Visitors using the Biography of a Redwood interactive in front of a large cross-section of a redwood tree trunk and exhibit content.

Biography of a Redwood

California Academy of Sciences,
San Francisco

2018

A responsive web app built to explore all the specimens and artifacts in the Hidden Wonder’s exhibit. Explored both on personal mobile devices and 15 installed touchscreens. Content in four languages which was a first for the museum.

Attract animation GIF for the Biography of a Redwood interactive.

Touchscreen to learn more about a 6 foot wide redwood tree segment. Visitors could explore what was happening in the world during the nearly 700 years the tree was alive, as well as view specifics about what happened to this tree.

Clickthrough of this interaction to show the UX and animations

Visitors using the Biography of a Redwood interactive in front of a large cross-section of a redwood tree trunk and exhibit content.

Installation of the screen and the graphics surrounding the interactive.

Visitors using the Biography of a Redwood interactive in front of a large cross-section of a redwood tree trunk and exhibit content.

Installation of the screen and the graphics surrounding the interactive.

Home screen with hotspots and a button to change the view of the tree segment which is positioned in front of the touchscreen. One view is to explore the anatomy of the tree and the second view is to explore historic events around the world this tree
To explore historic events this tree was alive for, visitors changed the date on the timeline and the tree ring highlights.
To explore historic events this tree was alive for, visitors changed the date on the timeline and the tree ring highlights.
Illustration depicting how far up the tree the segment is from, the height of the Academy of Sciences and the full height of the tree.
Infographic chart about climate changing trends shown in the tree rings
Video about how the tree segment arrived at the museum.
A detail story about what is learned about years of drought from the width of tree rings. By clicking the buttons on the left of the screen, the overlay on the tree rings changes to emphasize years with abundant water.
To explore historic events this tree was alive for, visitors changed the date on the timeline and the tree ring highlights.
Video about dendrochronology, the scientific process of tree ring analysis

The Team

Andrew Sawyer – Visual Design, Animation & UX
Sarah Goodin – Content
James Davidson – Illustration
Kat Whitney – Photography
Greg Rotter – Web Development
Ryan Byarlay – Infographics