This spring, thirteen students worked alongside CMLTD Senior Lecturer Yoo Kyung Chang and Barry Joseph, a veteran informal learning designer, to complete phase two of designing and implementing new learning experiences at the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum. Building on the work of last year’s design team, the group added elements such as a comic wall and a scavenger hunt to the museum. The project offered these students, and their three mentors who returned from last year’s team, the opportunity to participate in the real-world application of concepts and design processes they learn in class. Specifically, participating students practiced essential knowledge and skills for designers, identified the client’s needs, integrated multiple mediums for innovative design, collaborated with the client and subject matter experts, and managed the project from end-to-end.
Sitting inside one of the oldest seltzer works in New York City, the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum is a journey through over a millennia of seltzer history. Originally founded as Gomberg Seltzer Works Inc. by Moe Gomberg in 1953, the company is now known as Brooklyn Seltzer Boys. It remains a family-run business in its fourth generation, located in Brooklyn’s Canarsie neighborhood. The Museum portion of the factory celebrates the cultural importance of seltzer, teaches visitors about the science and production of seltzer, and reminds the community of the value of local business.
In November 2023, three teams participated in an initial design challenge which asked them to design new hands-on learning experiences for the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum. They were challenged to focus on the storytelling and the cultural history of seltzer in their designs. Following a site visit and three weeks of working together on their pitches, the teams presented their ideas to the clients from the museum. The clients liked elements of all three of their projects, and the three teams merged to create a single three-streamed design team for phase two of the instructional design of the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum.
The team implemented three new hands-on learning experiences at the museum: a comic wall, a scavenger hunt, and a capsule machine. They worked with a professional writer and artist to design the comic wall, which consists of five comic strips. In addition to discussing seltzer, the comics also address themes such as health and identity. The newly implemented scavenger hunt has both a paper and a digital version which can be accessed via a QR code. It incorporates several aspects of the exhibits created by last year’s design team, leading visitors through the museum as they look for answers to questions the team developed. Lastly, the capsule machine provides visitors with QR codes that lead to prompts to answer about their own experiences with seltzer. Capsules are accessed via coins given to visitors at the beginning of their tour. After answering the prompt, they are able to pick out a prize from the museum’s gift shop.
The process of designing and implementing these interactive learning experiences was an almost semester-long process. One of the team members, Yiran Yuan, stepped up to become project manager. She coordinated and led meetings with the product owners from each of the three streams, ensured that deadlines were being met, and communicated progress with the museum team. Yiran described this process as one which brought together a team with a wide variety of backgrounds and drew on everyone’s strengths; from teachers and writers to artists and techies, working with folks with a diversity of skillsets was truly transformative. She also saw this as a “great experience to expose ourselves to a working environment,” which allowed her to develop new styles of client-focused communication, manage a budget, and collaborate with her peers in ways.
This year’s team was also supported by three mentors, Yi Chen, Xichen Li, and Stella Guan, who participated in last year’s initial museum design. As mentors, Stella, Xichen, and Yi co-hosted two information sessions with the Seltzer Museum expert before the design challenge, attended the pitch presentations, held office hours during the design process, and helped with budgeting during implementation, among providing other forms of support. The three mentors described feelings of pride and fulfillment as they watched the design team grow and take ownership of their work throughout this project.
The full design team consisted of Keai Fan, Iris Guan, Julio Intriago, Yuhan Lu, Qingxuan Li, Zheyan Li, Chenxin Liang, Shirley Lyu, Siyi Wang, Wenxuan Wang, Ying Yang, Yiran Yuan, and Xinyi Zhang. Their work, alongside the work of the phase 1 design team, has really helped the Brooklyn Seltzer Boys business according to Vice President Alex Gomberg. There have been thousands of visitors to the museum since its opening. This project continues to be a big success, and we look forward to seeing what comes next for these students!