Digital Temple

An interactive web archive designed for immersive learning

Context

From architectural space to speculative UX—this project explores how cultural research can drive interface design. I led the design for a 360° virtual experience of the Kaihua Monastery, transforming historical space into an interactive environment through an immersive web experience.

Organization

Harvard FAS CAMLab

My Role

Product Designer, Project Manager, Research

Project Site

digitaltemple.art

Year

Jun 2022-Feb 2024

Outcome

7,400+ visitors explored the site within the first 6 months, with 3.4k recurring users actively engaging with the experience.
Sparked collaboration with 4+ universities and cultural institutions, including Tsinghua University and Hong Kong Palace Museum.

Problem Scope

How do you design an interface for a space that wasn't built to be "navigated" digitally?

This project asked how we might turn a sacred, ambiguous architectural site into a speculative, interactive experience—without flattening its meaning or imposing a fixed narrative.

From Academic Research to Design

Working closely with scholars, our task was to translate dense academic research into visually intuitive, interactive experiences. However, it is not without losses: academic researches are layered and labyrinthian, yet graphics are usually very upfront. How might we preserve the depth of scholarship without overwhelming the user?

Here I've selected three design approaches that addresses the above concerns:

A flowchart showing research to design process

Murals medieval China often feature intersecting perspectives that obscure visual clarity. To make them navigable, we lifted the mural into 3D:

A before and after image showcasing how murals are visualized in pointcloud model

We maximized the affordances of web to layer information:

A before and after image showing how architectures are visualized

We recreated lighting from the murals to add to the theatricality:

A before and after image showing how light beams drawn on the murals are brought to life by 3D

Domain Research

We conducted domain research, affinity mapping, and user interviews to explore the intersection of digital archives and web-based interaction. We found that most archives either lack interactivity or oversimplify content—revealing a gap between engagement and depth.

I wanted to see where the murals are located, but that means exiting the page and opening a new one with an architecture model that has nothing in it.

— Aaron, 21, Boston

We also conducted two rounds of interviews. In the first round of user research, we interviewed 21 researcher-educators and undergraduate students. These insights validated a key pain point: fragmented information hinders learning.

Mission Statement

Design an interactive web experience where architectural space shapes the design—both spatially and academically—and vice versa.

Prototyping & User Testing

Moving through rapid animated prototyping under mission-critical guidelines, after establishing usability testing metrics, we interviewed 10 participants from diverse academic and demographic backgrounds. We identified 35 usability issues from the usability tests and devised 18 actionable items.

Horizontal and vertical layout options for the webpage

Here I expand on 2 most examplary ones:

① Assistive "Reading"

Problem

The annotated murals assumed scholarly familiarity—participants didn’t know where to start or how to follow the narrative flow.

Solution

Introduced clear entry points, visual motifs, and sectional markers to guide reading direction and structure the experience.

Before and after userflow for annotated mural

② Overlooked Navigation Issue

Problem

Users couldn’t find their way between modules—navigation was buried or missing, causing confusion and dead ends.

Solution

Restructured the layout and added persistent navigational cues, improving wayfinding and continuity across learning units.

Before and after userflow for navigation

A Unified Spatial Interface

A key design achievement was translating Kaihua Monastery's complex visual program into an interactive 3D web experience that doesn't fragment the user journey. Instead of separating research, images, and data across disconnected pages (as many heritage platforms do), we embedded historical content directly within the reconstructed space.

An all-in-one interface combining 2D, 3D, and contextual narrative.

Deliverables

Website

www.digitaltemple.art

A mockup of a MacBook displaying a webpage

Installation

Installation shot of Digital Temple at the exhibition space CAMLab Cave, Cambridge, 2023

Virtual Reality

Reflections

Aside from much rumination over content, I was also interested in exploring those 4 topics through this project:

Visual design with and through creative technology
As a small media lab, we try to connect creative tech with academic research as well as public interest. Visual design is the bridge that connects them.

Making complexities simple
Academic researches are layered and labyrinthian, yet we realize graphics are usually very upfront. How does the latter convey the former?

Multidisciplinary collaboration, done remotely
How do you talk to, make request from, and send assets to developers, architects, scholars, visual artists, writers, and those who come in to play test?

Managing is a maker's skill
I became a project manger in the second iteration of design, and it felt very different to be in a managing role.