Worcester Historical Museum (WHM): Smiley Cart

Welcome to our page! During our Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) we worked in collaboration with the Worcester History Museum to design a mobile exhibit to commemorate Harvey Ball’s 100th birthday. Harvey Ball is the creator of Smiley Face and created World Smile Day. World Smile Day is celebrated on the first Friday of October to “encourage smiles and acts of kindness around the world.” World Smile day also raises money for the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation, a non-profit charitable trust that supports children’s causes.

Project Sponsor: Worcester Historical Museum

The Worcester Historical Museum is a non-profit organization that has been keeping the history of Worcester alive through its exhibits and events. The Museum additionally holds events such as The Harvey Ball, which is a charity function held every year to spread awareness of World Smile Day and where they award The Harvey Ball Smile Award, named in memory of Harvey Ball. 

Student Researchers

Our IQP team is comprised of 4 Members from the class of 2022:

Antonio Calcagni (AE), Brittney Pham (ME), Claire Dollins (major), and James Krigsman (RBE)

Our Project

With the intention of educating people on Worcester history and spreading the joy of the Smiley Face, Worcester Historical Museum (WHM) has proposed to develop a Worcester history and Harvey Ball-themed, mobile exhibit that will be used by the museum in Elm Park and other surrounding locations for Harvey Ball’s 100th Birthday and future events. Therefore, the goal of our project was to establish the learning outcomes of the Smiley Cart, determine the most popular and appropriate take-aways, design activities for a family-friendly mobile exhibit, and create a design for the Cart. Through a series of interviews, focus groups, and surveys, we developed a Smiley Cart design in SolidWorks and a plan for the interactive learning activities.