When we initially unveiled "Project Blackbox" back in October last year, I was wondering how it would do in the real world, and how we could use this innovative solution for our new multimedia approach.
It didn't take long until someone wanted an interactive tour for this product. This tour put our newest media container to the test. Some of it had to be re-engineered from scratch due to the interactive and rich-media nature of this
asset. I was brought in for the interactivity design and to make sure it would follow Branding, Publishing and Technology guidelines... some of which not fully documented since this multimedia arena keeps evolving, and we keep improving it as we go.
It was one of the most rewarding project I have been part of, mostly because this is the closest thing we have to a best practice of an interactive tour here at Sun. It using the proper technology to tell a compelling story, on Brand... at a fraction of the cost that it would have been if designed/produced by an outside agency. Overall, it was a success of cross-departmental collaboration with the media experts here at Sun.
In the past, we would have done a 15mn video (yawn...) going through all the technical mumbo-jumbo and call it a day. This new approach really opened some eyes. It covered both the technical aspects (with both physical, and conceptual animations) and the BIG PICTURE BENEFITS (what it does for you!). We need more of that, to complement -not replace- the technical details.
Results? We received kudos from Jonathan himself and have been tracking the hits on it ever since it got released. This tour eclipses the technical walkthrough videos. So, now that people are aware of these tours, so they are more receptive to moving their video-centric needs into interactive media. Our approach is to re-purpose [parts of] the video content (needed for various organizations and media outlets) into these tours, in order to bring these development costs even lower (and save Sun $$$)
I am not dissing "video" at all. The point is that some tools are better suited for specific needs/content. Video is the best suit for our Project Blackbox scenarios... like the shake. Pretty cool. People want to see more stress tests... the mojave heat, the antartic cold, thunderstrikes(?)... which reminded me of the blender tests
Can wait to see it in action for SLAC