Outside a busy conference room on Yahoo!'s campus, a newly installed, hands-free interactive video-wall "sees" passersby, launches its attract program, and having engaged someone, presents details of key Yahoo! properties. Designed and produced by creative studio Tronic, the "Yahoo! Bang" project follows the success of the New York City-based firm's gesture-based installations for GE, at the Shanghai World's Fair, and for Xerox, in major USA airport terminals.
Even without posted instructions, no one can pass the massive nine-screen installation without realizing that it has sensed their presence and initiated a greeting. The sequence opens with the "Y bang" - the life-size Yahoo! logo, replicated as a monolithic stacking of tiles, each of which is an interactive icon representing one of Yahoo!'s interactive properties - Finance, Sports, News or Shine.
"The gesture-based installation is actually a brand-learning tool that allows people to interact with key Yahoo! properties and experience them in a new way rather than through touch, track-pad or mouse interaction. Instead you interface with something that feels alive in front of you," said Tronic co-founder Vivian Rosenthal.
Hello Yahoo! What Do You Know?
The sequence opens with an attract mode - the "Yahoo! logo composed of stacked tiles. As you walk by the display begins to interact with you, the tiles slowly following to catch your attention. At this point most people stop and look. Then, even a simple movement, like shifting your shoulders or raising your arms, will cause the tiles to mimic your movements.
Yahoo!'s agency Goodby Silverstein Partners commissioned Tronic, telling them is was important that there be no instructions whatsoever. Rather, people should discover the display's almost lifelike quality on their own, play with it, and become familiar with its response patterns. "You actually build a sort of relationship with the display," said Tronic co-founder Vivian Rosenthal. "People told us repeatedly that it was great not to have instructions because it enabled them to explore the interface and discover its characteristics on their own terms."
Having engaged the display, your gestures and hand movements will sculpt the tiles, moving them around, piling them up, even pushing them off the screen. "Whatever one's movements, the tiles follow your gestures and move to your body shape," said Tronic partner Jesse Seppi. "Or, for example, by extending your arms wide you can cause some tiles to actually fly off the edges of the screen."
From Shy to Playful... on the Carousel
As Tronic's designers watched people interact with the display they noticed that at first most were coy and gentle, but as they continued to interact their movements became more playful, even aggressive. Quick movements trigger the display's "carousel mode," which presents an informative program.
In carousel state you actually select individual tiles that fly forward to display tidbits of information, some of which is drawn from live feeds from the Yahoo! website. For instance, one can call up daily horoscopes, world news or sports scores. "It was cool to discover that you are not only learning about Yahoo! properties but are getting real-time information through this interactive environment, a feeling not that different than in the movie 'Minority Report,'" said Rosenthal.
Initially, 15 individual Yahoo properties are featured. Eight in the Carousel, of which four (Finance, News, Shine and Sports) pull data directly from the Yahoo website). Discussions are ongoing to add more properties and interactivity to the display, such as scrolling or clicking into a property for a deeper information dive.
Tronic maintained a high degree of design control, even formatting tiles by pulling raw feeds off the Yahoo! website. "Obviously, we maintained the Yahoo! brand look but it is possible to completely art direct every nuance of the experience to create any desired look," said Rosenthal.
When no one is present the system cycles through a series of idle animations that highlight various Yahoo properties.
The Yahoo! project is an extension of Tronic's experiential, interactive work in the out-of-home space, specifically the firm's gesture-based airport installations for Xerox (featuring Marriott Hotels and Target) and it "Visible You for GE imaging Systems.
"Our work for Yahoo! encompasses a nice melding of story-telling that you might find in a CG spot with the ability to have one-to-one interaction," added Tronic's Rosenthal. " We are very enthusiastic about this new creative space since it brings together experiential design with advertising.
According to Rosenthal, the response from Yahoo has been fantastic. "Everyone keeps asking what's next. What can we add to the experience?" The answer - a lot, it's very exciting."