Meet our pup
Volunteer project
Team with 4 designers
Apr 2022 - Aug 2022

Designed an interactive tablet app at The Marine Mammal Center to share stories of rescued marine animals, fostering empathy and encouraging increased donations and volunteer engagement. Conducted user interviews and surveys to gain insights, understood organizational needs, and innovated within technical constraints.

mission
Help the Marine Mammal Center expand their impact
The Marine Mammal Center is a health facility with a range of sea mammals admitted to it. Their daily visitors come to the center with the intention of observing and learning about the mammals but show little willingness to actually help (e.g. donating or joining volunteer work) or understand their real situation due to the lack of empathy building during the visit.
The center was closed during the pandemic, and they just reopened to the public in June 2022. This project is to highlight the social work done by the Marine Mammal Center in the public eye and increase public awareness about their efforts towards marine conservation and ocean health, aiming to inspire the people towards individual action and increase the adoption rate.
Project highlights
1. Rapid prototyping and testing
Me and team members were testing paper prototypes
Using rapid prototypes to conduct several testing to tackle the problems we dicovered during research. Each of these solutions involves different touch points during the visit. Innovate and enrich with existing visit experiences to bring fresh experiences.
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2. Tablet prototypes
The dashboard tablets serve as interactive kiosk touchpoints, seamlessly extending the narrative from the main screen. They offer visitors insights into the diverse reasons behind the admission of marine mammals to the center and the challenges they face.
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Our mission
Help Marine Mammal Center expand their impact
This center is the world’s largest marine mammal hospital. They just reopened to the public in June 2022. We collaborate to highlight the social work done by the Marine Mammal Center in the public eye and increase public awareness about their efforts towards marine conservation and ocean health, aiming to inspire the people towards individual action and increase the adoption rate.
Their daily visitors come to the center with the intention of observing and learning about the mammals but show little willingness to actually help (e.g. donating or joining volunteer work) or understand their real situation due to the lack of empathy building during the visit.
Photos I took at TMMC during the onsite visits
To assist TMMC in expanding its influence, we conducted on-site research and designed a visit questionnaire to understand the current situation and problems encountered by visitors. Based on the survey results, visitors are accompanied mainly by family and seek to learn more about TMMC to observe marine patience with educational resources. 85.7 % of visitors are satisfied with learning experiences and feel inspired to recommend their friends to the TMMC.
Primary research
Get an in-depth look at the current visit experience
We conducted on-site research and designed a visit questionnaire to understand the current situation and problems encountered by visitors. Based on the survey results, visitors are accompanied mainly by family and seek to learn more about TMMC to observe marine patience with educational resources. 85.7 % of visitors are satisfied with learning experiences and feel inspired to recommend their friends to the TMMC.
The source
50%
People who hear about the organization come through family and friend recommendations.
the reason
64.3%
People come to learn more about what the organization does.
the expectation
78.6%
People expect to see real marine mammals during the visit.
To assist TMMC in expanding its influence, we conducted on-site research and designed a visit questionnaire to understand the current situation and problems encountered by visitors. Based on the survey results, visitors are accompanied mainly by family and seek to learn more about TMMC to observe marine patience with educational resources. 85.7 % of visitors are satisfied with learning experiences and feel inspired to recommend their friends to the TMMC.
it might be helpful to put a price range and more information about it. Just so people have an idea what it really means to adopt.
Interviewee J
I wanted to understand what are the issues that mammals actually face in the ocean. We spent 30 minutes looking and asking and learning and yeah, that feels really rich.
Interviewee M
The Marine Mammal Center has a wealth of learning resources. And visitors come mainly for the purpose of learning about marine animals.
Research summary
More guidance about mammals and empathy building
  • It lacks a certain amount of thematic guidance during the visit, which makes it difficult to leave a deep impression.
  • Objective, professional narratives make it difficult for visitors to empathize.
Learn how their contributions can make a real difference
  • Visitors are not resistant to donating, but they want a clear understanding of what it means and what it does.
Exploration

Design interventions at different stages

In the exhibition center, there are different contents to visit, according to which we propose different design solutions. We tested different solutions with 20+ participants.
Ideation 1 - Interactive pledge wall
The interactive pledge wall introduces the visitors to The Marine Mammal Center initiative and how people can help with individual action - why it’s important.
  • Take pledge to take action in real life
  • A world map to collect visitor data
  • Promoting social media post after pledge
Ideation 2 - AR tourguide
Build an AR tour guide at various touchpoints throughout the center where people can get information on their phones.
  • Additional layered information on exhibit pieces
  • Interactive animations
  • Easily access touchpoints to learn more
Ideation 3 - Fun fact video
The loop video integrates with the dashboard and tablets to give messages for call-to-action by interacting with visitors. This fun fact video aims to attract the attention of visitors and increase interactivity.
  • Post questions with a time limit
  • Educational video
Ideation 4 - Meet our pup dashboard
Show the information about patients and the journeys they take after they are rescued and released. Create a call to adoption for these mammals to help them now and in the future.
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  • Tablet application
  • Real data and information about patients

Insights gathered from the testings

Each of these solutions involves different touch points during the visit. Innovate and enrich with existing visit experiences to bring fresh experiences. These solutions are built with low to medium fidelity for rapid prototyping. Participants are also invited to test to provide feedback.

After taking into account the test results, user feedback, and time and budget constraints, we talked to the Communications Coordinator of the organization and opted for a more feasible and empathy-focused design solution, which is building a dashboard to tell patients’ stories.

Information Architecture

Navigate through mammal patients’ journey

We are building a guided narrative tour for the visitors from the lens of the patients and telling them how The Marine Mammal Center helps animals in their journey. Putting these stories together, we decide to create a dashboard to collect all the information. This is the information architecture of the dashboard.

Design exploration

We tried to combine different layouts with clear and simple functionality and tested them with people. People want to change the neat, rational feeling of the dashboard and add some soft curves.

Final deliverables

The journey starts here...

Explore the patients’ unique stories

Explore the stories of our star patients by tapping on the interactive bubbles. Discover the incredible efforts of The Marine Mammal Center in rescuing and rehabilitating these animals.

Adopt your favorite patients

Once you've finished reading the story, you will have the opportunity to make a difference in the life of a marine mammal like Bogey by symbolically adopting them. This adoption will allow you to contribute to the protection and conservation of marine life, as well as support the ongoing efforts to preserve these amazing creatures.

Save the meaningful moment

Once you have successfully completed the adoption process, you will be warmly appreciated by both our patients and the center. As a token of gratitude, you are welcome to capture this precious moment by taking pictures of the experience. Whether you choose to share them on social media or keep them for yourself, the photo will serve as a beautiful reminder of spreading kindness and compassion.

Takeaways

This project is not just a design task for me, it's a journey of discovery and learning. I was fortunate enough to visit the rescue center and witness firsthand the incredible work they do in caring for marine mammals. During my visit, I had the opportunity to study the behavior and habits of these magnificent creatures, and gained a deeper understanding of how they survive and thrive in their natural habitat. As I worked on potential solutions, I gained a greater appreciation for the complex challenges faced by the Marine Mammal Center staff, and the importance of their mission in protecting and preserving these amazing animals.

The Sea++ team

From left to right: Nitin Sauran, Riya Maan, Yutian Wu (me), Kriti Gohil, Kyung Kim

Designed with sparks 🎨✨, 2025