Méliès – The Illusion Workshop.

The Centre Pompidou wants a new way to introduce visitors to the world of Georges Méliès through a digital experience. The challenge is not to reproduce a virtual tour or a content library, but to design an interactive, immersive experience where visitors become active participants in their own discovery. The experience runs on a touchscreen tablet.

« How can digital tools make Méliès' world immersive and playful to discover, while turning the visitor into a genuine participant in the experience? »

• 01Introduce Georges Méliès and his world
• 02Make cultural discovery more interactive and playful
• 03Turn the visitor into a participant rather than a spectator
• 04Use digital tools as a means of cultural mediation
• 05Create an immersive experience without piling up features

• Desk research

  Understanding Georges Méliès, his work and what is at stake in showcasing it.

• Digital innovation review

  Analysis of digital and interactive devices used in museums and exhibitions.

• User research

  Identifying visitors' expectations, habits and needs when facing a digital cultural experience.

• Benchmark

  Analysis of various cultural and immersive experiences to identify best practices and opportunities.

• Insight 01

  Learning by doing

  Designing an experience where visitors handle, experiment and become participants in their own discovery.

• Insight 02

  Immersion in service of understanding

  Using digital tools to make the mechanics of illusion concrete and accessible.

• Insight 03

  Keep the immersion restrained

  Limiting superfluous features to keep the experience smooth, intuitive and focused on the essentials.

1. Step 1

   Discover

   The visitor enters the experience and explores Méliès' world from the tablet.

2. Step 2

   Understand

   The effects are revealed: they grasp how Méliès built his special effects.

3. Step 3

   Experiment

   They handle the interactive elements and test the mechanics of illusion.

4. Step 4

   Create

   They compose their own illusion in turn and leave with a memento of the experience.

Experience map, storyboard, user flow, wireframes and then interface design: the structure was framed before the art direction, to keep the journey simple and readable on a tablet.

An interactive Figma prototype centred on the home screen: Méliès' head, which the visitor taps to reach information about the artist, then the screens of the Discover → Understand → Experiment → Create journey.

• Offer a new form of cultural mediation
• Make discovering Méliès more accessible and interactive
• Create an experience that complements the exhibition
• Help visitors better understand Méliès' creative and illusion techniques
• Use digital tools to enrich the experience rather than simply digitise an existing tour

Turning the visitor from a mere spectator into someone who truly experiments with Méliès' world.