University of Utah

The University of Utah Natural History Museum sought to create an engaging and interactive experience for visitors exploring their new Navajo Indian exhibit. To bring this vision to life, the museum wanted an innovative app that would allow guests to design virtual Navajo Baskets, blending cultural education with hands-on creativity. However, the need for the app to function seamlessly across various devices—including iPads and a massive 75-inch touchscreen—presented technical and budgetary challenges. By identifying these pain points and implementing a strategic, cost-effective solution, we successfully delivered an interactive platform that enriched the visitor experience and honored the cultural significance of the exhibit.

Categories: Custom Development, Mobile Apps

The Opportunity
The University of Utah Natural History Museum aimed to enhance visitor engagement with their new Navajo Indian exhibit by allowing guests to interactively create virtual Navajo Baskets. They envisioned an app that could deliver this interactive experience seamlessly.

The Challenge
The museum required the app to function smoothly across multiple devices—a range of iPads and a large 75-inch touchscreen display—with the following key features:

Drag-and-drop functionality for multiple icons onto a canvas
The ability to rotate, resize, and move icons
Options to share the final design via email, text message, and social media

Building separate versions for iOS and HTML would have been time-consuming and costly, requiring separate development efforts for each platform.

The Solution
To address the multi-platform challenge efficiently, we developed a unified solution using HTML5 for the frontend and a Python backend to manage design sharing across various media channels. This approach ensured:

Cross-platform compatibility, allowing the app to perform consistently on iPads and the 75-inch touchscreen without the need for separate builds.
Interactive design features like drag-and-drop, rotation, resizing, and movement, all optimized for both touch devices.
Seamless sharing capabilities via integrated email, text messaging, and social media options, powered by the Python backend.

This solution effectively reduced development costs and streamlined maintenance while delivering a dynamic, interactive experience for museum visitors.