Georgia Aquarium

Hit the Georgia Aquarium while in Atlanta this weekend. It’s pretty impressive and worth a visit, for those interested in the life aquatic and/or those interested in architecture/experience space. It’s also a pretty good lesson for interactive structure and design. The outside looks like the bow of a giant, glass, modern ship…it lures you inside where you “ease” into the main show through a long blue tunnel of swimming fish (loader/enter page).

The inside is laid out in a hub-and-spoke pattern with huge atrium area (home page) and 4-5 exhibit spaces (content sections). It’s like a giant website come to life.

The only thing that wasn’t spot on was the signage design…it looked sort of cheezy and didn’t reflect the magic and quality of the rest of the space. At least the signage will likely change out from time to time.

They had a temporary exhibit on the Titanic..it was pretty good too. Lots of artifacts and storytelling. The best part was the identity card you got at the start…it contained a story and information on one of the actual booked passengers. At the end of the exhibit you checked a list to see if your passenger survived the disaster or not.

That’s a feature that I’ve seen used at the Holocaust Museum and the International Spy Museum, and it’s a great way to engage and involve visitors (something to consider for websites and other interactive experiences).

All that learning made us hungry, so we hit an entirely different kind of interactive experience. The Varsity.