A Layered Life
GIANTS OF LAND AND SEA EXHIBIT:
A Layered Life
Visitors bring to life 3 animated whale species by dragging their finger along a timeline to make them swim and reveal stories about what scientists learn from specimens of each species.
Team:
Andrew Sawyer – Visual Design, Animation, & UX
Sarah Goodin – Content
Josh Ause – Developer
James Davidson – Illustration
Location:
California Academy of Sciences museum
Year:
2018
Clickthrough of this interaction to show the UX and animations.
Home Screen. Visitors select one of the animated illustrations of a swimming whale illustrates what can be learned about these whales lives by studying specimens collected from each species.
By dragging the small whale along a timeline, the illustration animates and the blue whale starts swimming to tell the story of what the whale eats and how that tells the story of where the whale has traveled.
Text highlights in segments to create a pacing that keeps the visitor engaged. The sperm whale eats a squid as it swims by.
A close-up view of a sperm whale’s tooth animates the layers to and describes how counting the layers lets scientists know the age of the whale.
Buttons appear throughout each story for opportunities to dive deeper into the content.
Example of “Dive deeper” content