Silver Interface, Interaction and User Experience Design · 2020
Steel City Tradeshow Highlight
- A' Design Award 2020 Silver Winner in Interface, Interaction and User Experience Design
- Awarded April 15, 2020
- CLIENT: Primetals Technologies Austria
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 42,514
- Verification code 60452A75FD · Verify this award
About Steel City Tradeshow Highlight
The Steel City is a stylized model depicting the steelworks of the future. It consists of semi-transparent acrylic models placed on a led-wall, which serves as a screen for demonstrating various use-cases by literally making the Steel City glow: when selecting one of the scenarios at the terminals, users trigger animations which visualize the processes and work-flows of the steel plant in a firework of light and color projected through the acrylic models on top. The whole experience is extended by a professional layer of information, accessed at the terminals via a unique haptic interface.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The operation of the Steel City is bound to a unique rotary knob: While turning, several "steps" can be felt as "real" physical resistance. These are not analog in nature, but instead are generated through a magnetized liquid inside the knob's housing and can be programmed in realtime. The knob is programmed to adapt accordingly to every selected content and therefore enabling the experts from Primetals to focus on their visitors without ever taking their eyes off the presented stories.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Over 200 acrylic 3D-models of a steel plant positioned upon a 6,5 x 4,5 meter led-wall, which is positioned horizontally between 4 interactive terminals. Every terminal utilizes a rotational knob featuring haptical feedback that changes in realtime corresponding to its navigational state. Cubic dimensions of the whole installation: 8m x 5m x 5,5m. The led-wall is raised 60cm from the floor, housing the hardware necessary for operating the installtion beneath.
- Tags
- haptic interface, digital staging, interactive installation, digital enhanced acrylic models
- Production Technology
- Over 200 different semi-transparent acrylic 3D-models were designed and manufactured depicting the model of a modern steel plant and were placed on a 24 sqm led-wall. The interfaces of the terminals around the Steelcity are specifically designed and built for the purpose of a haptic and intuitive user-experience. On top of the installation is a special reflective material, which mirrors the whole visualization of the acrylic models on the led-wall and projects it towards the far corners of the stand, giving everybody an additional perspective.
- Design Challenge
- While our client is highly specialized in the field of steelworks and thus needed to communicate complex technical information to its own clients and partners, we still wanted to maintain a very productive level of minimalism for this installation in order to deliver their messages in a crystal-clear and visually aesthetic manner. Also, for the people operating the terminals and navigating through the different use-cases, we needed a haptic interface that is simple enough, yet incredibly responsive to the user in order for them to fully concentrate on the dialog with their customers.
- Project Duration
- June 2019 in Duesseldorf at METEC 2019
- Operation Flow
- By selecting one of 12 scenarios at 4 terminals users can trigger animated sequences on the led-wall, which visualize the processes and work-flows of a steel plant in a firework of light and color. Steel is processed, data packets buzz through virtual lines, problems and solutions are displayed schematically and in context, always projected through the acrylic models on top. While the Steel City blends all stories perfectly, the terminals offer in-depth details to the individual users.
- Research
- One of the research objectives was to develop an interface which can be programmed in real-time for the haptic rotary knob. We developed an in-house protocol which is able to communicate changes in the haptic structure to the hardware on the fly corresponding to the content on-screen. Another objective was to simplify the immensely complex processes and mechanisms of a steelplant to a stylized level which can be transported onto our model and create a visual language that is at the same time beautiful to watch and informative on a professional level.
- Inspiration
- Our inspiration for this project was to merge the necessity of visualizing extremely complex processes with an easy to use and intuitive haptic interface. The goal was to have an installation that would deliver expert knowledge on point and at the same time act as an visual highlight of the stand while maintaining the structural complexity of its professional use-cases. We wanted to merge a magical experience with a top notch user experience into a tool that serves the expertise of our client and helps them to deliver this expertise effortless to all visitors at the trade show stand.
- Image Credits
- Photo credits: Responsive Spaces & Philip Kistner Fotografie
Video credits: Responsive Spaces & Eyup Kuş
Colors of Steel City Tradeshow Highlight
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Immersive Trade Show Installations and Interactive Brand Experiences
We transform exhibitions and events into unforgettable experiences through creative technology. Our award-winning installations combine physical design with digital innovation, turning complex stories into engaging interactions that captivate audiences and deliver measurable results.
G0E9 ShopGrand Interview about Steel City Tradeshow Highlight
From the start, this project was about "explaining very complex topics around operating steel plants". Since we had to try to use digital content to explain everything, we decided to make the steel plant itself the physical part of the installation. All the products and services of our client, that help the operations in and around a steel plant, happen "under the surface". Therefore we literally placed them under the physical model.
We wanted the specialists of our client, that did all the explaining to the visitors of the exhibition to be able to fully focus on the visitors. Therefore we needed an interface, that they could literally operate without looking at it. With this rotary knob, for which we were able to create programmable and changing haptic feedback, we gave them an interface they could operate without looking at it.
Since everything was designed and developed as a real-time visualisation we were able to freely combine different topics simultaneously. This way, the Steel City always showed 4 different scenarios at the same time, optimized for the different perspective of the 4 interactive touchpoints. By doing so, everybody around the installation could always catch a glimpse of the high degree of complexity that comes with operating a steel plant. This presented the perfect foundation for our client to communicate their expertise and know-how in this field.
Our client Primetals Technologies calls themselves pioneers at heart. Being a pioneer is all about taking different view angles. The mirror does this very thing. By making it a black mirror, its reflective surface just showed the light communication from the Steel City below it, isolated this parts of the installation and this way provided a nice aesthetic view.
Honestly, this part was by far the biggest portion of this whole project. Taking in a whole lot of details, high complexity of arguments and USPs led to a big chunk of content, that wanted to be communicated. We needed to find a way to boil it down to be able to create an experience oriented installation. Judging from the feedback, we succeeded in doing that.
It is an interface that got developed by an Austrian startup for the automotive industry. We stumbled over it almost per accident during our research of haptic interfaces. We reached out to that startup and were able to get our hands on some prototypes. Even the final installation did run on those prototypical devices.
On tradeshows it is always also about the WOW-effect that you can create. You need to do so to draw necessary attention. But once you have it, you need to fulfill your grab for the users attention by following it up with a worthy experience. In the setting of a B2B tradeshow, this experience also needs to have a certain amount of professional content delivery built in.
The scale of the LED wall basically came naturally in proportion to the size of the full exhibition stand. The installation of the Steel City needed to be big enough to show its significance and it was not allow to become too big and overstate its importance.
We needed to go simple. That was the main goal. Soon we found out, that we need and want to show around 4 scenarios at the same time all the time. Therefore we needed to introduce some sort of color coding. The decisions happened step by step and in hindsight feel all logical.
It's just a great tap on the backs of everybody who was involved in this challenging project. It let's everybody of the project team know, that they did a tremendous job and that they created something worth an award like this.