Human Body Decomposition
BRIEF: DESIGN AND BUILD AN INTERACTIVE WEB-BASED INTERFACE THAT RESPONDS TO A SPECIFIC BUILDING OR URBAN LOCATION.
This project was part of an animation module during year 1 of my undergraduate degree. My partner and I decided to focus on showing the process of human decomposition, as this would be less gruesome through animation.
I conducted research on the process of human decomposition through reading books, watching videos, and viewing many images from body farms. All this research accumulated allowed me to create and animation through After Effects that represents the process in close detail.
The interface follows the design guidelines of the Wellcome Collection brand. This is an exhibition gallery on Euston Road. I have chosen to focus on their brand as they have exhibitions on which focus on the human body and health, so it ties in with the project. Currently, there is an exhibition running called ‘Medicine Now’ which is focused on the body, genomes, obesity and living with medical science. So we thought it was very relevant and appropriate for us to display our project here.
The image above shows the first screen of the interface. It doesn’t include much. I took into consideration how the site may be on display at the Wellcome Collection on an iPad, and realised it needed something strong to entice an individual to approach the tablet and start interacting with our site. This first screen includes a small animation of the stages fading in and out. The stages itself have been reduced in opacity so the rest of the experience is not ruined before it’s started. This image also shows how we have followed the Wellcome Collections brand guidelines with their typeface, colours and layout.
The rest of the interface follows the design of display boards, like those found in the Tate Modern. The main attraction is the animation which covers the majority of the screen real estate. There is a column on the left which holds the information such as the stage of decomposition and what it means. Buttons on the bottom left allow the user to switch between stages, there is also a vertical stage indicator which can be clicked to skip to the selected stage.