Bringing History to Life

Making Lilla Änggården (Museum) Speak

Timeline

5 weeks

.

TEAM

3 designers

Introduction

Museums hold countless stories, but what happens when there’s no one around to tell them? That was the challenge at Lilla Änggården, a historic home-turned-museum in Gothenburg, Sweden. Visitors could admire the house from the outside, but its rich history remained locked away within its walls.

Our mission? To make history come alive—without a tour guide. Using design thinking and innovation, we set out to create an interactive, engaging experience that would bring the past to life for families and children.

Museums hold countless stories, but what happens when there’s no one around to tell them? That was the challenge at Lilla Änggården, a historic home-turned-museum in Gothenburg, Sweden. Visitors could admire the house from the outside, but its rich history remained locked away within its walls.
Our mission? To make history come alive—without a tour guide. Using design thinking and innovation, we set out to create an interactive, engaging experience that would bring the past to life for families and children.

Also this project was in collaboration with Gothenburg City Museum

Also this project was in collaboration with Gothenburg City Museum

Design goal

How do you bring a silent, historical place to life—without people there to tell its stories? That was our challenge at Lilla Änggården, a charming museum in Gothenburg, Sweden. Our mission? Make the past come alive in an engaging, immersive way.

The challenge

Lilla Änggården is an old house filled with history, nestled at the foot of the Änggården mountains. The family that once lived there left behind a treasure trove of memories. But outside, the house remained just that—a house. Visitors saw a beautiful old building, but its rich stories stayed locked inside.


We asked ourselves:
👉 How can we make history engaging, even when there’s no guide around?

Using design thinking and innovation, we set out to turn a quiet museum into an interactive experience.

Lilla Änggården is an old house filled with history, nestled at the foot of the Änggården mountains. The family that once lived there left behind a treasure trove of memories. But outside, the house remained just that—a house. Visitors saw a beautiful old building, but its rich stories stayed locked inside.

We asked ourselves:
👉 How can we make history engaging, even when there’s no guide around?
Using design thinking and innovation, we set out to turn a quiet museum into an interactive experience.

My Role in the Project

As part of a 4-person team, I:

🔹 Conducted 5+ interviews to understand visitor needs
🔹 Created personas for parents to capture their motivations & pain points
🔹 Led Anti-Problem Ideation to think outside the box
🔹 Helped shape the "How Might We" questions to redefine the challenge
🔹 Co-designed & validated the final interactive solution

As part of a 4-person team, I:
🔹 Conducted 5+ interviews to understand visitor needs
🔹 Created personas for parents to capture their motivations & pain points
🔹 Led Anti-Problem Ideation to think outside the box
🔹 Helped shape the "How Might We" questions to redefine the challenge
🔹 Co-designed & validated the final interactive solution

Many businesses lack a structured, data-driven approach to procurement savings. Some manually assess suppliers, others attempt bundling strategies, but without consistency, reliable data, or a standardized process, opportunities are often missed. How might we create a more systematic and data-driven way to identify and act on savings opportunities?

Jumping into the process

Empathize

🏡 House Tour & Interviews

We started by experiencing Lilla Änggården firsthand. Guided by museum staff, we explored every nook and cranny, uncovering stories hidden in old furniture, paintings, and artifacts.

Next, we interviewed visitors from different age groups—families, history lovers, casual passersby.


But we quickly ran into a dilemma:

🚶‍♂️ Some people wanted a cozy café after their walk.
🏡 Neighbors wanted the house to remain untouched.


Conflicting opinions left us scratching our heads. That meant… iteration time!

We started by experiencing Lilla Änggården firsthand. Guided by museum staff, we explored every nook and cranny, uncovering stories hidden in old furniture, paintings, and artifacts.

Next, we interviewed visitors from different age groups—families, history lovers, casual passersby.


But we quickly ran into a dilemma:

🚶‍♂️ Some people wanted a cozy café after their walk.
🏡 Neighbors wanted the house to remain untouched.


Conflicting opinions left us scratching our heads. That meant… iteration time!

Define

🎭 Personas & POVs

To narrow our focus, we zoomed in on families—the most frequent visitors. But why did they come?

At first, we assumed it was the nearby botanical garden drawing them in. But parents actually struggled to keep kids engaged.

🗣️ “There’s nothing interesting for kids here.”
🗣️ “The activities aren’t engaging enough.”


So, we dug deeper and created two personas:
👨‍👩‍👧 Parents – Want an enriching, easy experience
🎈 Kids (4-12 years old) – Need fun, hands-on interaction


Each persona came with frustrations, needs, and goals, helping us understand how to make history exciting for them.

