Tag Archives: touch screen

1st Session of the Day: #20

Had a work conference call right before this 8:00 session.  All I’m going to say right now is QR codes and cars are keeping me busy.

This session, Creative Tactics for Integrating Digital Signage in Different Environments, has a good panel:

  • Steve from Symon – “Visual Communications Solutions” of which digital signage is a part of
  • Jeremy from Razorfish – emerging media, enough said
  • Bryan from OpenEye – unique experiences through digital media in various environments

I’m going to hear the stories that OVAB mentioned yesterday that we need – the case studies.

Landscape is constantly changing – number of things that are competing for consumer’s attention:  traditional media, new media, social media.  Everywhere an individual turns today, they’re being bombarded by information.  It’s a different world today, more people are gravitating to online media, now mobile elevating in importance, social, too. 

Just having a digital sign on the wall doesn’t mean your message is going to be delivered, seen, absorbed.  You have to do something unique.  If you’re going to keep people from looking at their handsets instead of the digital sign, you have to do something uniquely different.

Bryan (OpenEye) – what do we do with content (non-advertising based content)?  A huge question?  Create identity to help strengthen the brand.  Emphasize the brand values, culture.  Help educate the viewer.  Perception is that content is video – not so – look at other dynamic media formats, for example Flash.  Look at a way of using content to create a very visual, unique experience.  How do we keep the screen fresh?  Keep people from overlooking it?  You have to create a consistent message across other mediums.  There’s a way to pull all that together and put something effective, consistent on digital signage.

(He’s showing examples)

Sovereign Bank example – incorporate media into the environment, not product promotion.  Create unique experience for the customer.  They developed a series of videos/content of people within the bank, also to show local businesses.  All outside of advertising.  Also product promotion, but used it in an educational way.  Approach this as extending the relationship with the customer and the brand.

Smithsonian Institute Museum of Natural History example – problem with foot traffic, trying to get people from one location to another, to other exhibits.  Another challenge – need to incorporate into existing environment, couldn’t move the exhibits.  They looked at the architecture, the area – how do we get screens into the existing environment?  And not oversaturate the environment?  This is a non-advertising based network.  The ROI is how big the person’s smile is when they leave.  (I’m hearing this consistenly here.  Perhaps OK for non-advertising based networks??)

Jeremy (Razorfish) – It’s about understanding the audience that’s going to be there and how to best impact them.  What’s the dwell time?  It’s a delicate balance.  Every time you do one of these, you learn a little bit more.  Test and learn process.  4 examples:

Microsoft example – Windows Phone 7 Series.   Big touch screen that allows people to understand how the phone software looks/functions on a large screen, with the absence of phones themselves.  Only had 6 weeks to do it.  Thought about the content first.  Animation, video.  Instructional.  Experience.  From technology perspective – multi-touch, directional audio, Windows 7 based.  Utilized their Razorfish Touch Framework.  Also had tracking mechanisms built in as well.  Will use the data to evolve the solution.  Design – they worked closely with the MS booth guys.  They really wanted to draw people to the screens.  One of the biggest challenges is to reverse engineer the animations.  Needed to spend a lot of time making sure it was consistent with the animation on the phone.

Retailer example – back-to-school initiative, wanted to drive to denim dept (jeans).  Side by side touchscreens on a vacant storefront.  Covered the storefront in a static wrap.  Full-screen attract loop, made some contextual inferences – Starbucks close by, so mentioned something about the coffee.  Heavy use of interactive video – video based on user’s decisions/interactions.  A lot of that interactive video content was put on the website.  We’re able to get more bang for the buck.  Timeout screen if not interacted with after a period of time.  Technology – rear-projection film.  Their proprietary touch framework and analytics framework.

Audi example – surface experience as part of a tradeshow booth.  Developed a complimentary iPhone application, too.  Car configurator.  Really rich 3-D.  Various POVs.   Audi-branded “puck” (I believe called a “muster” in the surface developer crowds) that brings up additional menus.  Multi-user, multi-touch.  Simple gesture that switches the whole interface around if others are interacting with the same surface.

AT&T example – surface experience in retail store.  Most difficult considerations – do you want people sitting?  Standing?  Elevated?  Fixture around it?  How do you “present” it?  Challenge with managing that number of people around it and the whole experience (like standing).

Questions –

  • How do you see these experiences evolving?  A: mobile phones, social networking…digital signage is just a complimentary medium.  It doesn’t stop, it extends. 
  • How do you get past the barrier of intimidation, particularly for touch screens?  A: It’s about finding ways to attract people into the experience.  It’s the content.  But then, it’s all about how it looks in the environment.  When it comes to multi-touch, gesture-based, the iPhone has really paved the way.  But it’s a consideration – either visual or text-based, instruction needs to be there.  Also, are there any on-site support (retail store employees, car salesman, etc..) 
  • Nationally-known brands – who are the leaders in embracing this technology/experience?  A: From OpenEye’s perspective, there is “private” clothier who is looking to create these types of experience.  Smaller organizations like that seem to embrace this type of technology.  From Razorfish’s perspective, one of the most innovative retailers is Ralph Lauren.  Touch screen windows for years.  QR codes, too.  From both perspective, there’s not a lot of case studies out there, so there is a tremendous amount of educating that comes along with talking to clients.

My thoughts – These guys are marketers, I can relate to everything they’re saying from personal experience.  They’re saying all the right things.  Cool examples, but examples that I read about online or in trades.  1 hour is not enough time for a session like this.  So many questions, primarily around the future.  I wish I would have gotten to hear Steve share some examples, but he just moderated.  Off to coffee with him now.

Keep It Simple Stupid

Simplicity, I’m finding, is really where it’s at.  Perhaps I’m more sensitive to it since I’m right in the middle of Excess City.  The solutions that are sticking out to me are the ones that require me to do very little while interacting, and give me the ability to share with others.  I walked the floor a number of times today and I was just so overwelmed by the barrage of touch technology, I didn’t interact with anything.  Outside of this environment, I’m sure I’d interact with all of the solutions.  I’ve got to keep that perspective tomorrow so I can interact with, what are probably many, effective solutions.

Those which I did interact with fell into 2 buckets:  (All are examples Interactive Out of Home (IOOH)

1.  Simple, usable, and effective

2.  Complicated, unusable, and frustrating

Example 1, falls in the 1st bucket:

Standard OOH made interactive through mobile enabling technology.  The only problem with this one is that it’s on the back of this brochure and the graphical callout that houses the Call-to-Action (CTA) doesn’t stand out (black on black).  So, it’s easy to miss.

Example 2, falls in the 1st bucket as well:

Digital OOH made interactive through mobile enabling technology.  Text photos, a message or even Tweets and they’ll end up on these screens for everyone to see.  I really like the engagement here.  All different.  All unique.  And most importantly, especially for me today, all easy.

Example 3, falls in the 2nd bucket:

DOOH made interactive through enabling touch technology.  I think wayfinding is one of the most logical, practical uses of touch technology, but ironically enough, I think it’s one of the most overly mis-executed solutions of touch technology.  This one lives up to my very low expectations.  I couldn’t figure it out, much less find my way anywhere.

I think it’s important to look at these examples through a cost/value lense, too.  The two effective examples, I believe provide great value for the cost.  The ineffective example, however, provides little to no value for the cost.  In fact, the cost heavily outweighs the value in my opinion. 

You feel me?  What are the most effective IOOH solutions you’ve seen and interacted with?

Pieces Here, There, and Everywhere

And then, reality set in.  More like, the Blackberry started exploding.  We are planning a HUGE program for one of our clients at South by Southwest, which is in 2 weeks, so needless to say, there is LOTS to be done. 

So, I missed out on part of the next phase of the tour, which was in the new City Center.  This place makes the Hard Rock look like small time.  The scale is simply amazing.  It’s an $8.5 billion “megaplex” full of shops, casinos, hotels, condos, restaurants, a standalone convention center, and even comes with its very own Fire Station.  Ridonkulous.

Even more, and this is what I’m talking about “scale,” – these guys operate over 300 digital screens in this complex, but in their network, beyond the City Center, there are over 1,000 screens that they operate – all via 1 control system.  All different sizes.  Some digital.  Some interactive.  Some for slots.  It’s crazy.

I smiled with satisfaction, extending kudos to my previous co-workers, when the guys at Aria Resort & Casino (our primary stopping point) talked about the hardware they use for each one of the screens.  Mac minis.  Which is what we used for our interactive solutions.  They’re great devices – powerful, flexible, with a small footprint.

I was really impressed with their team.  They only have ~11 on staff that run this entire operation.  They custom build applications.  They implement and run one of the most recognizable digital signage networks in the world on the Las Vegas strip.  They think about measurement (they track what people are interacting with and for how long) and they’re even thinking about future iterations. 

I missed the part of the tour where they take everyone around to all of these different screens and let them play with them.  You know, the fun part.  Something that I could have done all afternoon.  But actually, I don’t know if I could have, because honestly, it was all so overwhelming, coming off of the experience at Hard Rock, into Digital/Interactive Signage World.  I had a hard time digesting everything.

I played with one of their interactive directories, which I found to be a bit confusing:

And they had these digital placards outside of their conference rooms, but they were not interactive:

Digital menu boards.  Digital advertisement screens.  Digital marquees.  Digital slot machines.  Interactive wayfinders.  Interactive directories.  If you want it, they’ve got it – at least digitally.  And that begs the question to me, is it needed?  Are digital menu boards needed?  My friends, Phillip and Seth, both had strong opinions that they are not.  I think I agree with them.  But then I think, is it OK to do digital just to do digital?  Once the infrastructure is set up, there are many benefits, regardless of placement, purpose, or interactivity.  So, I can see value in it.  Especially when everything else is digital.  If their only digital solution was a digital menu board, I would think differently.  But when you have your whole City wired, of course, you’re going to have digital menu boards. 

This, I believe, is a great look into our future.  A real future where technology is incorporated in everything all around us.  I didn’t own one thing that I interacted with today.  But the interesting thing was, while I didn’t need to own the device from which the experience originated, I wanted (and needed) to use my own device (mobile, Flip) to share the experience. 

And I think that is a very important piece to this puzzle.

Hit the Ground Running

I kept up with the plane’s momentum and hit the ground running as soon as we landed.  I had to rewind my clock to set myself on Pacific time, which kills me, btw.  So, while I landed at 9:18 Texas time, it was really 7:18 Vegas time.  My deadline was 8:30 – 8:45 at the Hard Rock Cafe to catch the tour.  I wanted to drop my bag at the hotel, register at the Convention Center, and make it to the Hard Rock in what was essentially an hour.  Plenty of time, right?

I felt so anxious the entire time, rushing to every destination.  And it didn’t help that I had the slowest cab drivers, despite my direction to “get me there as fast as you can.”  The broken red light right by the hotel didn’t help either.  Once we got to the hotel, I dashed inside, they had my room, I took my bags up, and then viva Convention Center.  That ride seemed to take an hour, but I got registered there and had a speedy cabby take me to the Hard Rock.  There, I walked back and forth between the cafe and the casino and across the street and everywhere in between and still could not find the tour-gatherers.  Of course, it turned out that there is a NEW Hard Rock Cafe on the strip and that’s where everyone was to meet.

So, I rode over to the new cafe – it was 8:50 by now – with two really nice guys, Phillip (from Arinc) and Seth (from Daktronics).  They both work for digital signage & network providers, were interested in new technologies, and asked me what “11th Screen” meant.  Good conversation.

Most importantly though, we all made the tour!!  The Hard Rock crew and the tour-gatherers welcomed us in, gave us some behind-the-scenes access, good talk with the GM, and then let us play with all of the technology.  And let me stress ALL of the technology.  It was almost overwhelming, how much interactive technology they have.  First, the centerpiece is the Rock Wall, a huge, 18×4 interactive, multi-user, multi-touch wall that holds 70,000 pieces of Rock & Roll memorabilia.

Then, they had quite a few Microsoft Surface displays, each with a well of content, too.

And if that weren’t enough, each booth had a small touchscreen that users could interact with and, among other things, search Hard Rock’s retail inventory.  The video is the least compelling, thanks to my direction.

As much as I love all of this sort of technology and all of these solutions, I think that they are missing an opportunity, primarily to drive additional sales.  There are no ties to ordering or purchasing anything in the cafe (including the retail store) from any of these devices.  I know that it is complicated to tie into larger systems like POS systems, but I feel like they could get much more (true) value out of these than they are currently getting. 

To their credit, their whole objective is to drive deeper engagement between the brand and the consumers, so as long as people are interacting with this technology, thus the brand, they are achieving their objective.  Aside from all this, two nuggets of information that I found interesting:

1. The average age of people visiting Vegas is 49 years old.  And Hard Rock believes that this technology is for this demo.  I actually think that the Hard Rock demo is younger than this and this could be the reason they are getting so much interaction.  And who wouldn’t want to play with these things.  Even if they are overwhelming.

2. Apparently, it only took 1 year from ideation to “turned on.”  I just can’t believe that.  Wow.

More of my adventure later….

A Number 10, 20, 28, 34 and a Super-Session to go

I’d like a number 10, 20, 28, 34 and a Super-Session to go, please.  To those of you going to the DSE next week, these numbers probably mean something to you.  To those who aren’t going, these are the sessions that I plan on attending.  Here’s the rundown:

Session #10 – How They Did It: Three Real-World Models for Successful Communication-Based Digital Signage Networks – Representatives from Reuters, a college (John Marshall Law School), and a medical facility (Mayo Clinic), discuss their DOOH networks and installations.  All of these seem like they’re fully integrated into their respective businesses and have clearly provided value back to their audiences.  I hope they’re able to cover their different expansive installations, the thought and buy-in that had to go into each of them and then ultimately, how they each look at success.  It will also be interesting to know what they think the future of DOOH looks like.

Session #20 – Creative Tactics for Integrating Digital Signage in Different Environments – This looks to be all about innovation, particularly in various approaches to a wide range of OOH environments and how to best incorporate digital/interactive signage into them.  A Dallas-comrade, Steve Gurley, from Symon Communications here in Plano, is on the panel.  We’re going to get together for coffee afterwards.  I’m looking forward to meeting him and learning more about his company.  They provide all sorts of DOOH solutions, including multiple interactive solutions.

Session #28 – Integrating Multi-Channel Strategies: A Roadmap for Digital Cross-Platform Success –  This is the session that interests me the most.  Primarily because it is one of the sessions that I think is closest to my specific interests – making the 5th Screen (digital signage) into the 11th Screen (through the use of all sorts of enabling technologies).  I think they’ll probably discuss the incorporation of mobile into digital signage more than anything else.  But I’m also interested in it because Stephen Randall of LocaModa – the man behind the company that brought us Jumbli and LBS-integration-into-digital signage – is on the panel.  The other dudes on the panel are no slouches, either. 

Session #34 – Trends in Interactive Gestural and Touch Screen Applications – Now, we’re talking.  “You will learn how organizations such as the Official NYC Information Center and MIT SENSEable City Lab are using advanced touch-sensing and gesture control technologies to bring a whole new dimension to interactive user experiences.”  It’s going to be sweet.  Enough said.

Super Session – Digital Out-of-Home’s Future – I can’t go to the premier Digital Out-of-Home conference without attending the session where industry leaders discuss its future.  It’s the one that has the biggest potential of let down, though.  These types of sessions can be so general, especially in an hour.  But I’ll be there. 

Then, throw in a couple of coffee meetings, a few on-floor workshops (including one by Keith Kelsen, visionary in digital signage), and a “mixer” here and there, and my calendar is pretty much full. 

Oh, and there’s work, too.  That doesn’t stop. 

It will all be busy, but really good. 

Is there anything you’re particulary interested in learning about digital signage or the industry?  Let me know and I’ll do my best to get it answered.

Out & About: “Find Your Color” Kiosk

I’m going to try a new series called “Out & About” where I’ll share 11th Screen examples that I find when I’m out and about.  This morning, we were at Walmart and I walked past a small touch screen kiosk suspended at the end of the hair-coloring-products isle.  It looked to be from Clairol (more broadly, probably P&G) and was all about helping customers find their perfect hair color.  Even though I’m not in the market for new hair color, I couldn’t resist playing with it.  My wife helped me with the demo – as you watch this, you’ll see that one of her most endearing qualities is her indecisiveness, which ironically enough, seems to be the primary purpose of this kiosk.

When I first saw this, my instinct was to be happy – that P&G decided to make this, that it was actually interactive, and that they placed it in a retailer like Walmart.  I don’t think that any of those can be overlooked.  But, as we interacted with it, and as I talked to my wife about it (she’s a great individual focus group), and the more I thought about it, the more I determined how unvaluable I thought it was.  I busted out my scorecard and put it to the test.  Here’s what I came up with:

Purpose – The kiosk is billed as an aid to help “Find your color” (specifically, “Find your perfect hair color in just 30 seconds”) when one is undecided on what artificial hair-color to use.  Based on a number of simple questions, the solution delivers on the primary purpose – it outputs the recommended hair color and more importantly, hair products.  But I think it only halfway achieves the primary purpose, being in a retail store like Walmart.  It’s safe to say that the ultimate purpose is to drive purchase, but nowhere in the experience does it encourage the customer to actually buy the products.  It just spits out what products are best for them and leaves it at that.  With a simple coupon, either from the kiosk itself or enabled through a mobile phone short code, P&G would really see how valuable it is because they could actually measure it.

11th Screen Score:  FAIL

Drama – The kiosk is small, but you can’t fault them for that.  Who knows what drove that decision.  At least it’s a standalone kiosk.  The experience also has a clear call-to-action at the beginning – “Touch to Begin.”  But the biggest problems here are placement and branding.  Not only is it hard to see because its metal casing blends in with the rest of the environment, but it’s positioned right by L’Oreal, the competing products.  If I were the brand manager, this would not sit well with me.  The kiosk should be by the product, no ifs, ands, or buts.  Otherwise, don’t go to the trouble of making it.  And where’s the branding on the actual, physical kiosk?

11th Screen Score:  FAIL

Usability – This was very user-friendly.  It was set up like a wizard, where it takes the customer through the experience step-by-step.  For a more decisive person than my wife, it probably delivers on the promise, “Find your color in 30 seconds.”

11th Screen Score:  PASS

Interactivity – This experience was strictly touch screen.  The screen responded well to touch and there was no lag time in touch & response.

11th Screen Score:  PASS

Information – I think they’re selling themselves and the customers short here, limiting the experience to 30 seconds.  I would argue that finding the right hair color product and the right additional hair maintenance products take longer than 30 seconds.  I did some digging on the two products in the demo – Clairol and Pantene – and their websites are rich with information and experience.  They’re filled with interactive tools and expert videos and live chat consultations – both impressive sites.  All of these interactive, supporting tools tell me that my argument might be on point.  Now, Walmart is not necessarily the salon or boutique where customers would want to spend longer looking for products and more interested in the entire experience.  But it wouldn’t take much effort to include some of the richer, more interactive tools found on their websites here in this kiosk.  I think it would improve the experience greatly and provide more value to the customer.

11th Screen Score:  FAIL

Personalization – The experience is centered around a level of personalization by asking each user a series of questions to give them a custom answer.  The shortcoming is that it treats everyone as if they’re first-time users, first-time hair-colorers, which is probably the primary audience anyway.  Those who use these products already know what they want and/or will spend time talking to a professional stylist, not an electronic kiosk.

11th Screen Score:  PASS

So, as much as I wanted to be happy, those feelings are now tempered.  I can’t say that I see value in the solution.  I just don’t see how this can drive sales enough to move the needle.  Maybe to raise awareness, but not necessarily in these products.  It enables customers to find the right kind of products, but not the right products, which of course is Clairol and Pantene….and anything else hair-related by P&G.  In the end, they would have been better off duplicating their website experience here on the kiosk.  Then, I might be singing a different song.

What do you think of this experience?  Do see more value in it than me?  I’d love to hear from you.