MinARal documentation

Hey There!

what?

Our team created a singleplayer, augmented reality based game, MinARal, for mobile devices that educates children on the real-world use and purpose of gems and minerals.Â

where?

Gems and minerals exhibition Natural Museum of Natural History Washington D.C

why NMNH’s business development team expressed that an important goal for them is to promote STEM as an exciting and viable career path for children. However, while the Gems & Minerals exhibit is one of the most popular in the museum, some of the supplementary technology installed doesn’t seem like it was built with targeting children in mind.

We want to use adventure via our augmented reality product, whimsy with our story, and the convenience of a mobile device to appeal to a younger audience and ultimately get them excited about the science of mineralogy.

concept Through an augmented reality mobile game, young visitors will discover minerals, and their properties through Dr.Smith’s clues found in the MinARal app.

By selecting certain minerals/gems prompted by clues, children will understand what makes an individual mineral/gem so important to historical and real-life use-case.

user flow

storyboard

user journey

takeaways It’s all about telling a story Complexity helped us build unique stories with powerful emotions Museum team feedback gave us a different lens to sense our project Clear goals but always open to new ideas Users always have their own aesthetic vision Teamwork gave us three times more confidence

project plan

team