CMU Campus Archives
Reimagining the Welcome Center Experience at Carnegie Mellon University
PROJECT DETAILS
LOCATION: PITTSBURGH, PA
WHEN: SPRING 2024
TYPE OF WORK: ACADEMIC
TEAMMATES: MALAVIKA DOSHI, RILEY REN, ALBERT ZHANG
PROFESSORS: HAEYOUNG KIM, DAPHNE PETERS
COURSE: GRADUATE DESIGN STUDIO II
Overview
This project was created for our Graduate Design Studio class and was sponsored by Carnegie Mellon University. The client wanted to improve the visitor experience at the Coulter Welcome Center. Our goal was to create a more engaging and memorable introduction to CMU by enhancing navigation, storytelling, and personalized welcoming.
Challenge
Visitors often struggle to locate the welcome center, and once inside, they find the space underutilized and lacking engaging storytelling about CMU’s culture and history. How might we design a more intuitive, interactive, and memorable welcome experience?
Research
We conducted a range of research methods to define the problem space:
Stakeholder Interviews: Conversations with admissions staff revealed confusion around the welcome center’s location and its disconnect from the admissions office.
Site Visits: Observations of visitor behavior showed that the space functioned more as a passageway than an engaging destination.
Competitive Analysis: Studying university welcome centers online and in person (University of Pittsburgh, Chatham University) highlighted opportunities for more interactive and personalized engagement.
Participatory Workshop: A co-design session with 15 CMU students provided insights into what visitors want to learn about campus but struggle to find.
Key Insights
We conducted a range of research methods to define the problem space:
Navigation Issues – Visitors have difficulty finding the welcome center.
Underutilized Space – The welcome center lacks interactive elements that engage visitors.
Lack of CMU Storytelling – The current space does not effectively communicate campus life and culture.
Design Solution
We designed CMU Campus Archives, an interactive welcome experience with three key interventions:
Welcome Walk – A series of wayfinding pavement cues that guide visitors from their point of arrival to the welcome center, incorporating CMU-themed messages along the path.
Interactive Campus Model – A physical scale model of CMU overlaid with AR storytelling, allowing visitors to explore campus culture, history, and academics through themed routes.
Personalized Takeaway – A printed postcard highlighting the visitor’s saved AR interactions, serving as both a keepsake and a guide for further exploration.
System & Interaction Design
The AR experience provides an intuitive onboarding process and lets visitors explore thematically curated stories or freely navigate campus highlights.
A seasonal toggle lets visitors see how CMU changes throughout the year.
Visitors can save and share their favorite campus locations as collectible digital cards.
Impact & Next Steps
Our design transforms the welcome center into an interactive storytelling space, making CMU more accessible, engaging, and memorable. Moving forward, we see opportunities to:
Refine the physical campus model with better CAD data and interactive elements like lighting or projection mapping.
Improve wayfinding materials by exploring more permanent pavement designs, such as engraved metal pavers or sandblasted concrete.
Explore donor integration within the scale model and welcome walk, incorporating names into the physical design.
By blending digital and physical experiences, CMU Campus Archives creates a welcoming first impression that connects visitors to the spirit of CMU.