St. Louis Science Center

I am not from St. Louis originally, so I never had the chance to visit the St. Louis Science Center growing up. Since moving to town for college, I have noticed the unique building and covered walkway each time I drove by, and I even told my friends that I thought it would be interesting to visit.

My first opportunity to go to the Science Center was with my Advanced User Experience class earlier this week. The field trip was meant to give us a closer look at how UX presents itself in the real world through signage, kiosks, interactive activities, and much more. Our class spent a few hours exploring all of the exhibits that we could, and these were my main takeaways;

TYPOGRAPHY

I love type. Typography is usually the first thing I notice when I visit a new place, and the science center had plenty of it. Here are a few things I noticed about the science center’s use of type;

The science center has its own identity, and each large exhibit takes on its own look. All of the signage that is for information about the building itself had a cohesive look, but as I explored new exhibits I noticed new type choices and cohesive systems working together.

• All type used on signage was big and bold, making it legible from far distances
• There were a wide variety of typefaces used, but all were easy to read. I didn’t see many script fonts, or anything too funky to where it could be difficult to read
• My favorite thing about the use of type in the science center was that there are many instances of large-scale type. I love when type takes up a whole wall and demands the attention of whoever enters the space. Check out the photos below!

HOW PEOPLE INTERACT

To learn more about how visitors interact with the science center, I watched a father-daughter duo interact with an exhibit within the Experience Energy area. The pair were working with the Powered by Coal experience.

The Powered by Coal exhibit is interactive, and allows kids to learn how burning coal results in energy. There are pieces of foam “coal” that need to be thrown into the oven to produce energy. Each piece results in seven seconds of energy, and the red number display above the oven shows how many seconds of energy has been produced. In the center of the exhibit users can read a short paragraph about chemical potential energy, and how it relates to the activity. They can also watch a short video about the life of coal. Finally, there are real pieces of coal to look at. As I watched the father/daughter duo interact with this exhibit I noticed the following;

• The daughter felt like she was playing. The girl was around three-years-old, and I noticed she was having fun throwing the coal into the oven. The father encouraged the sense of play by challenging her to move quickly, and then see how many seconds she had accumulated on the screen above.
• The father learned by reading, and then taught in an age-appropriate way for his daughter. I saw that he read the paragraphs available about chemical potential energy, but rather than read his daughter a paragraph she wouldn’t understand he explained the experience as a cause and effect. He would emphasize the fact that adding more coal resulted in more time and energy, without any fancy language that she might not understand.
• I noticed that the exhibit allowed for visitors to see the life of coal before trying the activity. It taught through the video and paragraphs, and then allowed the duo to learn by doing, which is most memorable for the young girl.
• I noticed that interactions within the exhibit were placed at the right vertical height for who would be most-likely to use them. For example, the pieces of coal were located closer to the ground, where a young child can pick it up and learn by doing.
• The larger text paragraphs were located higher on the wall, where an older child or adult would be able to read them.
• The visual of the changing numbers and “fire” within the coal oven were exciting for the girl. I predict that that part of her day will be memorable, and she’ll retian the concept much better than she would have with a paragraph of text.

WAYFINDING

The science center is a big place, so it would be easy to get turned around without proper wayfinding. The science center utilizes consistent colors and typefaces throughout the building to label rooms and point visitors in the right direction. I think the most effective piece of wayfinding were the signs that hung from the ceiling and had labels which pointed in the direction of the attraction.

INTERACTIVE EXHIBITS

I found out that I consume more water than the average St. Louis resident by answering questions about my water consumption on an interactive kiosk. I noticed a screen on the wall that had moving water with the text “How do you use water? Touch anywhere to find out.”

Here are a few things I noted about the experience of using the kiosk;

• The moving water image was what caught my eye and drew me into the experience. I’m not sure that I would have noticed the kiosk or been interested in trying it out if the image were still.
• The kiosk was at a height on the wall that would be appropriate for an older child and adults. This specific interaction required more reading than some others, so it was set up primarily for interaction from people who are old enough to read.
• The design of the kiosk experience was very accessible. Each button that I needed to click on were large and obvious.
• The kiosk was fairly self-explanatory and didn’t require many instructions. I liked that you could jump right into the experience rather than spend a lot of time learning how to use the kiosk.

I LEARNED

I enjoyed visiting the space area of the science center. I learned that there are meteorite pieces that came from Mars on Earth, and there is a small piece that can be touched. The science center had a piece that landed in Algeria on display.

OVERALL,

The St. Louis Science Center has a lot to offer, no matter the visitors’ age. There are so many exhibits on a wide range of topics that you are sure to find a fast favorite. The experience was well worth my time, especially when thinking about how much I learned about UX in the process. Prior to this field trip, I hadn’t paid too much attention to how others interacted with kiosks or exhibits, but now I know how to consider the experience of multiple age ranges at once. I liked considering how an experience can be tailored to young children while simultaneously offering higher-level information for parents and older children.