating a systemised museum experience to encourage the child's independence in exploring and experiencing, along the same line also to plan a journey to meet the need of safety manageable environment and conversations with parents.
The three key focus points were to have an experience inculcating
Preparation to visit museums; Know before you go!
Elevating play with a purpose for a child,
Building curiosity and engagement.
We implemented the idea of building a pre-visit system to support the child and their family to feel free.
Creation of Prototype
Familiarity plays a key role for comfortability.
We took actual elements from the science museum to denote the language as a child may grab the colour and object to relate when visit museum.
For more details click here
FUTURE OF PROJECT
Continued efforts to recognise and adopt innovative inclusion tools and adaptive strategies are vital if people with ASD benefit from visiting museums.
The prospect of making modifications in the current museum situation to grasp all is on the thrive is currently being discussed with the Science Museum and British Museum London teams. If persons with ASD benefit from museum visits in the future, we must continue to recognise and use innovative inclusion tools and adaptive techniques.