Museum of Science & NASA Educational Site

STEM doesn’t have to be rocket science.

planets-stem.org

We made engineering and technology educational materials easier to navigate.

  • Experience Strategy

    We evaluate internal perceptions, user goals, and best practices to find what makes your experience worth having. Then we turn it into an action plan for what comes next.

  • UX Audits

    Conducted by seasoned experts in the patterns of human behavior, a UX Audit is a fast way to surface the major challenges, and the minor speed bumps, hiding in your existing experience.

  • Design Thinking

    An empathetic, iterative approach that puts the needs and perspectives of real users at the center of every decision. The process stays honest even when the timeline gets tight.

  • Visual Design

    Through imagery, messaging, color and typography, we deliberate over pixels, consistency, readability, contrast, accessibility and creativity.

  • Responsive Design

    We design every feature and flow for every screen it could appear on. The real test isn’t the device, it’s whether every decision still makes sense no matter how someone’s viewing it.

  • Design Systems

    A design system is what makes consistency survive growth: a shared language everyone builds from, not a set of rules only one person remembers. We deliver it in Figma and Markdown, built to evolve as your product does.

  • Prototyping

    If a picture is a thousand words, a high-fidelity prototype is the entire story. Testing with one gets us past hypothetical reactions and into real behavior, the kind of feedback we can actually trust. With AI-assisted prototypes, we go even deeper, real data, real interactions, insight we couldn’t get any other way.

The Challenge

It turns out, ZeroDegrees has a few things in common with NASA. One of them is our ongoing relationship with the Museum of Science’s PreK-12 division, which NASA is committed to supporting.


NASA gave EiE and their partner Northern Arizona University a grant to develop materials using NASA data and imagery to help teach students STEM—by navigating space hazards or using remote sensing techniques on Mars. While the lessons sounded incredible, the site to deliver them was ready for an extra boost of rocket fuel.

Activity pages got an upgrade—with real NASA imagery, quick links for each audience type and accessibility throughout
Activity pages got an upgrade—with real NASA imagery, quick links for each audience type and accessibility throughout

Our Approach

Using UX best practices and a few decades of design experience, ZeroDegrees evaluated the STEM programs that had been developed. While the material was very cool, the site experience to navigate the modules and lessons was ready for an upgrade—EiE had updated requirements, and lessons learned from the existing site that would require a design change.


After an efficient Information Architecture session, it became clear that…we simply needed to be clear. We decided to pull from our e-commerce expertise and make the interactions more like shopping online, so it would be as easy as possible to get to the good stuff.


First, we clearly delineated what was for students and what was for teachers. Then, we created different card designs, with different calls to action, that logically organized the information being presented. This helped users create a mental model of what’s offered.


Now, caregivers and educators can easily understand the different sections and learning modules. Best of all, we were able to wrap it all in great NASA illustrations that truly elevated the entire experience.


Throughout the process we kept accessibility top of mind to ensure this other-worldly content could be enjoyed by everyone here.

Unit cards surface compelling imagery, easy downloads and scannable learning objectives.
Unit cards surface compelling imagery, easy downloads and scannable learning objectives.

The Results

Ultimately, EiE asked us to help put these great educational resources in as many hands as possible. By making the experience smooth and transparent, we’ve helped open STEM to a whole new universe of learners. Visit the site at planets-stem.org.