[in progress]
NODE Index
Systems design · Information architecture · AI prototyping
Index example exhibition page and indexing flow, both in progress, just testing functionality.
Project Overview.
Since NODE's opening in January 2026, four exhibitions and numerous events have been put on. Each one has left behind photos, merch, floor plans and stories spread across drives, boxes and people's memories.
NODE Index brings it all into one connected archive. Every exhibition, artwork, person, photo and object gets a permanent ID, and the links between them make the archive useful. Staff can browse it, search it and ask it questions in plain language.
Process.
Planning
I started with one question: what would someone need to understand this show five years from now?
Then I mapped every kind of thing NODE produces.
Building with AI.
I designed and built the working prototype with Claude: the database, the explorer and the tests, in a few weeks. But, this prototype was not super intuitive to early testers within NODE.
Restarting with a Drive.
I decided that I needed to return to simpler, existing ways to collect and structure information before I could create my own.
Starting with a central, shared Google Drive for NODE simplified my data collection and let me focus on what staff actually need to find, before building tools on top of it.
Outcome.
In progress, hope to have a staff demo by December 4, 2026.
