EMOTION TRACER
Exploratorium, San Francisco
Funding: $1.75M NSF award
User research: summative
This exhibit is about how emotion lives in the body—and how easily it can be sparked in everyday social interactions. One visitor wears a sensor while another asks them emotionally provocative questions. Their physiological arousal shows up live on a screen, measured using electrodermal response (EDR).
Originally, my plan was for a solo experience. Visitors would watch emotionally intense videos while their responses were tracked. But early floor testing revealed something more compelling: stronger reactions came from friends interacting with each other. I watched as one visitor, sensing an opportunity, started teasing their friend just to get a rise. It worked—and not just once.
So I shifted the design. I created prompt cards with pointed, playful questions to support this dynamic. What started as a passive, media-based interaction became a much more human one: charged, surprising, and often funny.
