Accessible Experience Design at Scale: Protean's Interactive Experience Centre

Experience Center

Pranay Bhandare

6mins

Feb 20, 2026

National Infrastructure. Complex Data. One Experience Centre.

Protean eGov Technologies manages systems that touch nearly every citizen in India. Identity, education, finance, commerce — the infrastructure spans decades and millions of data points. The challenge: none of that scale was visible to the people who needed to understand it most. Stakeholders walked in informed but left unconvinced. Leadership had the facts. What they lacked was a format that made those facts land.

That gap defined the brief.

The Design Problem: Scale Without Legibility

Large-scale government infrastructure creates a particular communication problem. The data exists. The impact is real. But the formats used to present it — reports, decks, static dashboards — consistently underdeliver in high-stakes environments.

Protean needed a permanent, physical environment that could communicate 70,000+ data points without overwhelming a senior audience. It needed to work for a CXO walking through in 20 minutes and a technical team spending two hours. It needed to function reliably on constrained networks. And it needed to hold its credibility over years, not months.

Experience Architecture: Four Zones, One Coherent Journey

The centre spans four physical zones, each designed around a distinct communication objective. No zone duplicates another. Each one builds on what came before.

Zone 1 — Life-Spanning Impact Six interactive LED screens chart milestones across identity, education, finance, and commerce. Content uses plain language and deliberate visual anchors. The goal: make systemic relationships intuitive without requiring background knowledge.

Zone 2 — Mapping Impact An interactive projection wall visualizes service penetration across India. Visitors can filter by region, explore PIN-code-level data, and see real-time inputs from other visitors. Short, scannable interactions keep attention focused.

Zone 3 — RISE Platform Simulation Haptic dials and scenario-based simulations expose how the platform orchestrates modular microservices and API flows. Visitors manipulate the elements directly. No technical prerequisite required. The gamified format rewards curiosity without demanding expertise.

Zone 4 — Cinematic Narrative An immersive LED theatre consolidates everything into a leadership-framed narrative. Large-format motion graphics connect human-scale outcomes to national-scale impact. It closes the loop.

A persistent digital layer — QR-enabled portal, AR-activated ID cards — extends the experience beyond the physical space.

Accessibility Built Into the Architecture

Accessibility here does not mean compliance checkboxes. It means designing for the full range of people who walk through the door.

Multi-modal input. Touchscreens, tablet controllers, and haptic dials ensure the interactions remain accessible regardless of dexterity or preference. No single input method carries the entire experience.

Offline-first logic. All core functionality runs on locally hosted infrastructure. Network disruptions do not degrade the experience. This mattered for a government-grade deployment where security and reliability were non-negotiable.

Legibility at distance. Large-format LED canvases and high-contrast visualizations remain readable from across the room. Design precision here directly affects how much information actually transfers.

Multisensory access. Zone-optimized audio, cinematic visuals, and printed AR-enabled PVC ID cards create redundant access channels. If one format underperforms for a particular visitor, others compensate.

Cognitive load management. PIN-code locators, live maps, and clear navigation reduce the effort required to orient within the space. Expert and non-expert visitors follow the same path without either feeling lost or patronized.

Data Infrastructure: Transparency as a Design Principle

The backend required as much attention as the front end.

Disparate datasets moved from unstructured Excel files into a taggable, normalized system. Every derived metric received explicit documentation. This was not cosmetic. In environments where institutional credibility depends on data accuracy, the provenance of a number matters as much as the number itself.

Socket-based synchronization powers live audience inputs and real-time polling. Offline fallbacks maintain full functionality during network disruptions. All data processing runs on client-controlled servers — a requirement for government-grade security.

Measurable Outcomes: Perception Shift, Not Just Footfall

The centre changed how stakeholders perceive Protean's infrastructure. That shift — from promotional to institutional — does not happen by accident.

Design choices determined it. Large LED canvases with controlled visual restraint communicate authority without overclaiming. Layered storytelling converts systemic complexity into immediate comprehension. Post-deployment feedback documented a measurable improvement in stakeholder engagement and a clear shift in brand perception toward system-level credibility.

The centre now functions as a permanent asset across three distinct use cases: sales conversations, policy education, and leadership alignment. One environment. Three audiences. Consistent performance.

Modular by Design: Built for Long-Term Relevance

Physical experience centres carry a significant investment. Return on that investment depends on how well the architecture adapts as the content evolves.

Every zone in this centre supports modular updates. Content, data layers, and interaction flows can be refreshed without rebuilding hardware infrastructure. The system was designed for a five-year relevance horizon, not a launch moment.

Interaction Design Principles That Transferred

Several decisions made during this project apply directly to any permanent experience environment at enterprise scale.

Progressive disclosure works. Starting with broad impact before narrowing to system mechanics keeps diverse audiences engaged. Not every visitor needs every layer.

Short interactions outperform long ones in high-traffic environments. Every interaction flow in this centre was pressure-tested for completion within constrained time windows.

Institutional restraint builds credibility faster than visual excess. Leaders are not impressed by spectacle. They respond to environments that treat their intelligence with respect.

If you're evaluating a permanent experience centre for stakeholder engagement or sales enablement, the design decisions here offer a practical reference point — reach out to the Ink In Caps team to discuss what applies directly to your context.

About the Author

Pranay Bhandare
SEO Executive