Razorfish + Emerging Experiences

The Razorfish team in Germany partnered with Realtime Technology AG to build configuration experiences for the Audi A1 world premiere at the international motor show in Geneva. They are designed to attract and engage young people and to demonstrate the wide range of customization possibilities of the new Audi.

The first experience is located on the main stage, featuring a 24″ Multi-Touch display allowing users to interact with the car configuration and an additional 65″ display with synchronized high-definition 3d-rendering in real-time to garner even more attention. The complex configuration scenario is wrapped in a simple and easy-to-use interface. The application is based on Windows 7 and the Razorfish Touch Framework.

The second configurator runs on Microsoft Surface and is based on the Audi A4 configurator. The multi-user environment allows individuals to place physical tokens on the table and configure their favorite A1 in a collaborative way. The extravagant competition kit adds exciting new possibilities to spice up the user’s virtual car.

Both configurators can be seen live at Geneva Motor Show until March 14, 2010.

Before we left for the evening, we recorded a quick walkthrough of the Windows Phone booth and EMC (Executive Meeting Center) locations where we have touch experiences deployed to support the Windows Phone 7 Series launch event.

Members of the press and blogging community have been recording video of the experience throughout the conference. These videos have begun appearing online - here are a couple of the videos we’ve found:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-30XRO4Wxw
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDYgMGUCvj4
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYW2hL9ZTPE
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkHmmjRhgLk
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDLG9vJohjE

After a long night of celebrating the successful launch of Windows Phone 7 Series in Barcelona, we are back at the Windows Phone booth at Mobile World Congress. The crowds are still huge and the experiences are running great. Each experience is collecting touch and interaction information in the background - we are going to begin processing this information to determine how many sessions we are seeing, average session time, the most popular areas of the experience, etc. We will use this information as a guide to optimize the experience for the next event.

The Windows Phone team is showing live projected demonstrations of the device in the theatre area - these demonstrations are attracting huge crowds.

Members of the press camped out at the Windows Phone press lounge located across the plaza from Mobile World Congress. Because of the huge turnout for the announcement, much of the press watched the launch event live from the downstairs press lounge. After the show, we launched 6 experiences at this location allowing members the press to touch and interact with Windows Mobile 7 Series for the first time.

Members of the press who weren’t able to watch the event in the theatre or the press lounge huddled around screens outside in the reception area. We went live with 2 experiences at this location.

Conference attendees watching the event live at the Windows Phone booth at Mobile World Congress. We had an additional 2 experiences running at this location.

Cameras were out as the interface was unveiled for the first time. The phone interface design was kept a secret up until launch day. Preventing pictures and other leaks of information from making it to the press turned out to be a huge undertaking. The Windows Phone team went to great lengths to prevent leaks - in fact, many of the Microsoft employees working on the team never had the opportunity to see the interface until launch day. We based our experience off of some hands-on time in Redmond and videos of the experience. Our team was able to reverse-engineer the design, animation and interaction of the user interface. Accuracy was extremely important and we had to ensure the design and motion in our experience was a perfect re-creation of the experience on the actual device. We built the experience on top of the Razorfish Touch Framework. Using the framework allowed us to rapidly develop the application from scratch in under 4 weeks.

The product launch was a huge success and the Windows Phone team has been celebrating in Barcelona. The reaction from the press and blog community has been overwhelmingly positive. The conference is far from over but so far we are off to a great start!

Greetings from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona!

We are excited to announce that we’ve been working with Microsoft on the launch of their next-generation mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 Series. Steve Ballmer and the Windows Phone team announced Windows Phone 7 Series moments ago. As part of the launch, we’ve unveiled multi-touch experiences which emulate the user interface of the mobile devices. These experiences allow conference attendees and members of the press to experience Windows Phone 7 Series for the first time, flicking and gesturing through the 3D user interface and learning about the key features of the operating system on 40″ monitors.

Be sure to check out the Windows Phone 7 Series experience at the Microsoft booth (#1D19). Also join us at Hotel Catalonia (across the plaza from the MWC event) where the Windows Phone team is hosting members of the public and press for hands-on demonstrations of Windows Phone 7 Series.

We’ll be updating throughout the day with behind-the-scenes photos and videos from the booth and press events - stay tuned!

8:11am (+1 GMT) - Day 1, World Mobile Congress.  Steve Dawson (Technology Lead, Razorfish Emerging Experiences) and Luke Hamilton (Creative Lead, Razorfish Emerging Experiences) at the Windows Phone booth early in the morning (see below).  The Razorfish team collaborated closely with the Windows Phone 7 team.  Luke, Steve and team put in some late nights and weekends to make the touch experiences come to life. [jonathan hull]

3:59 (+1 GMT) - holy cow there are droves of people watching the press conference! (see below) [lesley young]

4:20 (+1 GMT) - the Windows Phone 7 Series touchscreen experience is live! [@stevedawson]

4:21 (+1 GMT) - as well as the online demo of the Windows Phone 7 Series, enjoy! [@lhamilton]

4:43 (+1 GMT) - having fun watching all the press interact with the giant 40″ demo of the phone (see below) [@lhamilton]

5:15 (+1 GMT) - we just posted pictures from the launch event setup to our flickr account … its been a tough, but fun 6 days [@lhamilton]

5:32 (+1 GMT) - users getting a hands on demo of the actual phone experience [@stevedawson]

5:58 (+1 GMT) - the Windows Phone team giving interactive demos on the big ass phone (see below) [jonathan hull]

Hey, we’re going offline now, thanks so much for the touchscreen and online teams in Atlanta, Austin, Portland and Seattle that made this come together in under 4 weeks.

