"Dish Dash" at the Pittsburgh Children's Museum is a conceptual interactive exhibition designed to immerse children in the world of global cuisines and enhance their understanding of cultural diversity. The concept of the exhibition is to show how the same set of ingredients can be cooked differently across the world, turning into diverse dishes and highlighting cultural diversity.

The adventure starts with children picking up a plate and selecting three food ingredient magnets. In the exhibition room, a large table with a world map projected on it awaits them. When they place their plates on the table, that region of the world lights up and animates to show their chosen ingredients being cooked. The ingredients then transform into a cuisine unique to that part of the world, projected onto the plate. This projected animation expands, surrounding the plate with the region's landscape, architecture, animals, and music. As one region is explored, kids are invited to see how these ingredients are used in other regions of the world, enhancing the learning about culture diversity. The journey wraps with each child receiving a magnet of a dish they created, and a card that provides information about the cuisine, extending the learning beyond the exhibition. For an added treat, they can taste the actual dish in the museum's café, turning their learning into a delicious reality.

After consulting with caregivers and the museum's exhibition director, we chose food as the theme for its universal appeal and sensory richness. "Dish Dash" is thoughtfully designed with children in mind, featuring tables suitable for their height and reach. The exhibition emphasizes hands-on interaction with plates and tables, complemented by visual and auditory elements from various cuisines, creating a fully immersive learning experience. Additionally, the ability to taste the food in the cafeteria brings the cultures to life, making the learning experience more engaging and tangible. This fun and educational approach not only promotes cultural diversity awareness but also broadens children's global understanding. The flexible design of "Dish Dash" makes it possible to replicate the exhibition in children's museums worldwide, enhancing cultural education globally.

Goal

The Pittsburgh Children's Museum is on a mission to revolutionize education by offering innovative and inclusive experiences that foster joy, creativity, curiosity, and kindness. Our initiative, Dish Dash, is specifically designed to introduce young minds to cultural diversity within a museum environment. Through targeted observation sessions and interviews with caregivers and the museum's exhibition director, we identified a significant gap: there's a strong desire among families to share and preserve cultural traditions, yet a notable absence of educational resources focused on cultural awareness for young audiences. Amidst Pittsburgh's vibrant multicultural backdrop, Dish Dash aims to enrich children's understanding and appreciation of global cultures.

Process

Uncovering Opportunities through Research

Our research began with a thorough literature review, field observation and detailed interviews with ten parents. These efforts uncovered a marked deficiency in the museum's educational offerings, particularly in the realm of cultural diversity. This lack has become increasingly conspicuous to both parents and educators. Additionally, we recognized that while current educational methodologies heavily rely on visual learning, multisensory technologies offer new opportunities for engagement. However, the challenge lies in presenting complex themes like cultural diversity in a manner that is both age-appropriate and appealing to diverse learning styles, all while accurately portraying the nuances of various cultures. This led us to our guiding question: How can we effectively familiarize children with the concept of cultural diversity in a museum setting?

Designing for Education and Children Engagement

Food is culture-rich

Our exploration into various cultural aspects – music, language, food, mythology, and arts – culminated in choosing food as the medium to educate about cultural diversity. Food's universal appeal and familiarity offer an accessible entry point for children of all ages. Considering the museum's family-centric demographic, food, often central to family gatherings, provides a relatable and engaging learning tool for both children and parents. Moreover, the cultural depth of food – from ingredients and preparation methods to dining customs and associated stories – makes it an ideal vehicle for conveying the essence of diverse cultures.

Table-centered experience

Our exploration of mediums for interaction, ranging from physical objects to digital simulations, resulted in the creation of a projection-based, table-centered experience. Recognizing the global ubiquity of table dining, we integrated an interactive world map into our table design. This approach allows children to immerse themselves in the culinary traditions of various cultures, fostering a deeper respect and understanding of the diversity they represent. This innovative, hands-on method enriches the museum's educational offerings, inviting children to explore and appreciate the world's cultural mosaic.

Refining through Iterative Testing

Our testing phase employed various methods, from crafting a cardboard prototype of the table to ensure accessibility for children, to designing paper prototypes of plates to optimize size and projection visibility. The most challenging aspect was refining the projection technology. We began with static image projections to assess color contrast on different materials, then progressed to testing the clarity of animations. The final phase involved creating a trackable plate system, equipped with cameras and sensors, to synchronize the plate's movement with the table projection. This innovative approach allows the projection to adapt dynamically as plates are moved, providing an interactive and engaging educational experience.

