Alabama Dinosaurs

Alabama Dinosaurs
A Flexible Yet Consistent Graphic Style for Exhibit Area at McWane Science Center.

Alabama Dinosaurs required a consistent graphic style with flexibility to work for digital interactives as well as for instructional and theming signage. One of the aspects I enjoyed most was finding solutions to limitations in both the physical materials and the digital technology that was affordable yet durable enough to withstand the rigors of the museum environment.

The sets included interactive stations where visitors could view vital statistics of featured specimens and select video featuring paleontologist Dr. James Lamb answering key questions.

One of the detailed drawings I produced. In the museum environment, durability is essential. The buttons had to be mounted on the laminated face of the kiosk so notches were added to allow the arrows in the graphics to be closer to their respective buttons.

For this interactive dinosaur "photo hunt" exhibit, I integrated digital design with physical graphics which overlapped the monitor at the top and bottom to augment the limited digital real estate.

This enlarged view shows a little more detail.

Here a visitor experiences the DinoSafari exhibit.

Dino Scale allows visitors to visually (not numerically so as to avoid embarrassment) compare their weight with that of six different dinosaurs. The graphics featured a digital rendering of each dinosaur with its name, information and an LED bar graph comparison. Some of the physical graphics had to be modified at the last minute to allow components to remain assembled after they were dry fit for the sake of meeting the tight deadline.

This detail drawing I produced prior to fabrication allowed us to work through how to allow visitors to compare their weight with various dinosaurs without actually publicly displaying their weight.

I was initially tasked with creating a rough design concept for the Dino Trivia interactive in response to the developer's initial layout. Later I was told that the rough concept was going to be implemented "as is" to prevent cost overruns with the developer.

Even though my rough design concept was unexpectedly implemented "as is", the functionality worked well. Hints were provided to aid in the success of the visitor.

Fun facts were used as a transition between correct responses and the next trivia question. By layering information, the visitor can process as much or as little as they choose.

The spin browser allows visitors to turn the control wheel to see a series of video clips however slow or fast they choose including viewing the video backwards or stopping on a single frame so they can observe the processes from excavation of a fossil to 3-D scanning and 3-D printing of a full scale model.

I created a simple graphical interface to provide a side-bar description of each part of the process as the video progresses and a scrolling menu across the top to aid navigation.

A simple graphic was called for here because of the location of this large cast in a hallway.

Here is a detail of the ancient shark graphic.

A decorative laminate was chosen for the display cases, so rather than cover it with graphic panels, I found a clear medium upon which to print and over laminate. The effect is subtle yet very readable.