Hollo

Hollo is a smart device with a companion app that strives to improve the learning experience. In collaboration with Renee Yeung and Jasmine Acebes, Hollo was envisioned as away to make the museum experience more interactive and dynamic through the introduction of holographic visuals.

Museums are often limited with how they can present information in a way that caters to different learning styles. For example, visual learners process new knowledge differently than a kinetic learner. Curators are limited by the traditional museum displays. Taxidermy, paintings of an object, or small informative plaques do not have the same impact on everyone. The lack of dynamic visuals and interactivity mean that only select individuals benefit from these displays.

Hollo is a glass case that contains a hologram and is equipped with multiple touch panels.This increases the interactivity as it can display information based on the touch of a user. It uses spatial learning by creating a dynamic 3D projection of an object, animal, or place, which benefits visual learners. It also adapts to kinesthetic learners as it gives them a chance to play and interact with the display case. Auditory learners benefit from Hollo through the incorporation of an app that pairs with the device to provide audio guides. The promotional website created for this device is marketed towards curators at educational institutions, such as museums or galleries. The app that was created for Hollo is a companion app for curators or museum guides to use to expand the experience of their museum tours.

We decided to create a companion app that would give museum curators the opportunity to make quick changes to their displays and access analytics. They would be able to change the theme of the display, edit the image itself, and compare displays to see which were more popular. In order to begin making the app, we had to start with mapping out the different pages and establishing rough wireframes for the layout of the app. In the future, we aim to create an app that is catered towards museum visitors as it opens up more opportunities for them to make their museum experience more accessible.

We then created marketing material for our product. We decided to create a website that highlights the features of Hollo, while also giving interested parties a deeper look into our mission statement and opening up the possibilities for Hollo. We also created Instagram ads that advertised a fictional event that featured our technology.

The goal of Hollo was to use technology to make education more accessible. Dynamic displays allow museums to make their exhibits more accessible. Hollo presents itself as a speculative device for education institutions to purchase, but the actual device is used by a museum visitor. A takeaway that I had from this project was to keep looking for ways to make learning accessible. Whether it be options for those that are colour-blind or dyslexic, I hope to explore more ways that technology can improve user-friendliness in the future.