Carilion Children's Social Butterflies

At Carilion Children’s Tanglewood Center, comfort and calm are central to the patient experience. To support this mission, Dimensional Innovations partnered with the Carilion team to develop Social Butterflies, an interactive digital art installation. The installation brings joy, creativity, and positive distraction for young patients and their families by engaging them in hands-on digital play. By offering a creative outlet and engaging activity, Social Butterflies reduces anxiety, encourages self-expression, and fosters social connection during challenging clinic visits. Rooted in the butterfly—Carilion Children’s symbol of hope and healing—the experience transforms the clinic’s lobby into a soothing, community-driven sanctuary where kids can play, create, and momentarily escape the stress of medical care.

Challenge: Carilion Children’s needed a positive-distraction experience to ease young patients’ anxiety while reinforcing its mission of hope, strength, and healthcare equality. The team aimed to design an interactive installation that calms—without overstimulating—yet still engages children during stressful care. The installation also needed to be accessible for all ages and abilities, feature the butterfly symbol central to Carilion Children’s brand, and integrate seamlessly into the first-floor lobby without disrupting clinical flow.

Solution: Dimensional Innovations worked with Carilion Children’s to create Social Butterflies, a custom digital art experience blending illustration, interaction, and positive distraction. To ensure the experience was soothing and accessible, the team conducted in-depth research into the clinic’s environment and patient needs, followed by extensive prototyping and user testing. Dimensional Innovations built a touchscreen kiosk and a mobile-friendly interface that allows children to design, color, and name a butterfly using simple, intermediate, or complex templates. Throughout, accessibility and engagement for children of all ages and abilities were prioritized, with ongoing feedback from staff and patients integrated at every stage.

The interactive journey continues as a child releases their butterfly. Each butterfly appears across six portrait screens featuring Roanoke-inspired nature scenes. Intel RealSense cameras detect movement, causing the installation to swarm toward a child's silhouette before gently dispersing. This creates a soothing, magical interaction. Dimensional Innovations managed the experience from concept and content development to digital design, fabrication, and integration with partner Stage Sound.