AMNH 3D Map
Despite its distinctive landmarks, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is notoriously difficult to navigate. The museum has expanded extensively over the last 150 years and is actually dozens of interconnected buildings and additions. Vanessa Chestnut, Sarah Liriano Alba, and I set out to create a more useful map for Designing for Museums, a course in NYU’s Game Center with Matt Parker in Spring of 2021. We consulted directly with AMNH as a client to determine their needs, which were fairly basic: make an accessible map that is easy to navigate (especially between floors) and find museum highlights (and bathrooms).
First, we examined the existing AMNH map, and found that the museum was circulating three different maps, with varying levels of detail.
We then referenced other museum maps to see what they’ve done. Static 3D maps have proven effective for other museums, but primarily for simple, rectangular buildings. We thought that an interactive 3D model could be effective for a more complex building.
We also researched how other museums and family attractions (such as zoos and amusement parks) with more complicated geography highlight their amenities.
Our first step in production was simplifying the map and removing unnecessary details.
Next, we created pins for highlights and amenities. The assigned distinctive shapes to the pins in addition to color to make the accessible to users with colorblindness. Each group of pins is filterable on the app, so the map isn’t cluttered with items a visitor isn’t looking for.
