Air & Space Museum Interactive Scavenger Hunt Experience
Turning a museum visit into an exploratory, story-driven adventure that invites guests to return.
Air & Space Museum Interactive Scavenger Hunt Experience
Turning a museum visit into an exploratory, story-driven adventure that invites guests to return.
Air & Space Museum Interactive Scavenger Hunt Experience
Turning a museum visit into an exploratory, story-driven adventure that invites guests to return.
Air & Space Museum Interactive Scavenger Hunt Experience
Turning a museum visit into an exploratory, story-driven adventure that invites guests to return.
Air & Space Museum Interactive Scavenger Hunt Experience
Turning a museum visit into an exploratory, story-driven adventure that invites guests to return.
Overview:
Overview:
Overview:
Overview:
The San Diego Air & Space Museum wanted a digital experience that would encourage repeat visits and drive museum membership. The goal was to design a mobile scavenger hunt app that felt engaging for kids and teens while giving parents confidence that their time in the museum was purposeful, educational, and well spent.
The Story Begins. The Challenge:
The Story Begins. The Challenge:
The Story Begins. The Challenge:
The museum needed more than a one-time visit. They were looking for a way to:
Encourage guests to explore the entire museum
Create an experience compelling enough to support repeat visits
Give families a reason to consider a membership rather than a single ticket
An early version of the app focused on trivia-based gameplay, but during evaluation it became clear the experience felt too familiar—another quiz-based app that didn’t fully capture the wonder of flight and space.
I led the creative direction and design of the annual report, shaping both the narrative and visual system from concept through execution.
Responsibilities Included:
Creative direction & visual storytelling
Narrative framing and content hierarchy
Brand expression and layout design
Art direction for typography, imagery, and pacing
My Role:
My Role:
My Role:
Experience Designer
Concept, UX strategy, storytelling, and interaction design
Audience:
Audience:
Audience:
The experience needed to serve families and individual visitors across a wide age range, each with different expectations for a museum and digital experience. Younger children look for playful, guided interactions that help them stay engaged with exhibits. Teens want autonomy and experiences that feel modern, rewarding, and self-directed rather than instructional. Parents and caregivers value experiences that are safe, educational, time-bound, and clearly structured, offering reassurance that time in the museum is purposeful and well spent.
Key Insight:
Key Insight:
Key Insight:
Watching my 7-year-old play Pokémon Go, I noticed that what truly held his attention wasn’t the trivia or the instructions—it was the feeling of discovery. He stayed engaged when the experience let him explore freely, rewarded curiosity, and made progress visible through collection and movement in the real world. The magic came from participation, not information, and it became clear to me that meaningful engagement happens when learning is embedded in play and exploration.
Trivia alone wasn’t enough to create delight or emotional connection. What did feel magical were experiences that encouraged exploration, discovery, and collection—similar to how games like Pokémon Go transform familiar spaces into something surprising and alive.
Guests didn’t want to just answer questions.
They wanted to venture, discover, and feel rewarded for curiosity.
Design Approach:
Design Approach:
Design Approach:
I reframed the app from a trivia game into an exploratory adventure, blending education with discovery.
Instead of leading with questions, the experience:
Encouraged guests to move through the museum with purpose
Used character collection and challenges to guide exploration
Balanced structure with autonomy, so the experience felt self-directed rather than restrictive
The app became less about screen time and more about unlocking moments within the museum itself. This app became a modern-day tour guide (familiar to parents) enhanced with gamification (familiar with kids).
The Solution:
The Solution:
The final experience blends storytelling, exploration, and education into a guided scavenger hunt that feels playful rather than instructional.
Guests explore the museum through character-led challenges
Progression and collection reward curiosity
Clear start and end points give parents confidence
The experience invites repeat visits by offering new paths to explore
The app supports the museum’s business goals while preserving what makes the museum special—wonder, discovery, and imagination.
The Solution:
The final experience blends storytelling, exploration, and education into a guided scavenger hunt that feels playful rather than instructional.
Guests explore the museum through character-led challenges
Progression and collection reward curiosity
Clear start and end points give parents confidence
The experience invites repeat visits by offering new paths to explore
The app supports the museum’s business goals while preserving what makes the museum special—wonder, discovery, and imagination.
The Outcome:
The Outcome:
The Outcome:
While the full scavenger hunt experience was not implemented due to time and budget constraints, the concept was well received and retained as a future-facing initiative. The work established a clear creative and strategic vision for how the museum could evolve its digital experiences to encourage repeat visits and membership growth. The project showcases my ability to lead with insight, reframe challenges through storytelling, and design scalable, guest-centered experiences that balance creativity, business goals, and operational realities.
The Story Begins. The Challenge:
The museum needed more than a one-time visit. They were looking for a way to:
Encourage guests to explore the entire museum
Create an experience compelling enough to support repeat visits
Give families a reason to consider a membership rather than a single ticket
An early version of the app focused on trivia-based gameplay, but during evaluation it became clear the experience felt too familiar—another quiz-based app that didn’t fully capture the wonder of flight and space.
My Role:
Experience Designer
Concept, UX strategy, storytelling, and interaction design
Audience::
The experience needed to serve families and individual visitors across a wide age range, each with different expectations for a museum and digital experience. Younger children look for playful, guided interactions that help them stay engaged with exhibits. Teens want autonomy and experiences that feel modern, rewarding, and self-directed rather than instructional. Parents and caregivers value experiences that are safe, educational, time-bound, and clearly structured, offering reassurance that time in the museum is purposeful and well spent.
Key Insight:
Watching my 7-year-old play Pokémon Go, I noticed that what truly held his attention wasn’t the trivia or the instructions—it was the feeling of discovery. He stayed engaged when the experience let him explore freely, rewarded curiosity, and made progress visible through collection and movement in the real world. The magic came from participation, not information, and it became clear to me that meaningful engagement happens when learning is embedded in play and exploration.
Trivia alone wasn’t enough to create delight or emotional connection. What did feel magical were experiences that encouraged exploration, discovery, and collection—similar to how games like Pokémon Go transform familiar spaces into something surprising and alive.
Guests didn’t want to just answer questions.
They wanted to venture, discover, and feel rewarded for curiosity.
Design Apprach:
I reframed the app from a trivia game into an exploratory adventure, blending education with discovery.
Instead of leading with questions, the experience:
Encouraged guests to move through the museum with purpose
Used character collection and challenges to guide exploration
Balanced structure with autonomy, so the experience felt self-directed rather than restrictive
The app became less about screen time and more about unlocking moments within the museum itself. This app became a modern-day tour guide (familiar to parents) enhanced with gamification (familiar with kids).
The Solution:
The final experience blends storytelling, exploration, and education into a guided scavenger hunt that feels playful rather than instructional.
Guests explore the museum through character-led challenges
Progression and collection reward curiosity
Clear start and end points give parents confidence
The experience invites repeat visits by offering new paths to explore
The app supports the museum’s business goals while preserving what makes the museum special—wonder, discovery, and imagination.
The Outcome:
While the full scavenger hunt experience was not implemented due to time and budget constraints, the concept was well received and retained as a future-facing initiative. The work established a clear creative and strategic vision for how the museum could evolve its digital experiences to encourage repeat visits and membership growth. The project showcases my ability to lead with insight, reframe challenges through storytelling, and design scalable, guest-centered experiences that balance creativity, business goals, and operational realities.