How Might We

💡 Reframing the Problem

With our research in hand, we redefined our design challenge:

🚫 Old question: How can we make Lilla Änggården come alive without staff on-site?
New question: How might we make Lilla Änggården’s history engaging and interactive?


This shift opened the door to creative solutions beyond just storytelling.

With our research in hand, we redefined our design challenge:
🚫 Old question: How can we make Lilla Änggården come alive without staff on-site?
New question: How might we make Lilla Änggården’s history engaging and interactive?

This shift opened the door to creative solutions beyond just storytelling.
Ideation

Crazy 8’s, Anti-Problem & More

We let our imaginations run wild! Using brainstorming techniques like Crazy 8’s and Affinity Mapping, we explored different ways to:

✅ Showcase history interactively
✅ Engage kids & families
✅ Work within museum constraints (no full-time staff, no café inside the house)


One of our favorite exercises? The Anti-Problem Method, where we flipped our challenge:

🤯 How can we make history even MORE boring?


This unexpected approach helped us see what not to do—leading us to more engaging ideas!

Solution

Prototyping & Testing

We created a low-fidelity prototype of our solution and tested it on-site with real visitors.


🚨 Biggest insight?
Elderly visitors also loved our interactive history idea! So, we expanded our target group beyond just families.

We created a low-fidelity prototype of our solution and tested it on-site with real visitors.

🚨 Biggest insight?
Elderly visitors also loved our interactive history idea! So, we expanded our target group beyond just families.

Final Solution: Bringing Stories to the Outdoors

Final Solution: Bringing Stories to the Outdoors

🎭 Idea 1: QR-Enabled House Tour


A large outdoor signboard with a floor plan of the house + QR codes lets visitors peek inside without needing a guide.

🏡 Scan a QR Code → See inside the room → Learn its history!

👥 Impact: Keeps history accessible without full-time staff.

🎭 Idea 1: QR-Enabled House Tour

A large outdoor signboard with a floor plan of the house + QR codes lets visitors peek inside without needing a guide.

🏡 Scan a QR Code → See inside the room → Learn its history!

👥 Impact: Keeps history accessible without full-time staff.

🗺️ Idea 2: Character Treasure Hunt
A self-guided outdoor adventure using checkpoints with historical characters from the house’s past.


How it works:
📍 Follow the map → Visit different characters → Learn their stories
🎭 Each checkpoint features interactive challenges for kids

👥 Impact: Makes history fun, engaging, and immersive for families & children

🗺️ Idea 2: Character Treasure Hunt
A self-guided outdoor adventure using checkpoints with historical characters from the house’s past.


How it works:
📍 Follow the map → Visit different characters → Learn their stories
🎭 Each checkpoint features interactive challenges for kids

👥 Impact: Makes history fun, engaging, and immersive for families & children

Many businesses lack a structured, data-driven approach to procurement savings. Some manually assess suppliers, others attempt bundling strategies, but without consistency, reliable data, or a standardized process, opportunities are often missed. How might we create a more systematic and data-driven way to identify and act on savings opportunities?

Final thoughts

This project taught us that great design isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s about making people feel something. By blending history, technology, and storytelling, we transformed Lilla Änggården from a silent house into a place where the past speaks for itself.

🚀 Design that brings history to life—that’s the power of UX!

This project taught us that great design isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s about making people feel something. By blending history, technology, and storytelling, we transformed Lilla Änggården from a silent house into a place where the past speaks for itself.
🚀 Design that brings history to life—that’s the power of UX!

Many businesses lack a structured, data-driven approach to procurement savings. Some manually assess suppliers, others attempt bundling strategies, but without consistency, reliable data, or a standardized process, opportunities are often missed. How might we create a more systematic and data-driven way to identify and act on savings opportunities?

Credits

Closing Thoughts

This project showed that history doesn’t have to stay behind glass—it can be interactive, immersive, and alive in new, exciting ways.

UX METHODS

Semi-structured interviews

Observation

Personas

Crazy 8's

Affinity mapping

Anti-problem

Point of Views

How Might We

Usability testing

Tools

Miro

White board & sticky notes

Google slides

team

Creative mind 1

Claudio Macchiarella


Creative mind 3

Oskar Nykvist

Creative mind 2

Julie Riyanti Teresa


Creative mind 2

Tanvi Vidhate

Get in touch

Send an email or DM and I'll get back to you asap.

All rights reserved © 2025

Get in touch

Send an email or DM and I'll get back to you asap.

All rights reserved © 2025

Get in touch

Send an email or DM and I'll get back to you asap.

All rights reserved © 2025

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