How the Index Works

The Experiential Design Index is a public record of the firms and projects behind experiential environments in North America — museums, science centers, visitor and briefing centers, brand and cultural spaces — and the full delivery stack that builds them, from architecture through fabrication.

It is compiled from public records, published as open data under CC BY 4.0, and maintained in the open. This page explains how to make sure your firm is represented well, and how to propose an addition or correction. For the full inclusion, sourcing, and scope rules, see About — this page summarizes them briefly and doesn't restate them in full.

The short version

• The index records firms and projects, not individuals, and credits the whole delivery stack on every project it can source — who did what, not just the headline firm.
• A firm gets its own record once 3 or more of its projects can be documented from public sources; fewer than that, it still appears in project credits.
• Every fact traces to a public, independently checkable source — an institution's press page, a juried award listing, trade coverage, or a firm's own published portfolio. Paywalled reports, private documents, and unpublished claims don't qualify, and unclear credits are left out rather than guessed.

How to make sure your firm is represented well

The index is researched from what's publicly documented — so the single most useful thing any firm can do is publish complete, clearly credited project pages. A project page that names its venue, opening year, and the full partner stack (with each firm's role) is far more likely to be recorded accurately and completely than one that lists only the lead firm.

Optionally, a project page can embed a machine-readable record that mirrors the index's schema, so it can be read without guesswork:

<script type="application/json" data-experiential-design-index="project">
{
  "name": "Project Name",
  "venue": {"name": "Venue", "city": "City", "state": "ST",
            "country": "US", "venue_type": "science-center"},
  "project_type": "new-exhibition",
  "year_completed": 2025,
  "credits": [
    {"firm": "Example Architects", "role": "architecture"},
    {"firm": "Example Studio", "role": "exhibit-design"},
    {"firm": "Example Media", "role": "media-design"},
    {"firm": "Example Fab", "role": "fabrication"}
  ],
  "sources": ["https://institution.org/press/project"]
}
</script>

The controlled values for role, project_type, and venue_type are listed in the index's published vocabularies. Embedding a record is a convenience, not a shortcut: every credit is still verified against independent public sources before it publishes.

Corrections and contributions

The dataset lives in a public repository, one file per firm, project, and venue. To propose an addition, a correction, or a status update, open an issue or a pull request with the change and a public source.

Corrections are made directly to the record; the repository's history is the changelog. We especially welcome missing delivery-stack credits, sourced opening years, and evidence that updates a firm's activity status.

A note on neutrality and self-inclusion

The Experiential Design Index is published by Sitara Systems, a firm that also works in this field. Sitara's own projects are held to exactly the same inclusion bar, sourcing standard, and scope rules as every other firm's — and, like every firm, Sitara cannot be credited on its own say-so alone. The index is only useful if it's trustworthy about everyone in it, including its publisher.