The Science Museum of Minnesota | Murder at the Museum
#ServiceDesign #UX #InteractionDesign
The Challenge: Create an event fueled by an immersive story.
The Timeframe: 3 months
My Role: Program Manager, aka Service Design Lead, Interaction Designer, and Project Manager.
The Team: Four fantastically dedicated volunteers to help with activity prototyping, the staff graphic designer, and myself.
The Results: Over 1,200 satisfied guests blowing past revenue goals, six interactive activities with clue cards, a dossier of five fully developed suspects, four forensic experts with table-top activities, and one engrossing crime scene.
Background
A few years in, and I had created a 21+ event series that was going strong. Interest in the bi-monthly theme drew over a thousand guests to each event, and revenue was holding steady. However there was pressure to raise prices. And with an increase in price, I wanted to make sure there was an increase in value.
“With an increase in price, I wanted to make sure there was an increase in value.”
To make sure we could continue to engage and provide value, we collected survey responses from guests on the floor. I wanted to learn what drew guests if it was their first time (answer: the theme) and what continued to engage repeat visitors (answer: the hands on activities). In observing how guests were moving through the museum, I noted some activities in more remote locations of the museum had low attendance.
How could we keep building on what guests loved and create an incentive to explore all the activities? How could we add more value?
I wanted to explore a greater link between the hands-on activities peppered throughout the exhibits than a common theme - a storyline, tying all the activities together, asking guests to look harder, look deeper, and connect the dots. Inspired by the popularity of crime TV shows with iffy science backing up their plot lines, a murder mystery seemed just the ticket. Each visitor would be tasked in collecting clues to solve a murder.
Activity Research and Design
I plumbed forensics experts, college courses, syllabi, and museum archives for interactive activities. Then, with a team of four steadfast volunteers from the museum’s volunteer committee, we prototyped and user-tested activities weekly leading up to the event. Each activity had to have a clear takeaway, showcase a phenomenon, and be scalable up to 2,000 visitors. Additionally, each activity had to play a substantial part in the storyline, advancing and enriching the mystery.
Shoe print evidence and dossier for Eddie Poe, one of five suspects.
Activity demonstrating how blood spatter patterns can determine where the trauma occurred. Guests would recreate blood spatter patterns themselves, experimenting with angle and speed.
This ink analysis activity would help guests determine if documents were forged, helping determine motive and undercover the sale of museum artifacts on the black market.
“I prototyped and user-tested activities weekly leading up to the event. Each activity had to play a substantial part in the storyline, advancing and enriching the mystery”
Testing a fingerprint activity kit. A few fingerprints were found on the case with the missing Burmese Falcon.
Creating the Experience
A linear storyline would have created multiple bottlenecks with over a thousand guests. To remedy this, every station had clue cards. If the activity were too crowded at a particular moment or a guest wasn't interested in fully participating in an activity, they could grab the clue card and continue sleuthing. Actors, activities, the staged murder, and real forensic scientists all created other ways to learn and engage with the mystery.
Clue cards allowed guests to retrieve material information to the mystery, even if activity tables we crowded.
Each guest received a manila envelope and a pencil for notes. Inside, guests could track suspects, carry clue cards, and find a map of the museum and all included activities.
An overview of the evenin
Bringing the Story Together
Once I had worked through the activities and the storyline with volunteers, we brought in our in-house theater company to play the suspects. I wanted to illuminate the different roles that support the day-to-day functioning of the museum, so security, conservation, research, and curation were represented. Each actor was stationed throughout the exhibits, and fleshed out their role with marvelous detail.
In addition to adding another layer to the evening's activities, the actors served a vital purpose. At the end of the evening they gathered all guests to stand trial, revealing whodunnit that very same evening so no one was left to guess at the outcome.
The suspects, co-developed with Science Live Theater actors.
The Event
Over 1,200 guests came through our doors over the course of the four hour evening, and the floors were packed for the 10pm whodunnit reveal. Volunteers working the floor expressed a real sense of pride for this event. Guests grilled the actors for any hint of a clue, examined all pertinent exhibits for clues with a fine toothed comb, and would take to tables throughout the museum to discuss their findings in groups.
We exceeded revenue goals and had a blast.
Clockwise from left: table display from forensic anthropologist Susan Myster, the scene of the crime, and guests.
Guests gathered before the whodunnit reveal. The crime scene was set up with help from
Research & Inspiration:
The Minneapolis Institute of Art's Choose Your Own Adventure event
Clue, both board game and movie
The BBC's Sherlock