Customers are being faced with increasingly complex buying decisions, especially when it comes to technology and services. As a result, increased pressure is being placed on store associates to provide knowledgeable service to customers. Our Emerging Experiences team used this opportunity to develop a solution to demonstrate how an immersive interactive experience can assist customers and store associates with complex buying decisions in a retail setting.

The Razorfone solution is focused around providing an experience where customers can learn about wireless products. Phone and netbook features and associated wireless plans are presented in a rich interactive environment. Accessories are presented to the customer as a cross-sell opportunity. The use of 3D allows for customers to view their device in any color and from any angle, regardless of availability of the physical device within the retail store. The customer can validate the wireless coverage where they live, work and play through the use of the interactive coverage map using simple pan and zoom gestures. Customers can personalize their device after purchase with ringtones, games and applications through the use of QR technology, increasing sales and helping to eliminate buyers remorse.

As the complexity of technology and service offerings increases, training store associates on these products and services can be expensive and ineffective. In addition, the turnover rate in retail can have a negative effect on the number of knowledgable store associates. In an assisted-sales scenario, the store associates can focus on being brand ambassadors while the experience provides the information the customer needs to make informed decisions about the wireless products.

Watch the above video as we walk you through the Razorfone experience. We’d love to hear your feedback!

Neue Digitale / Razorfish developed the first realtime 3d configurator for Microsoft Surface which was showcased at this year’s IAA - the world’s leading automotive fair.

Developed in collaboration with Realtime Technology AG, the application allows multiple users to configure an Audi A4 simultaneously by changing the car’s paint finishes, rims and by selecting and coloring style package components. The configured A4 is experienced in an immersive 3d environment, in which users can navigate seamlessly by zooming and panning using a multitouch-enabled interface. Special perspectives allow a more detailed view for specific components, for example for configuring rims or taking a closer look at interior details.

To control the actual car configuration process users can place multilingual tokens on the table. All available options appear around the token and can be selected by touching or rotating the physical token.

The final car configuration is projected on an external High Definition display, attracting and engaging other visitors.

Our team has developed an application built on the new Razorfish Touch Framework called Razorfashion. It demonstrates how we believe retailers can meet shoppers growing expectations for more engaging digital experiences in-store and provide a consistent, integrated experience across the multi-channel shopping ecosystem.

Watch the above video as we walk you through the Razorfashion experience.

See it. Love it. Share it. Find it.

model photo credit: *katanaz-stock

DaVinci is a Microsoft Surface application that blurs the lines between the physical and virtual world by combining object recognition, real-world physics simulation and gestural interface design.

One of the important design and technology considerations around building direct manipulation interfaces is to ensure virtual objects behave like real-world objects. The real world physics behavior of these objects is a type of visual affordance, which aids in delivering an intuitive user experience - users know what to expect when they manipulate objects in the virtual world when they behave like objects in the real world. The physics engine used in DaVinci is being applied to our other applications to create interfaces which have natural real world physics.

The DaVinci experience could easily be extended to teach Newton’s laws of motion, gravity, friction, orbital motion and other physics concepts in a classroom setting.

Microsoft Surface Financial Services application is a joint development between Microsoft and Razorfish. It is an innovative and engaging solution to present banking products to customers within a rich multi-touch experience. It is the first application to receive the official Surface certification and is now available on the Surface partner community site. Check out the video below for a quick walkthrough of the key features of the application.

The experience is deployed in the lobby of bank branch locations. The application introduces you to the full range of financial products by guiding you through the process of selecting the financial products or life tasks that represent the 360-degree view of your financial world. While waiting for a bank associate, the Surface application can begin the process of education and can provide a rich interactive and engaging experience compared to traditional financial brochures and inserts.

Various bowls of tokens are provided at each Surface table - the tokens are customizable, cheap and easy to produce. The tokens not only drive the experience on Surface through the use of object recognition - they also serve to provide a branding piece that customers will take out of the bank location. The tokens serve as a topic of discussion with friends and family about the Surface experience at the banking location - this makes the experience inherently “social” by encouraging word-of-mouth discussions around the application and the financial services products. The tokens also serve as a reminder to the customer to get in touch with their bank representative - this can be encouraged by providing the bank branch phone numbers on each token.

As the customer interacts with the application, they are guided through the process of  building their financial profile from the broad array of financial services products. Once a banking associate is available, they can sit with the customer and begin discussing the products that are of interest to the customer. The application takes advantage of the social aspects of Microsoft Surface by allowing for collaboration between the customer and bank executive through the use of user experience design concepts. Interactive content like videos and financial calculators are provided in the experience with the ability to extend the Surface content through the use of mobile integration and email.

Another benefit of this application is the use of existing bank collateral, like mortgage brochures, which can be easily be tagged and recognized by Surface, to drive an interactive mortgage calculator experience. In addition, direct mail campaigns can integrate into the Surface experience by tagging the individual mailer items. When customers bring in the mailer campaigns, they receive a personalized experience. The integration with direct mail can drive increased traffic into bank branch locations. In addition, direct mail campaign conversions are measurable through the use of tracking and analytics built into the Surface application.

Another important purchasing decision around bank services is determining where bank branch and ATM locations exist within the community. Through the use of an interactive map, customers can be reassured that bank branch and ATM locations exist close to their home and workplace. Locations on the map provide additional information, including the street address and hours-of-operation of each branch.

Stay tuned for a future video regarding the strategy, user experience and technology considerations that went into making the Microsoft Surface Financial Services experience.