Overview

The Fallen Star kiosk is designed to help UCSD prospective students and visitors experience Fallen Star despite the COVID-19 restrictions, enhancing their campus tour experience. Our virtual tour kiosk provides a detailed story of how Fallen Star was created. Additionally, we include information about other Stuart Collections on campus to encourage visitors to explore and discover during their campus tour.

Background

The closure of UCSD's Fallen Star sculpture since 2020 has restricted access to its captivating interior, despite the campus attracting tourists with its renowned Stuart Collection.

How might we help UCSD prospective students and visitors experience Fallen Star despite these restrictions and enhance their campus tour experience?

Our proposed solution involves creating and installing a virtual tour kiosk. This kiosk would allow users to experience Fallen Star virtually while also providing information on other sculptures in the Stuart Collection, encouraging visitors to explore and discover the campus's unique art pieces.

Design Process

User Research

Fieldwork/Observation

To understand the user environment and identify suitable kiosk locations for installation, we observed the activity around Fallen Star on the top floor of Irwin & Joan Jacobs School of Engineering. After a few days of observation, we noticed that while many people pass by the building, fewer individuals actually venture to the top floor to see the sculpture.

As a result, we propose several potential kiosk locations:

• Inside the building on the ground floor
• Outside infront of the building
• Outside the Fallen Star door on the top floor

Field Interview

We chatted with 8 UCSD students and staff and discovered:

• Some students had limited exposure to the sculpture, there was interest in a virtual tour
• Suggestion to install a kiosk on the ground floor of the building emerged as a way to enhance accessibility
• Participants emphasized the importance of incorporating a tour guide to provide insights into the artist's intention behind the sculpture

Personas

After conducting our research, we developed two personas to represent our target audience.

Bobby, a first-year student who has not had a chance to visit Fallen Star, is curious if there is a way for him to explore that sculpture.

Jeff who is a senior, has been inside Fallen Star before but wants to find ways to visit the sculpture again before graduation.