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— Museum “The Einsteins”

A broad spectrum of interaction design was used in the museum about Einstein's family in Ulm — ranging from classic video and touch stations to translucent screens and an interactive collection wall for up to five users.

My Responsibilities
Pitch Concept UI/UX Design Prototyping Project Leadership Communication Testing
Client

City of Ulm

Team

3 Design Interns
4 Developers

Duration

1.5 years

Project focus
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Task

The newly created museum houses an exhibition about the family history of Albert Einstein and Jewish life in Southern Germany.

Our brief was to create eight different interactive media stations and a media guide to guide visitors through the interactive exhibition.

Objectives

Creating wholesome and intuitive experiences for the visitors

Blending the digital exhibits well into the physical exhibition

Making the exhibits accessible for different visitors

Broad variety of stations

The exhibits cover a broad technological and interactive design spectrum, from classic video and touch stations to translucent screens and an interactive collection wall for up to five users.

Interactive exhibit
Interactive exhibit

Media guide

The museum's media guide acts as a smart and interactive companion. It enables users to expand the exhibition content virtually by simply scanning QR codes.

At a large family tree as well as many other points, it is possible to select different protagonists as guides. Their history can be explored with custom-made graphic novels and exciting additional information in the context of the respective station.

Interactive exhibit
Interactive exhibit

Highlight: The Historical Window

This exhibit combines the latest technological possibilities with the need for clear and easily accessible information.

A conventional and a translucent screen were placed in front of each other in the recess of an old window. The resulting parallax effect makes it possible to show users the significant changes in individual places in Ulm through dynamic transitions and changes between the resulting layers.

Interactive exhibit
Interactive exhibit

Collection Wall

The “Collection Wall” exhibit enables users to explore an extremely large number of image, text and video files on the life and work of the Einstein family. All content is synchronized in real time and flows as a meandering ribbon across all monitors.

This ensures a coherent, expansive presentation that is able to visualize the sheer volume of objects in a compelling way. The menu navigation allows viewers to compare the statements of the different people. Audio is provided in German and English via handsets. Ulm stools invite visitors to linger.

Interactive exhibit
Interactive exhibit

Interviews

Life-size interviews with Einstein's descendants can be explored in dialog on a touchscreen installation.

The menu navigation allows viewers to compare the statements of the different people. Audio is provided in German and English via handsets. Ulm stools invite visitors to linger.

Favourite Moments


The museum opening united 60 of Einstein’s descendants—many meeting for the first time. A true honour to attend!


Einstein's relatives shared personal stories, making history feel alive.


“An impressive, accessible museum that uses cutting-edge tech to convey history.” — Irene Dorzback, Einstein descendant

Challenges


Delayed content and late-stage design changes


Development began before design approval, complicating oversight


Designing intuitive exhibits with limited user research

Process

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Learn more about the design process

❶ Use Case Definition

Working through different paths of interaction, starting with debriefing the concept, the developing flow charts and wireframes.

Mediaguide UC #1 — Scanning the Intro QR-Code

Flow Chart

Flow chart for QR code scanning

Interactive Wireframes

Interactive exhibit
Interactive exhibit
Interactive exhibit

❷ UI Style Guide

Using the Media guide I developed a Design System that is applicable to all other stations.

Objectives
❶ Flexible & Concise Design system
❷ Affordance & intuitiveness
❸ Alignment with the exhibition
❹ Accessibility
Design Development & Variations
Interactive exhibit
Interactive exhibit
Interactive exhibit
Interactive exhibit
Interactive exhibit
Interactive exhibit

❸ Design Iteration

After the final texts were delivered, the design could be finalized and the coded prototype could be testet inhouse and with the client. A few design details were iterated in this process.

Design Iterations & Improvements
Interactive exhibit
Interactive exhibit

❹ Testing

In prototypes we tested the interaction in full size, partially with and partially without the original hardware. The prototypes were used to test the interaction and the design in a realistic context.

Collection Wall Speed Tests

Since the Collection Wall is a very large exhibit, we had to test if the speed of the animation was appropriate for the size of the wall. This was achieved in collaboration with the developers, who created a prototype of the wall in the office.

Interactive exhibit
Testing if the animation fits

The animation had to be tested on the original setup, because there are a translucent and a conventional screen in different sizes in front of each other. The resolving parallax effect was also tested in the prototype and if the line transitions fits the picture in the background

Prototype of the interactive historical window exhibit showing dynamic transitions

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