Return to Our Work

Sea Turtle Hospital

Education | Museum

The South Carolina Aquarium Sea Turtle Care Center at the South Carolina Aquarium (SCA) rescues, rehabilitates, and releases sea turtles that become stranded or injured along the region's coast. When the SCA created the Zucker Family Sea Turtle Recovery Center to showcase the amazing work being done, they enlisted the help of Balance Studios, Design Island, and PGAV Destination Attraction/Exhibit Design to create edu-taining ways to showcase the center's processes and accomplishments. The creative team at Balance created three unique experiences to help invigorate the new Recovery Center: The Turtle Patient Board Touchscreen Applications, the Turtle Triage Augmented Reality iPad Application, and the Donation Station Touchscreen Application.

Video credited to SouthCarolinaETV

Turtle Triage Augmented Reality iPad Application

Augmented Reality Application

Balance created three augmented reality (AR) experiences to provide a closer look at turtles brought into the triage center, and help educate visitors on the importance of respecting the ocean and the sea life in it. Using the magic of AR, the immersive experiences show the behind-the-scenes tour of how sick turtles are diagnosed, cared for, and the important role the center has in saving the creatures.

While the Turtle Triage AR Experience provides an incredible amount of scientific information, it is presented in an easily digestible, fun way. Guests activate each AR experience off of one of three different life-size turtle species replica models – a Loggerhead, Kemps Ridley, or Green. When activating the AR experience on the model, the turtle comes to life, with the experience overlaying the physical model, and provides a magical look into the internal skeleton and workings of the turtle.

Guests can also have their turn as caregivers to the sick sea creatures using the app. One of three potential diagnoses are randomly selected, so visitors receive a different experience with each visit. The guest becomes the doctor and is guided through a full exam including identifying the turtle, taking the turtle’s temperature, checking for hitchhikers and injuries, X-rays, and blood tests. Once the virtual exam is completed, the user is given a full review of what was found during the exam and is asked to select the diagnosis based on their review.

Turtle Patient Boards Touchscreen Applications

Touch Screen Application

The Zucker Family Sea Turtle Recovery Center has seven sea turtle holding tanks where visitors can meet turtle patients as they are being rehabilitated. Balance created two turtle patient board interactive touchscreen apps: one for current turtle patients, displaying all of the turtles presently being helped at the center, and a second board to show all of the past patients, who have returned to the ocean as healthy turtles.

When using the Current Patient Boards App, guests see all turtles currently at the center. Users view the turtles in their tanks and, when a guest chooses a specific turtle on the app, they see detailed information including photos, weight, life stage, where the turtle was stranded, its arrival date to the center, and its general case history. Guests can also use the app to create and send themselves a digital postcard as a souvenir of their experience at the center, and when they provide their email, they can sign up for the center's newsletter, where they instantly receive a link to share their digital postcard on Facebook and Twitter.

Similarly, the Past Patient Board App provides information on the turtles rehabilitated at the center and released back into the wild. Visitors can search by release year or name and learn more about a particular turtle-graduate's background. Just as in the Current Patient App, information on the Past Patient Board App provides information such as photos, the turtle's release date, where it was stranded before it came to the center, its weight, life stage, and a general case history.

Information for both the Current Patient Board App and the Past Patient Board App is pulled directly from the website so it's easy to update by the SCA staff and information stays current.

Donation Station Touchscreen Application

Touch Screen Application

Fundraising is critical to cover the many costs from rescue to release so Balance created an interactive touchscreen experience to make giving donations to the center easier. Working with SCA's current ticketing and admissions provider, the team created a user interface that attracts attention and makes the donation process quick, easy, and fun. Visitors choose from specific donation amounts, pre-determined by the SCA team. In only a few taps, guests can swipe their credit cards and complete the donation process. Guests can also sign up for newsletters matching their areas on interest and receive information about upcoming events.

The Idea

To teach visitors of the South Carolina Aquarium's Sea Turtle Care Center and the Zucker Family Sea Turtle Recovery Center about their work helping sick turtles.

Services

Doing amazing work for amazing organizations, that's why we get up in the morning. Using creativity, innovation and interactive fun to help provide our client-partners with the tools they can use to engage, educate, and elicit change is a challenge we are proud to accept.

The Result

The South Carolina Aquarium received the IMLS Medal of Honor Award for Museum and Library Services and AZA award for the space and continues to edu-tain visitors.