Final Design

Part I: Engaging Beginnings - Plate & Ingredient Collection

Entrance Display: The exhibition starts with an interactive display at the entrance, showcasing a variety of world cuisines previously created by participants. This visual feast not only highlights the diversity of food but also encourages cultural exchange, igniting the children's curiosity about cultural diversity.

Ingredient Selection: Children engage with a touchscreen to select three food ingredients, becoming active participants in their learning journey. Limiting the choice to three ingredients focuses their exploration on cultural diversity, a decision reinforced by our design testing.

Physical Plate Interaction: Emphasizing hands-on learning, we incorporate culturally varied plates as an interactive tool. These plates, combined with projection technology, vividly bring to life the concept of cultural diversity.

Part II: Immersive Exhibition Experience

Child-Friendly World Map Table: The heart of the exhibition is a world map-shaped table, scaled for children. It's divided into 22 regions, each representing a distinct food culture. Overhead projectors bring the map to life, guiding children on where to place their plates.

Encouraging Exploration: To encourage children to explore more regions, we designed the 22 areas to light up sequentially with glowing edges when not interacted with, guiding children to discover and explore more cultural dishes.

Multisensory Experience: Upon placing their plate on the map, real-time tracking technology transforms the plate into a cultural canvas, accompanied by local music. Animations depicting the selected ingredients merge to form a local specialty dish, surrounded by cultural artistic elements like local scenery and wildlife. This multisensory approach deepens the understanding of cultural diversity in a fun and engaging way.

Part III: Continuing the Journey Beyond the Exhibition

Updated Entrance Display: Post-exhibition, participants return their plates and witness their created cuisines join a digital "world dish wall," symbolizing their contribution to global culture.

Cuisine Magnet and Information Card: Participants receive a magnet sticker of their chosen cuisine along with an informative card detailing its origin, ingredients, and fun facts. This souvenir, informed by user research, extends the educational experience beyond the museum, supporting continuous learning.

Multisensory Experience at the Café: Finally, the museum's café offers the opportunity to taste the cuisines created during the exhibition. This sensory experience of taste and smell enriches the learning journey, providing a delicious culmination to the Dish Dash experience.

Stakeholder interests

We conducted interviews with ten parents of children aged 1 to 16, along with the director of exhibition experience at the Children's Museum. Our goal was to understand the common interests and daily interactions between children and their parents, as well as the design principles of the Children's Museum. We discovered that the ideal experience should engage both parents and children in the activities, encourage the exchange of information between them, and turn these experiences into memorable moments. Additionally, the Children's Museum emphasizes that the experiences should be led by the children.

Impact

Dish Dash proposes an interactive museum experience designed to educate children about cultural diversity using food as the primary medium. It enables children to engage in hands-on cooking experiments, demonstrating how a single set of ingredients can transform into various cuisines from around the world. This immersive experience not only enhances their understanding of cultural diversity but also effectively showcases the interconnectedness of global cultures, fostering a broader perspective and appreciation in young minds.

Dish Dash utilizes various methods to engage a young audience effectively, including non-textual design, multi-sensory elements like tactile plate interaction, physical movement around the table, audio, animations, and culminating in a tasting experience at the cafe.

Upon reflection, we recognize the limitations in our cultural understanding and the risk of oversimplified depictions. Consequently, we are dedicated to continuous learning to enhance and refine these representations. A potential improvement strategy involves collaborating with artists worldwide to create authentic and respectful artworks and cultural elements, aiming for a more accurate portrayal of the diverse cultures we aim to showcase.

Furthermore, we aim to enhance interactivity between regions. One design opportunity involves incorporating interactive characters within each region to investigate cross-cultural dynamics. For instance, users can drag these characters across regions and observe their distinct reactions to new cultures and environments.

Finally, there are situations where a region may lack specific ingredients, or certain combinations of ingredients may not result in a viable cuisine in certain regions. To address this issue, we could consider implementing more flexible rules, allowing for the use of any two out of three ingredients for generation, or temporarily deactivating the region when a user hovers over the plate.