Peoria Playhouse Children's Museum

   Last week I posted a set of icons I was working on for Peoria's children's museum. I just wanted to make this post to share the final set with everyone and talk a bit about the wayfinding app that I am working on using these icons. The brief for this project involved created a wayfinding app for the children's museum that was functional for both children and adults. I chose to go with a more complex, vectorized look, for the exhibit icons as opposed to the standard one or two color icon. I wanted the icons to be clear, but also colorful and playful. I think I was fairly successful in crafting a unified set, but I might need to make a second icon set with reduced detail  so that they can function better at smaller sizes. These icons would look great on wayfinding signs and physical maps, but maybe not so much on an iPhone5 screen. 

   With the actual app itself, I decided to focus on a paper airplane as a recurring motif.  The Peoria Playhouse logo features an airplane flying from the house and their website features the image of the airplane heavily. I was attracted to the plane's resemblance to an arrow and the way that the trail lines could be used to guide the user. The splash page could feature the airplane flying around before finally coming to rest beside the Peoria Playhouse text. The header typeface I chose (Bebas) is big and bold and in all caps. I went with this font because I thought it would be appealing to both kids and adults without appearing too childlike. 

Another aspect of the brief involved creating engagement for users when they leave the museum. This is the part of the assignment that I am still working on. Right now, I've only designed a page that details the museums current exhibits. I extended the  vectorized look/incorporated the airplane in the exhibit info pages. I also designed the apps navigation (search, explore, and home) in the same vector style as the rest of the icons. 

When it came to the actual on site way finding, I wanted the maps to contrast the complexity of the icons. I went with a very simple, one color, line based look on the maps. This allowed the maps to fit in better with the type and highlight in the same manner. I also wanted to incorporate a swipe down menu of the exhibits into the map, but I'm not sure if I illustrated that well.

Finally, I am working on a geolocation feature where the airplane can guide the user in real time to exhibits. Again I am making heavy use of the vectorized look and simple typography. This app is still a work in progress, but I like how it is turning out so far.