Sparking our clients’ imaginations

The Brief

Our design and digital teams were brought together for a brief that required a carefully balanced creative and functional solution, driven by a ‘sparking the imagination’ theme.

Firstly, it was a brief to create a provocative installation that adds to the creative feel of both Insight offices, leading visitors to comment. Secondly, to create a sales tool showcasing the ways our clients can apply Augmented Reality (AR) to their business challenges. 

The Solution

A target client persona was developed, providing a clear understanding of their business needs and the experience required.

The physical ‘art layer’ is a young-female astronaut, named Nellie, surrounded by six objects representing the thoughts in her head: the things she’s missing from home such as birds and food; the routine and monotony of space; and her potential fate. At an unmissable 2.5m high and over 3m wide, it’s bright, bold and curious, challenging viewers to apply their own interpretation and to put themselves in Nellie’s shoes. 

The objects were chosen to enhance the storyline but also for their potential to animate into richer augmented experiences. The design style aligns and complements our brand colours, the tone of our office environments and the ‘imagination’ theme. 

The second layer sees the wall come to three-dimensional life through an AR app. Shot against a green screen, Nellie’s movement and facial expressions become animated and the six objects begin to spin around her, inviting audiences to engage with them. 

Each object offers a different expression of how AR works. While some look at how flat images can be bought to life with video and animation, others introduce game-play elements and opportunities for users to interact and become immersed in the experience. Each of the six expressions has an application story (education, sales, training, story-telling, etc.) that our team use to discuss the business potential of AR.

Our target client isn’t yet particularly AR confident and the challenge was to balance the wonder of discovery with clear instructions that spelt out what users needed to do. Significant user involvement was needed so a prototype was developed and tested on visitors who came into the office. Analytics, observation and direct user feedback saw the prototype adjusted several times before the final user interface was agreed. 

We were also keen to surprise and reward those willing to explore, with a number of hidden ‘easter-eggs’ waiting to be discovered. Mostly notable is Nellie’s progressive reaction as users interact with her on a repeated basis.

The Results

The Nellie wall has been up for a short time and we are well on the way to exceeding the objectives we set at the start. Pretty much everyone who comes to the office - from clients to couriers – comment on the giant pink astronaut. This follows with us giving them an iPad and walking them through the AR experience. To date we’ve uncovered three potential business opportunities with clients keen to explore AR. As these move towards becoming real projects, we see that we’ll quickly achieve pay-back on our investment.