The Port of Long Beach was looking for more than a traditional exhibit — it needed a digital experience capable of explaining a highly complex system to people who are not port operators. The goal wasn’t simply to design screens, but to translate real-world logistics, sustainability data, and global trade operations into interactions that are intuitive, credible, and usable in a public space. However, two major challenges shaped the design process:

1. Diverse user scenarios with different behavioral requirements

The center needed to accommodate two very different types of visitors: diplomatic and business groups, which interact in a formal and restrained manner, and educational groups, which require intuitive and engaging interfaces. Unlike typical motion-based installations, users could not make exaggerated gestures. Interactions had to be subtle, respectful, and immediately understandable—without heavy instruction—while remaining accessible and ADA-compliant.

2. Lack of existing design standards for interaction design

Because the project involved new motion capture technology on ultra-large screens within a physical exhibition environment, there were no established UX guidelines we could directly apply. We had to define our own standards for viewing distance, gesture range, typography, and feedback timing, while constantly navigating hardware limitations, spatial constraints, and real-world user behavior.