MAYAN GLYPHS DEMO CART
developing an experience through prototyping
I created this educator-facilitated demo cart for the Ohio State University Linguistics Department's Labs in Life at COSI. It was developed through an iterative development process that involved cycles of prototyping and revision. University student educators in the Language Lab now use the demo as part of their programming for COSI visitors.
In the demo visitors decode a Mayan word to understand how different types of writing systems build words out of different units, from the English alphabet (letter by letter) to the Mayan syllabary (syllable by syllable).
Follow the development of the demo through four iterations below.
too many glyphs!
The lengthy syllabary was tedious and exhausting to navigate, particularly for younger visitors
cut & color
The syllabary was still challenging to navigate and it was difficult for visitors to remember what they had found
flashcards
Visitors found it easier and more enjoyable to build the glyph and had an easier time pronouncing the word in Mayan
