01. Brief
We were asked to introduce Johnnie Walker an icon of personal progress by demonstrating the brand’s pioneering spirit and moments throughout history that have been a part of it.
These moments and points in history are called our Reasons to Believe.
As an agency, we were tasked with bringing the Reasons to Believe to life in a richly digital experience. This would be an integral piece that helped give Johnnie Walker a leg to stand on when discussing personal progress and the next step.
While the video, Wherever Ships Could Sail, would live online in video format our challenge was to create an interesting and engaging way to bring it to the House of Walker and live events. That’s where the interactive project came in.
02. Context
The House of Walker is a social and entertaining environment.
As such we had to consider not only the conversations happening and noise levels but also limited attentions span. We knew we had not only to get the users attention but also keep them involved throughout the experience.
We looked for natural interactions, with none to little learning, that could bring a little magic:
While voice interactions and touch screens were initially considered they were quickly dismissed based on the context contraints (noise levels and spilling risks).
We then turned to mid air gestural interaction, users would be probably holding a drink on one hand and that left us one free hand.
03. Gestural Solutions
We explored different ways of plotting events in time and different ways of navigating time using gestures.
Starting from the simplest form of sequencing events in time (a timeline!) we explored simple and intuitive gestures to navigate forward and backward in time and selecting specific events by litterally grabbing them.
04. Letting the narrative lead
Using the narrative as a conduit. Remember, we’re telling a story.
By looking into the events sequence as part of the narrative rather than a plain timeline we now had the opportunity to leverage the curves of tension and catharsis as well as its triggers as a interaction cues.
The user moved from spectator to participant by letting himself resolve the tensions and trigger the events to unfold the story with an matching action/gesture.
Johnnie Walker’s history and story of progress is literally in the users’ hands.
HOW IT WORKS
05. From Sketch to Party
This project was super fast paced project with very limited time and team resources. I was a crucial part in the early discovery phase of the project, participating and co-directing the initial brainstorms and conceptualization, as well as, research and prototyping.
It was also my responsability to defined the User Experience and designing and developing the gestural engine. I was also responsible for defining the physical structure ergonomic and technical requirements and managing external vendors for fabrication and integration. As a team Lead I also managed the internal team and supporting the Client relationship and managing its expectations.
