Origin Interactive

The need

Create a rich immersive experience
Qatar Airways had a burning desire to create a rich immersive experience focused on promoting their involvement in creating the New Doha International Airport and their continued success as the World's 5-Star Airline. A conference for high-line investors was already scheduled at the beautiful Museum of Islamic Art, designed by the famed Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei, in Doha, Qatar.

Microsoft Surface and its multi-touch, multi-user experience
Qatar Airways also wanted to use Microsoft Surface and its multi-touch, multi-user experience to demonstrate the essence of their brand, and future plans for the new airport. Not forgetting their state of the art fleet and 5-Star traveller service.

Then what?

We imagined the future of airline travel

Ok, so... a rich immersive experience, Microsoft Surface and a large group of influential investors. What kind of experience would be appropriate? We imagined the future of airline travel, and brainstormed the 'traveller experience' before focussing our attention on the audience (the investors). We needed to visually communicate Qatar Airways service offering, and what the New Doha International Airport had to offer the investors.

Multi-orientation and multi-user aspects of Microsoft Surface

We received some great videos, virtualisations and imagery of their fleet, their 5-Star experience and the New Doha International Airport. Turning to the experience design, we wanted to make use of the multi-orientation and multi-user aspects of Microsoft Surface. We played around with bubble-like shapes that could float around and be moved around the surface, independently, simultaneously and also viewed from any angle.

Bringing the experience design, visual execution, content and surface development together is where the fun really started.

Advanced functionality such as pinch to zoom

Multi-touch refers to touch sensing surface's (trackpad or touchscreen) ability to recognize the presence of two or more points of contact with the surface. This plural-point awareness is often used to implement advanced functionality such as pinch to zoom or activating predefined programs.

A fluid animation, revealing the navigational elements

We worked up an interaction concept of fans or blades, which would act as navigational elements. Once a user touches one on the bubble-type shapes, they are presented with a fluid animation revealing the navigational elements related to a service offering. The user can then touch one to explore further.

The Result

The Microsoft Surface device is awesome
Naturally people got the multi-touch experience and the pinch and flick gestures, made ubiquitous by the iPhone device. The Microsoft Surface device is awesome, when seeing it used by multiple users simultaneously. It's great seeing people excited by the possibilities of technology.

The possibilities for touch and multi-touch experiences within airlines seem endless... offering capabilities to build brand equity and real commercial propositions.

What began as a prototype to build investor confidence and brand awareness has come full circle as we rethink the way we interact with digital applications and devices in the near future.