The current build was designed and tested for desktop, which was the right scope to prove out the concept as a solo, 4-month project — but it's not how most museum visitors would actually encounter this work. Looking ahead, I see this project extending in three directions:
Mobile & In-Gallery ScaleA mobile-first version designed for touch and in-hand use during a visit, paired with a large-scale projection version for shared, walk-up interaction — turning the visualization from a personal browsing tool into a communal exhibition piece that groups of visitors can explore together in physical space.
Connecting Digital to Physical: A Living Garden TourRight now the visualization and the actual orchids exist in separate worlds — one on a screen, one in the ground. I'd like to close that gap by linking the interface to a real garden tour: visitors could filter by bloom month or fragrance on their phone, then follow a suggested path through the physical collection to find those exact orchids in person, turning data exploration into a wayfinding tool for discovery on-site.
AR/VR for the Smithsonian Gardens Orchid Show The Smithsonian's annual orchid exhibition in DC would be a natural venue to extend this further. Smithsonian Gardens already offers 3D scans of select accessions through its "A Closer Look" program — a strong foundation for an AR layer that lets visitors place a life-size, rotatable orchid model in front of them, paired with its pollinator, fragrance, and bloom data. A VR layer could go further, letting visitors "meet" nocturnal pollinators or watch time-lapse blooming otherwise invisible in a single visit.