An interactive world map on an 86" touchscreen that celebrates the diversity of cultures amongst Carnival Cruise Line guests, its crew members and its global cruise destinations.
Unity Design and Development Intern
Mitch Mastroni (Lead Developer), Mike Segawa (Art Director), Nicole Graber (Producer), and Ken Yajima (Visual Design Intern)
Carnival Cruise Line
Unity, C# and Photoshop
New Growth Opportunities for the Studio in the Cruise Line Industry
additional Carnival cruise ships will feature a similar experience
Following the Celebration’s successful debut, Carnival Cruise Lines extended the partnership by awarding Beaudry Interactive an additional contract to white-label the experience for broader use across their fleet.
For its newly launched ship, the Celebration, Carnival sought to significantly enhance the onboard map functionality available through the Carnival Hub App and in-cabin displays. The interactive map also needed to reflect the spirit of the ship’s Gateway zone—a vibrant space inspired by the energy, nostalgia, and social experience of travel.
6500'
guests (max. capacity)
How might we spark a sense of arrival and adventure that invites exploration and shared interaction for the ship's guests?
With full support from Carnival Cruise Line stakeholders, the team focused on the following goals:
1
Highlight global connections to build emotional resonance, drive loyalty, and encourage bookings.
2
Design brief, intuitive interactions with shorter dwell times to minimize congestion during peak guest traffic.
Using renderings and reference materials provided by Carnival Cruise Line for the Gateway area, the Beaudry Interactive team developed a moodboard to inform the project’s art and design direction.
After buy-in from the Carnival stakeholders on the art direction, the team further researched the Costa Cruises interactive map and uncovered additional project requirements.
In turn, the team proposed the following four features:
Live ship icons remain visible and update in real time. After 30 seconds of inactivity, a random ship triggers water splashes and a greeting from a nearby coast. If the ship is in the Caribbean, the compass zooms into a magnified view.
When a guest selects a Postcard icon, it expands with arrows and highlights the destination. Dragging it upward triggers a particle transition toward the destination, where animated ports appear and particles gather around each one in sequence.
Interacting with the Passport icon flips it open to reveal a new page and small pins representing other guests’ travels. Guests select a large pin, drag it onto the map, and upon drop, a “hello” is triggered from the surrounding area.
Interacting with the Team Member Origins icon expands the badge, reveals a message, and populates the map with crew origin markers. Tapping a marker displays how many crew members come from that country, along with a fun fact.
In the weeks leading up to the Integration phase, the team conducted extensive playtesting to uncover bugs and design flaws. Each issue was documented with detailed reproduction steps to support debugging.
Additionally, accessibility considerations were prioritized, including ensuring the experience was fully usable by individuals in wheelchairs.
The development team regularly interfaced with the visual design team for animation, UI and experiential suggestions and refinement.
Disclaimer: I have intentionally limited confidential information.
