Durham Museum of Life and
Science Butterfly Exhibition
UX Research
UI Design
Team members
Amaya Hush
Client
Durham Museum of Life and Science
Role
Designer
Project Overview
This project explored how awe-driven, immersive environments can deepen learning and emotional connection in museum visitors. Through research-informed design, my team created a technology-enhanced experience for the Durham Museum of Life and Science Butterfly Conservatory that allows visitors to shape a butterfly’s life cycle. By translating conservation science into embodied interaction, the experience positions awe as a catalyst for curiosity, understanding, and environmental awareness.
Year
2025 (3 weeks)
Exhibition Design
Theoretical Foundations
This project is grounded in research identifying awe as a bridge between emotional experience and cognitive change.
Jones et al. (2022) research highlights that awe is not merely an emotional reaction to beauty or spectacle, but it supports the process of learning by motivating people to seek explanations, revise their understanding, and engage more deeply with complex ideas.
Awe as an Epistemic Emotion
Awe is uniquely triggered in situations where a person becomes aware of gaps in their knowledge (Jones et al. 2022).
Awe Encourages System Thinking
Dispositional awe may promote open-mindedness to the natural world and an increased understanding of the nature of science (Jones et al. 2022).
Awe helps facilitate Scientific Agency
Awe motivates individuals towards contemplation and them to think abstractly and engage in science inquiry (Jones et al. 2022).
Gail Jones, M., Nieuwsma, J., Rende, K., Carrier, S., Refvem, E., Delgado, C., … Huff, P. (2022). Leveraging the epistemic emotion of awe as a pedagogical tool to teach science. International Journal of Science Education, 44(16), 2485–2504. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2022.2133557
Problem Statement
How might we use an immersive experience to transform visitors from passive observers into active participants, closing the gap between exposure to scientific information and meaningful understanding of ecological systems, conservation impact, and empathy for living systems?
Museum Visit
Before we began designing, we visited with the museum staff to gain their insights
​Key Takeaways:​
-
Technology should not bleed into the actual butterfly conservatory.
-
The conservatory is a very lived experience, but lack of staff prevents sharing of additional knowledge.
-
They struggle to share conservation stories in a way that deeply impacts visitors.
​
​
A Butterfly Companion Experience
Step inside a living story of metamorphosis, where light, scale, and interaction bring the hidden world of butterflies to life. Where visitors explore, observe, and shape their butterfly’s journey.
This experience uses immersive technology across three distinct rooms. Guiding visitors through a butterfly’s journey from larva to emergence.
Through interactive storytelling, visitors learn about biology, ecosystems, and metamorphosis as they shape their own companion butterfly.
A Metamorphosis Journey
Softwares Used
To visually create our immersive experience we layered 3D renderings, motion design, and green screen cut-outs to transport me into the exhibit.
Spline
We used Spline as our 3D modeling and rendering tool, to construct the exhibition rooms and spatial asset.
After Effects
After Effects was used to create motion design for interface elements and prototype mock-ups.
CapCut
CapCut was used to edit green screen footage and layer video elements for the final presentation.
The Bracelet
Visitors begin their journey by picking up a bracelet that links them to the world of metamorphosis.
The bracelet allows visitors to interact with projections and make choices guiding their butterfly’s development.
Larva Room
To spark curiosity and discovery through open ended exploration of early caterpillar life.
​​
Purpose
Visitors will wander through an immersive “forest” where they discover caterpillars’ behaviors, habitats, and adaptations through their own choices and movement.
​​
Experience
Through hands-on interaction with plant types and microhabitats, visitors build early understanding of ecological relationships and the survival.
Key Learning
Immersive Projections
By leveraging projection mapping technology, the visitor is transported to the immersive world of their caterpillar.
Discovery Stations
Our exhibit explores how tiny environmental decisions shape an entire butterfly’s life. Each station represents a real scientific factor that changes how a butterfly grows, looks, and survives.
Temperature
Different climate choices influences the butterfly’s size, pigment richness, and wing symmetry.
Food
Different food selection affects the butterfly’s growth rate, development, and adult size.
Shelter
The surface a chrysalis attaches to determines its various colors, shape, and camouflage style.
Moisture
High moisture leads to fast growth, while low moisture slows growth and produces larger butterflies.
Photoperiod
Day length signals whether a caterpillar should transform now or wait, effecting the chrysalis duration.
A Personalized Experience
Each visitor's bracelet connects to the station and save answer choices, creating a butterfly effect.
Chrysalis Room
To immerse visitors in the quiet, stillness and vulnerability during the chrysalis stage.
​​
Purpose
Guests enter a dark, space where glowing chrysalises pulse, in slow rhythms, mirroring this internal transformation happening within.
​​
Experience
This room is used to emphasize that metamorphosis is a delicate, slow and unseen process. That time, protection, and stillness are essential.
Key Learning
Visitor's can view their caterpillar preparing along side glowing chrysalises that pulse, in slow rhythms, mirroring this internal transformation happening within.
​
Previous choices from the stations change flora interaction and chrysalis timing.
A Quiet Moment
Emergence Room
To evoke awe as visitors witness the dramatic emergence and the beauty of the butterfly stage.
​​
Purpose
Visitors witness and discover their personalized butterfly emerge in vibrant detail. With a final farewell as they watch it lift off and join the larger swarm.
​​
Experience
Visitors explore the butterfly’s anatomy, adaptive traits, its native habitat, and gaining a broader sense of biodiversity. Revealing environmental pressures the species face.
Key Learning
Meet Your Butterfly
This space projects your butterfly in large scale, giving you a chance to observe its colors, wings, and patterns up close.
Capture the Moment
Take a photo with your butterfly to save the moment and create a memory you can carry beyond the exhibit.
Butterfly Discovery Wall Display
Want to Know More?
Explore your fully emerged butterfly through an informational wall display.
-
​Learn how each station choice you made changed the appearance and attributes of your companion.​
-
Learn about the species endangerment status and current pressures impacting its environment.
Final Release
Say goodbye to your companion and enter the butterfly conservatory
Final Thoughts
This project followed a fast-paced timeline that pushed us to move quickly into our visual exploration. The research on leveraging the epistemic emotion of awe provided strong theoretical grounding, allowing us to focus on designing awe-inspiring moments of beauty that were especially rewarding to craft visually. Moving forward, I would love to expand the experience by addressing multi-user functionality, through creating interactions that feel individual without being isolating, and exploring moments where companions engage with one another.