Activating Innovation

Creative direction, project management

Over four years in the making the Activating Innovation project reimagined the digital ecosystem on the floor of the Museum of American Innovation at The Henry Ford. The Intersection of Innovation is a destination on the floor of Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation that brings the experience of innovation to life. Through a series of interactive exhibits, guests can explore objects and stories from The Henry Ford’s unprecedented Archive of American Innovation to make new and surprising connections between past, present and future innovations as well as the innovators who created them and the ways they have shaped the world we live in today. We partnered with Bluecadet, a design firm out of Philadelphia to tackle this large, institutional project. First things first, what is the project, what are the outcomes, what is the process?

Purpose:
We created a network of experiences designed to humanize the collection, bring people to the forefront of our storytelling, provide context to existing exhibits and allow museum guests to:
See it: Understand the connectedness of the collection.
Do it: Innovation is a journey and the collection helps to unpack it.

Innovation Lives Here: stories of innovation and our inspirational collection will be self-evident and easily accessed.

Process:
We staged multiple, cross-functional workshops and brainstorming sessions to determine not only the right type of experience and stories to tell but how to tell them. We didn’t want to pick technology for technologies sake, the most important thing was telling the story and allowing the tech to amplify it. The group went through many ideations, versions and rough prototypes and like the Intersection itself, was a journey through the creative process. We tested in real time, with real museum guests the type of experiences we were starting to imagine, allowing direct feedback for both the content and the user interface. While designing for accessibility, we included close-captioned visual content as well as height-adjusted display options into the solution.

Outcomes:
Take a digital dive into the Archive of American Innovation to explore artifacts that have shaped our world in surprising ways. Learn to think and act like an innovator yourself as you investigate the many ways that past, present and future connect.

Start with a sweeping view into a collection far more extensive than anything else quite like it, select from featured artifacts, and meet the visionary minds that brought them to life. Guided by The Henry Ford’s own groundbreaking Model i Innovation Framework, you can even unlock the actual habits and actions famous innovators used to achieve their creative breakthroughs—habits and actions you yourself can tap into today.

At the Intersection of Innovation’s 12-foot long, multi-user touchscreen Connections Table, you can literally peer into the mind of a curator to understand how they think about the collections and how they collect. From there, the AI-enhanced experience allows you to explore the almost infinite possible connections between artifacts.

The Intersection of Innovation opens eyes and minds to the process of innovation in a way no other set of experiences can. No matter who you are, how long you stay, or how often you visit, The Intersection of Innovation will always hold something new in store for you. - Applied Storytelling

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