A while back I wrote about Little Brother, all of us who snap, Tweet or otherwise document life around us. I talked about what the the lack of context created by all of us little brothers can mean in the future.
Currently, United is facing a storm of criticism over a story that exploded because they told some passengers they were dressed inappropriately for their flight. The world went crazy, slamming United This is the kind of story that proves my point. The initial postings had no context - people flying on employee passes have to meet dress code - and suddenly a monster is born. There's outrage, consternation and thousands of people sharing what's essentially a non-story. And now United is forced to deal with it. Of course, their initial "we reserve the right" response didn't help, and neither does United's generally non-customer service experience that they regularly deliver.
But the fact remains, that the original story contained no context and in our 'share first, think second' world, context will be even more important, especially for brands. This one was clearly a tempest in a teapot for me.
I continue to think about what VR/AR looks like in the future, especially as both become more available and cost effective. With VR systems still costing $3,000+ and AR headsets still costing close to $2,000, it will be a while before both are truly mainstream. But today we need to start laying the groundwork for how they will be used in the future and especially start to think about what the UX for AR is it becomes more mainstream.
I know people like to talk about VR and AR as if they are competitive, but they will really serve two different purposes going forward:
VR will also be something that I go to do. It might be for training, education or just fun, but I will specifically go into VR experiences.
For the foreseeable future, it will involve things I need to put on, the HMD; joysticks or haptic gloves; an interactive suit.
I may use VR every day, but I don't believe we'll be wearing VR gear for long periods of time when we do use them.
AR, on the other hand, is something I believe we'll use like we use of cell phones today. Remember, I wore my Google Glass almost every day for about 2.5 years, and I found the utility was getting better before they put the product on hold.
It will be something I believe we'll wear all day long.
We'll use it for a wide variety of everyday tasks, as we use our phones today. We'll check email, get directions, take photos, eventually do facial recognition, everything and more that we do today.
There will be a new language for how we interface with AR that will be unique to AR. While gestures are a starting point, we will need an entirely new UX as AR becomes more a part of our lives. We need to control what information comes to us and how, so we're not bombarded as we go throughout our days.
Since we will use AR like we use cell phones today, we will need to build some new social etiquettes going forward. Just as we did when cell phones and then cell phone cameras
There may be a point in the future where the hardware comes together, but right now we're a number of years away from that happening.
For VR content, we are currently only scratching the surface for what we can do and what content will look like in the near future. One example I use quite frequently is interactive theatre and shows like Sleep No More or other experiments that have been done in traditional theater. You can click here to see an older list of interactive theater pieces from 2012 to get some ideas.
The challenge is how to create enough content for VR experiences to be compelling and engaging, but not overwhelming for either the content creators or the audience. Today, when a script is written, characters come in and out of the story, but when the direction is character exits stage left, they cease to exist until the script calls for that character to reenter. So Lady Macbeth does her "Out out damn spots" speech and then she leaves. We don't know where she goes or what happens to her unless another character tells us or she returns. She ceases to exist.
But in a VR experience, I could decide to go follow Lady Macbeth out the door and she where she goes and what she does. For me, she may continue to exist while all of the other characters cease to exist. That would allow me to see the same show multiple times, from multiple character POV's.
The challenge for both creator and audience is where does it become overwhelming. How many character POV's do I need to create before it's too many? What's my threshold for creating full stories for a character, because one audience member is interested or 100? Just think about the effort needed to create a full script when characters come and go. Now think about the effort needed when in effect, characters never leave the audience.
And for the audience, what does a show look like? Will they feel that without seeing all the characters available, they didn't get a complete show? At what point are the characters so minor, that their stories just don't create a compelling arc? I can barely keep up with the shows I currently watch, can you imagine what happens when I can watch dozens of characters go through their story arcs? Will I be frustrated as I was when I watch the second season of Lost and thought, "Hey, this is just the same story to fill time."
While I don't have answers, and I'm not sure anyone does right now, I am looking forward to starting to see the story experimentation in VR. I have no doubt there will be some awful content in the future, but that's been the case of all mediums that have come before it. We must give VR the chance to explore and experiment and not expect everything to be a success as we traditionally label it today.
Those are my thoughts tonight, please feel free to agree or disagree in the comments!
Walmart just announced plans for Store 8, a new retail tech incubator located in Silicon Valley. As Bloomberg reports:
The incubator will partner with startups, venture capitalists and academics to promote innovation in robotics, virtual and augmented reality, machine learning and artificial intelligence, according to Wal-Mart. The goal is to have a fast-moving, separate entity to identify emerging technologies that can be developed and used across Wal-Mart.
As I've written about extensively, retailers need to figure out what makes physical stores unique and different and play those strengths. In this original post from 2012, Walmart execs then were talking about upgrading their stores to take advantage of new mobile tools that were being developed. It makes sense to continue looking at new technologies that will impact the in-store experience today as well.
It's a huge challenge for retailers and there will be a great many closings in the near future. The news from Sears/Kmart doesn't look good these days, but all you have to do is go to most of their stores to see why they're failing. Hard to find both merchandise and employees, who wants to shop there?
