Museum Exhibit Redesign for Kohl Children’s Museum of Chicago
Role: Lead Prototyper
Skills: collaboration, mechanical design, attention to detail, client relationships
My team redesigned a museum exhibit titled “City on the Move” for the Kohl Children’s Museum of Chicago (KCM). We redesigned the new exhibit to be more interactive and educational. In this way, children could learn about their city through interactive measures, while keeping the fun atmosphere of the children’s museum.
Shown above is a CTA bus that I drew and attached onto a wheel connected to a gear rack, representing the CTA bus system. The objective was to teach the children visiting KCM about the transportation available in their city. This design was finalized after product testing with both children and adults, in order to better see how children interacted with the exhibits.
The final exhibit redesign consisted of four distinct sections, each highlighting a different STEM topic that specifically related to a specific aspect of Chicago. For example, the magnetism section let children interact with Chicago’s famous architecture, and the light/cause and effect section was in the shape of Chase Tower, a famous Chicago skyscraper.
Shown to the left are some of the original mechanical sketches made for the transportation section of the exhibit, with a CTA bus and boat in Lake Michigan shown.