Inspiring the future by making history.

Overview

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab is most well-known for its exploration of Mars with the Curiosity rover and the Voyager mission—which houses the golden record created by Carl Sagan and team.

With a history dating back to 1936, JPL is home to more incredible objects, memories, and people that can be cataloged in one place. Together, NASA and Friends designed a cultural tool to enhance the connection between that remarkable history and the people that will continue to make it.

UX & Product Design

Mysteries & Curiosities turns the Lab into a location-based game that reveals the hidden treasures and odd historical hazards of the cutting-edge space facility.

We partnered with Luke Johnson @ JPL to design an intuitive cross-platform game that guides people through a series of walking tours—from mysterious subterranean hatches to the room where they make space blankets. The more a person explores, the more oddities they unlock. The game also gives employees the means to share their own discoveries, adding to the growing catalog of recorded history.

Cloak & Dagger

A human connection, conspiracy theories, and a hidden message.

To mark each point-of-interest, we fabricated location markers out of weather resistant metal. For the brave few that will visit every point-of-interest, we created a reward that plays into a love of conspiracy theories and JPL pin-collecting culture. After visiting every location, users are told to meet at a secret location to receive a collectible pin embedded with a hidden message.

What started as an employee engagement initiative, ended up having a positive influence across hiring, culture, and perception.