Museum of Science & Industry- Tampa

The Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Tampa, FL received a grant from the National Science Foundation to build a new 9,000 sq.ft. exhibit called “Disasterville.” Much work had been done to outline the learning objectives of the exhibit, which were all centered around the facts regarding natural disasters. They had enlisted the support and expertise of professors at the University of South Florida (USF) and from the Florida Division of Emergency Management (DEM). What they didn’t have was a plan for the guest experience itself.

IDEAS led a 2-day StoryJam™ to creatively conceptualize the guest experience for the new Disasterville exhibit. The outcome of the rich story work and pre-visualization media created was a conceptual-level design for the guest experience. This was based on a unified vision of the design teams, employees, board members and subject matter experts for what the new Disasterville exhibit would be – a first hand experience of natural disasters, an exploration of the science behind them, and an immersion into the world of emergency preparedness and first responders.

During those two days, the IDEAS team had the MOSI team work individually, in small groups, and as a large group to craft stories about their own memorable guest experiences at other locations. They crafted new stories about the grand possibilities of what the new exhibit could be like. IDEAS turned the coin over and made them write “Failure Stories” in order to unmask some of the hidden barriers to success so they could plan to overcome them. Their “final stories” were written, put together as a group and processed. Words, phrases, and sentences that the group felt were especially important to consider were captured.

Then the IDEAS team returned home and took one of their stories and used it as a base, crafting a comprehensive guest experience story that included the information the MOSI team had identified as important. Conceptual media elements were produced; both “audioscape,” a narrative/sound design journey, and a full storyboarded 16-minute animatic. IDEAS also delivered a 125-page book which detailed every aspect of the 2-day StoryJam™ and included a summation and recommended action items for the MOSI team to process. Along with the final deliverables, IDEAS also presented a full package of sponsorship development materials.

Here’s an example of the audioscape created for MOSI: