Audrienna Walker-Mueller

An interactive and modular wallet that pairs to a mobile interface, giving Convergence Station visitors a chance to unlock content by solving puzzles and cryptic cues. Using the wallet, users can interact with the exhibit and save memories on their mobile app to continue solving the mystery of Meow Wolf long after their visit.

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.

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.

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.

In this team project, we focused on CicLAvia’s digital spaces to promote city exploration at their events. We redesigned their current interactive map to be more discoverable, usable, and informative. Our solutions include better mapping software, an updated list of local businesses, and a cleaner UI with filter features. These recommendations give CicLAvia goers tools to better explore their city.

CicLAvia is a non-profit whose mission is to get people out of their cars and onto the street to explore their community. They needed our help changing the perception from a “just cyclists” event, to one for all forms of non-motorized transportation, from foot to wheels and anything in between. CicLAvia aims to celebrate city exploration, but there is a major lack of awareness around their interactive map that supports the local businesses along the routes. How might we help eventgoers easily access route guides and information in digital spaces that will promote city exploration?

We learned that the community loves CicLAvia, this was evident in our online ethnographic research as well as in the interviews and surveys we collected at the events. What they don’t love is how lost they feel during the events. The majority of participants we spoke to were searching for something– Water stations, bathrooms, bike repairs, places to see, or even information about the hubs along the route. There is a lack of awareness that an interactive map exists that could help event participants navigate the route. Out of 43 people we surveyed, 77% have never seen the interactive map. Yet, 90% said they would want to use something like this. Not only is the map not promoted by CicLAvia and difficult to find on their website, but it is also hard to use on mobile devices. The map is cut off and users can’t filter on it. Making the map mobile-friendly is extremely important because that’s how participants will be using it during the event.

CicLAvia’s redesigned interactive map uses Proxi, a cleaner, and more usable mapping software. Users can easily filter by food and drink, shops, points of interest, restrooms, hubs, and more. Map points have quick descriptions and important information like hours and directions. Along with the map, we created a list of businesses on the route. Users can easily scroll through the list and filter places by which hub they are located in to quickly find things around them. To ensure that participants could access our solution, we traveled the route wearing signs with a QR code that directs users to our interactive map and local guide.