The Tin Shed
Gallery Quest
Making Archives
Come Alive
A multiplayer card game that transforms decades of neglected housing archives into a participatory community experience. Designed from scratch after user testing revealed the original prototype wasn't working.
The Tin Sheds Gallery has a rich history of community engagement and political activism since 1969, but after merging with Sydney's Architecture, Design, and Planning faculty, that community connection faded. I led the design of a new participatory system using the gallery's housing archives to bring that engagement back.
My Role
Created the experience design end-to-end, from user research and concept development through to a tested, playable prototype.
- User Flow Design
- User testing
- Storyboard Creation
- Evaluating Concepts (Lenses of Play and Model of Engagement)
- Concept Developement
THE DESIGN CHALLENGE
How might we use the TSG's housing archives to create genuine dialogue with youth, moving from passive display to active participation, and rebuild the gallery's role in the community?
Design Process
Identifying the problem
Research (interviews + surveys) revealed three core problems:
- Low awareness: Most people we spoke to had never heard of the TSG, often confusing it with a more prominent nearby gallery.
- Narrowed audience: Since joining the ADP faculty, the gallery shifted toward architectural exhibits, losing the diverse community it once attracted.
- Neglected archives: A large portion of TSG's history was unrecorded and mismanaged, erasing its identity and limiting meaningful engagement.
We decided to focus specifically on the housing archives and how to make them participatory rather than passive.
OUR CREATIVE PROCESS
Our Initial Concept
THE ROOFS
The Roofs was a three-part system for visitors to explore housing archives:
- THE TIMESCAPE: a living wall of housing history updated by visitor contributions.
- TSG QUEST: a tablet-based archive game.
- WORKSHOP: where students curate user-generated content into the archive.
Participants enter the Tin Sheds Gallery and are directed to the podium with tablets. The TIMESCAPE is displayed on the walls of TSG.
Participants log into the TSG Quest by providing their personal details.
The quest requires participants to be in groups, and each participant has a colour flashed onto their screen to allow them to find their partner. Proximity sensors vibrate when they are near their pair.
The tablet directs the group to a year on the timescape and gives them questions based on the archives of that year as part of the quest.
The questions are different per participant and are used as a method of interaction between the participant and the archive, as well as a learning tool.
Participants have 2 attempts to provide correct answer for the question. After providing the correct answers, participants are given a badge for clearing that level.
Participants are then led to another year and provided with more questions
If one participant does not provide the correct answer in the two attempts provided, the team will not receive the badge for that year.
After completing the quest, the tablet prompts the participant to leave an insight to add to its records, in the form of a paragraph, sketch, voice.
The WORKSHOP had students curate user-generated content from the Roofs website into the TIMESCAPE : digitizing TSG's archives while reducing staff workload and improving accessibility for remote audiences.
User testing
We built a lo-fi prototype using foam boards and sticky notes. Testing revealed three critical gaps that reshaped our entire design direction:
- Participants couldn't CONNECT to the archives or each other.
- Questions felt “BORING" : more like homework than an experience.
- Nothing was RETAINED: any information or the experience as a whole.
The TSG Quest Card Game
FINAL CONCEPT
User testing told us the interactive tablet game wasn't working. So we pivoted to something more human: a multiplayer card game. TSG QUEST is designed for groups of 6+, using Action Cards, Archive Collector Cards, and Archive Information Cards to spark real conversation around housing archives.
Players are pre-sorted into Housing Archetypes (Budget-Conscious Minimalist, Adaptive Innovator, Environmentally Friendly Nomad) via a quiz on the TSG website, giving them a personal lens before they even sit down to play.
Inspired by the card game We're Not Really Strangers, the cards are tiered into three levels : Perception, Connection, and Reflection, moving from quick creative prompts to deeper personal sharing.
Each round, players engage with an archive and respond through the card's prompt. Winners collect Archive Cards. The player with the most cards wins, but more importantly, everyone leaves having actually talked about housing.
ACTION CARDS
Each turn, a player reads an Action Card and an Archive Collector Card, selects the best response, and earns that Archive Collector Card. Multiple copies are available, and the player with the most cards wins.
The archival information card provides context of the specific archive in discussion.
Reflection cards encourage critical thinking about the archives, sharing personal reactions, and integrating interactions into the online TIMESCAPE living archive [20 minutes].
The Archive card is given to the person that wins the specific round. The player with the most archive cards wins the TSG Quest.
Connection cards help players draw parallels with housing issues, uncover unspoken narratives, and deepen their understanding of the archive [15 minutes].
Perception cards foster creative thinking to interpret and perceive the archive [5 minutes].
The TSG Website prototype
The housing archetype quiz on the TSG website categorizes visitors before they arrive, giving them a personal stake in the game. It also serves as the primary sign-up point for TSG QUEST sessions.
FlowChart
From discovering the game online to contributing to the TIMESCAPE, the flowchart maps the full participant journey.
StoryBoard
Ethan discovers the TSG Quest through a poster, takes the housing archetype quiz, signs up, and brings friends to a game night, where he realises many students share his housing anxieties. The storyboard follows his full journey from discovery to connection.
Conceptual Video
The video we created was an attempt to advertise our intervention to the TSG audience to entice them to take part in the event.