Oasis Encounter

Leveraging VR and photogrammetry in innovative ways for the future of visitor centers

Client

Oasis of Mara – Joshua Tree National Park

Scope

January 2020–May 2020

Role

UX Designer, Researcher, Prototyper

Deliverables

Prototype

overview

Since 1950, the National Park Service has been entrusted with the care of Oasis of Mara – Joshua Tree National Park. With the help of volunteers and partners, they safeguard these special places and share their stories with more than 318 million visitors every year. To achieve this vision, a shift in the national park's personality and brand image is necessary. National Parks have always been a source of knowledge and information. However, with the changing times, in order to stay relevant, there is a pressing need for interpretive exhibits to engage their visitors in creative ways and be much more than information providers.

Instead of thinking what marketing efforts, or what new digital or service experience offering could be created to drive traffic to the Oasis of Mara, a design concept reframed the challenge, how might we create a service experience to live beyond the visitor center walls.

Reflections

• The Intersect framework is generalizable to work with fauna and landscape materials natural to the terrain of the mojave desert.

• Results suggest that our approach can generate fauna and landscape that conform to the structure of the mojave desert and fulfill visitor expectations.

• Future work will focus on mesh directly and weighted fracture simulations to account for class imbalance.