Key Facts
• The client needed a way to get cost-conscious business users excited about the technology and innovation
• I used simple technologies and story building to create a 360 degree XR experience for customers at the client's customer conference
• Attendance at the "innovation lab" booth where the experience was showcased went up 20% because of the experience, and it was expanded into a year round mobile lab
The Problem
The client had an information and workflow management product that had become stuffy and dated. The customers wanted more and more innovation, but even as engineers got excited about new and upcoming technologies, they couldn't find a way to share that excitement with customers.
The disconnect was that the customers were hardline business people. They didn't get excited for the sake of technology, they needed to know what that technology could do for them and how it would impact their business and the bottom line. This was especially with unproven and expensive technologies like virtual and augmented reality.
With a major customer conference coming up, the client wanted to expand their "innovation lab" demo experience to engage their customers with these technologies in a meaningful way.
Creating a Story
A compelling demo requires a compelling story. So I built out the idea of following a construction site manager and all of the ways they would leverage a workflow and document management product in an augmented reality context. Visualizing blueprints in 3D space, placing notes and points of interest in real space, and managing tasks and providing guidance to them on large sites were all centric to the concept.
After building the story, I went to an actual construction site, shot 360 degree footage and photos, and created a mockup using a variety of tools already available. The result was a 360 video compilation that the customer could watch through a VR headset using a spare cellphone. This gave customers a chance to immerse themselves in the technology and not only engage with the pre-built story but imagine their own use cases and stories for how to apply the technology.
Results
In the first conference, the VR experience helped boost attendance to the innovation lab by 20%. From there it became a part of the first mobile innovation lab experience, where we took it to a variety of smaller customer events and other conferences, including the client's European customer conference. It also sparked the founding or the client's first permanent innovation lab, with the initial focus being expanding the demo with both VR and AR headsets.
The following year the customer conference had the innovation lab as a main stage attraction with even larger attendance and their innovation efforts continue to grow.