exhibit object 2023
microplastic scanner
My role
Research // Concept // UX // UI
Supervison
Hans Krämer // Marc Guntow // Markus Weinberger
Team
The metaphor of an airport scanner to detect microplastics in everyday objects.
Why?
This exhibit educates visitors about the microplastics in everyday items and their effects on the human body. Through interactive methods, users can uncover microplastics in common objects and understand the health implications of their ingestion.
Do you know how much microplastic is in your everyday objects? This exhibit educates visitors about the microplastics in common items and their effects on the human body.
Preselected everyday objects can be placed in a tray, just like at an airport. You can send the tray through the scanner via a conveyor belt. While airport scanners detect sharp or prohibited items, this project reveals microplastic particles. You might be shocked by how much microplastic is in our everyday items
Just like at the airport, the user can now zoom into the object or use the three colorful buttons to toggle specific types of microplastics
on and off.
When zooming in, windows appear on both sides of the object, providing interesting information.
The deeper you zoom, the more detailed the information, with three levels in total.
Design
The UI provides information on how microplastics enter the body, their types, amounts, and their locations in the object. This information is presented in small, engaging bites to keep users attentive:
* Snapshot from the UI: A mask was placed in the scanner *
The UI should have a technical character to maintain the metaphor, yet look more modern and exciting than actual airport scanners. Accordingly, fonts, corners, icons, and colors were chosen.
To visually support the
text sections, animations were used
*size of a particle*
*microplastics in chewing gum*
*formation*
A technical prototype was crafted by the IoT students in the team. Additionally, the scanner was constructed using a laser cutting method from wood, enabling the object to be exhibited and tested with users.
* technical prototype and wooden scanner were build by Leonard Thillmann, Karl Endepols and Philipp Däschle *
