The Vault
Digital Interactives
Client
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Year
2020
My Role
Lead Interactive Designer
The Vault is a permanent exhibition at the Economy Museum inside the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, designed to make foundational concepts in money, banking, and financial security accessible and engaging for diverse audiences, especially students and school groups. Through tactile exhibits, multimodal content, and inclusive storytelling, the exhibition transforms complex economic topics into approachable, hands-on learning moments.
As Lead Interactive Designer, I developed the digital engagement strategy and designed three core interactives integrated seamlessly with the physical environment: Journey of Money, Design Your Own Cash, and Security Lab. Working closely with exhibit and content teams, I created experiences that reinforced financial concepts through play, storytelling, and hands-on exploration while ensuring ADA compliance and multimodal accessibility.
Journey of Money uses a hybrid physical-digital interface to visualize the lifecycle of currency, with a large embedded wheel triggering synchronized animations and documentary footage. Design Your Own Cash invites visitors to personalize a bill with their own portrait and design choices while learning about security features like watermarks and microprinting. Security Lab gamifies counterfeit detection through touchscreen challenges and real banknote inspection. Together, these interactives combined digital storytelling, tactile engagement, and inclusive design to turn financial literacy into an active, memorable experience for learners of all ages.