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For Marian Library’s 2025 Seeking Shelter: Beyond the Stable Christmas exhibit, I built an interactive drag-and-drop activity that let visitors create their own Nativity scenes from images selected by the library.

The activity was built with Vite, TypeScript, PixiJS, PixiJS Layout, PixiJS UI, and GSAP. Visitors could choose figures and shelters from grouped “storage boxes,” arrange them on a canvas styled to match the exhibit, resize and rotate items, change layers and background colors, and save the finished scene to send to themselves or the Marian Library.

Because the exhibit version ran on a TV touchscreen, I added a height adjustment that scaled the interface down so the controls stayed within a 48-inch reach. The web version also supported screen readers and keyboard shortcuts designed to avoid conflicts with NVDA’s default commands.

The activity was well received by visitors, including groups who gathered around the touchscreen to watch and participate, and the Marian Library received positive comments from people who enjoyed using it.

See a demonstration of the Nativity Builder.

My portion of the "Honoring Our History: UD at 175" exhibit in the University of Dayton Roesch Library. The interactive includes a rendered background of a bookshelf with recreations of yearbooks, The Exponent, and a Register of Students; recreations of pennants; a pysanky egg captured using photogrammetry; recreation of a UD coffee mug. The interactive components include TimelineJS, an enhanced JuxtaposeJS with 24 images, points of interest, and image descriptions, a 3D model viewer of the pysanky egg, and the 175 Years video produced by UD's marketing team. When a user taps on the Timeline and Then & Now sections or buttons, the interface will zoom into that section, providing a more full screen view of each interactive.

This was another fun project and I'm thankful that University Archives gave me the opportunity to mockup a few themes (bookshelf in two versions, a messy desk, and corkboard) and build something that aesthetically fit in well with the exhibit.

You can see me interacting with the exhibit here.

Inspired by a digital Advent wreath project at the University of Dayton Libraries for our lobby touchscreen, I decided to try my hand at creating another rendered scene. This project gave the opportunity to learn about geometry nodes in Blender to create the wreaths and decorations, hair particle systems for the stockings, and different shader implementation to create a flame. We did not end up using this render in the display, but I am happy with how it turned out.