An interactive installation for State Library Victoria's Velvet, Iron, Ashes exhibition, designed to reveal the surprising connections between 50 historical collection items.
State Library Victoria is one of Australia's most visited cultural institutions. The Velvet, Iron, Ashes exhibition celebrated Victorian history through 50 collection items that, on the surface, had little in common. The brief was to build an interactive experience that revealed the threads connecting them.
What needed to be built:
The Map-O-Matic needed to do something the exhibition alone couldn't: make the invisible visible.
This was one of my first installations, and it set the bar for how much fun that kind of work can be. Watching Carolyn Fraser curate the exhibition and Anita Gigi bring the gallery to life was genuinely inspiring. I got real room to play with the visual language, and the result is one of the most joyful things I've made.
I worked on this project as part of my time with Sandpit. Key collaborators were Anita Gigi Design as Exhibition Designer, and Onset Arts who manufactured the Map-O-Matic cabinets.
Working with Sandpit and the broader team, I developed the complete visual world of the Map-O-Matic: interface, interaction design, and a set of 50 illustrated collection item icons. The visual direction leaned into the machine's personality. A little retro, a little wacky, warm enough to draw in visitors of all ages.
The UX guides visitors through a simple two-step interaction: choose two objects, receive a personalised mini tour tracing the connections between them. Physical ergonomics were considered alongside the screen design to make sure the machine worked just as well for a curious eight-year-old as for an adult leaning in to read.
The Map-O-Matic sat in a public gallery visited by a wide range of people, including children, older visitors, and people with varied abilities. Colour contrast across the interface was tested to WCAG AA standards. The scout patch icons were designed to be clear and recognisable at the sizes they appear on screen. Ergonomic decisions around screen height and knob placement were made with physical accessibility in mind, so the installation could be used comfortably without awkward reaching or bending.
The printed paper maps presented an additional consideration. Because the maps were produced on a greyscale thermal printer, colour alone couldn't be used to differentiate areas on the floor plan. Patterns were used instead, giving each section enough visual distinction to be readable without relying on colour at all.
The Map-O-Matic gave visitors a way to engage with the Velvet, Iron, Ashes collection that went beyond reading labels. The newly reopened Victoria Gallery, which had been closed for decades before its renovation, now regularly draws thousands of visitors. State Library Victoria has since become the third busiest public library in the world, welcoming over 2.1 million visits in a single year.
The Map-O-Matic was built by an incredible team. My contribution was the design and user experience. If you're a gallery, library, or cultural institution looking for branding, website design, or accessibility consulting that does your work justice, let's talk.