As I wrote in Shouldn't We Make Place Special, retailers have spent billions of dollars to create physical environments that today they all too often ignore. It's hard to find merchandise, pricing and usually even staff. In today's economy, can you afford to have hundreds of thousands (or millions) of square feet of retail space and all of the expenses that go with it, and just have it act like windows for people to do online shopping -- and they may not even shop online at your store! Can you continue to support social media efforts while creating physical spaces that are almost anti-social?
Are you treating your stores as an asset or a liability? Is the physical plant of your store up to current standards of both practicality and design? Do you treat your employees as an important part of the retail experience or simply one more line item on your P&L?
Without a doubt, technology will be critical in creating the next phase of retail experiences. However, if you're putting more effort into turning your stores into a web site, rather then capitalizing on what makes place unique, you might want to start looking for a great real estate broker to help you sell off your stores.
AUSTIN, TX – A Walmart executive at the Mobile Shopping Fall Summit said that although the brand initially focused its mobile strategy around optimizing its dot-com experience, the company is now eyeing the in-store service as the best way to take advantage of the medium. “Our biggest asset is the 4,000 stores that we have across the nation." Wendy Bergh, senior director of mobile and digital strategy at Walmart.
If you had a chance to attend our session during SXSW 17, you got to hear us talk about what VR was like back in the 90's, as well as some of the lessons learned from those days that we can be using today. We'll actually have a video of the full presentation available in a few weeks and I'll post it here when it's ready.
You also got see to Jacki Morie give a great overview of some of the artist work that was being done back then. She's put them together in the Powerpoint that you can download below, complete with links and additional information.
We had many great conversations after the session, further exploring how that early work in VR can impact where the industry is going today. We talked about the need to create experiences that engage all of our senses; that there should be fun and playfulness and that we should stop looking at the limitations. And, we all agreed that if your VR experience is giving people motion sickness, it's probably your fault.
All four of us will be continuing this exploration and discussion, so check back here and connect with all of us as we continue to use the lessons learned from the first VR boom to make this one as successful as it can be.
Next week, I'm moderating a great panel with Jacki Morie, Linda Jacobson and Chris Stapleton, talking about some of the key learnings from the first boom of VR back in the 90's. I thought I'd kick off that conversation here and get things started with one of my pet peeves.
I believe that one of the biggest challenges we face today with VR/AR is that people in the industry like to focus on the limitations, not the opportunities. Now, to be fair, we do that with lots of things, but in the case of VR, we're setting the story that will either help or hinder us in the future. I'm not suggesting that we hype things that can't be done, that's hurt VR in the past too. Just that we need to lead with the positive. Even Cirque du Soleil generally regards limitations as means to find their best creative solution (see link below for their book that discusses that issue.)
Yet, as I talk to people in the VR space today or attend VR events, I hear lots of discussions about the limitations of the technology. How people get motion sickness, how the headmounts aren't good enough or the computers are too slow to do the really creative things we want to do. Lots of talk about how when the tech gets to where it should be, we'll see really cool experiences being developed then.
But imagine where we were 25+ years ago. The computers were the size of small desks and not nearly as powerful as what we have today. Here's the first VR game system that was commercially available. Just look at those graphics from the game.
Yep, we needed this entire set up to play the games.
And yet, after doing tens of thousands of demos using that system, I had very few people complain about the tech. The vast majority came out of the game excited and enthusiastic about the promise of the tech. They could see the vision. Yes, they would sometimes ask about the graphics or technology, but mainly they were excited.
Here are my thoughts:
Let's stop making excuses about the tech. It is what it is and it will certainly get better as time goes on. It always does. But, if we keep saying that we can't make great content until the tech gets better, we're just pushing off the opportunity to engage. Think about what content you want to create and then shape it based on the tech that's available. Be creative in terms of how you deliver it.
Let's focus on making great content. Above anything else, that will drive need and adoption. As you can see by the Dactyl Nightmare image, we didn't have great visuals back then. But people enjoyed the game, especially since it involved other players. It was easy to understand and it was fun. It helped people to see the possibilities.
In all of the years that I have given demos of VR, I've never had anyone get sick. And that includes 18 months on the road for Cutty Sark and an installation at Pleasure Island at WDW in Orlando. Yes, a small percentage of the audience will get motion sickness. And badly done content will certainly have an impact on how people feel when they're in the experience. But as a whole, I've never experienced it as the problem I've heard people talk about. So, stop talking about it.
Bring in the other senses. I really loved what what they did with The Walk (see link below), adding some wind and making you walk on the wire. The more senses you can bring into the experience, the more real it becomes. Jackie is working on smell, talk to her about what she's doing and how the sense of smell creates a whole new layer to the experience.
One big thought that I have is this. While it's great to start with people who have a film background, we need to get outside that industry. For example, people who have come from the theme park industry have extensive experience in engaging the whole guest. The big arcade experience back then were the Virtual World Entertainment centers. While you went into a pod to play the actual game, they created full stories around their experience, before, during and after you played. Just bringing people into a space with lots of VR systems won't cut it in the very near future. Bring in set designers and folks from themed entertainment and see how they would change your experience.
The key is being open to all of the skills out there needed to create great experiences. Again, it's not about the limitations, it's about possibilities. I have absolutely no doubt that VR will be successful and I'm looking forward to seeing how we can start unlocking it's great potential!
Images from the original Virtual World Entertainment center
Keeping my schedule packed tightly at SXSW, joining the sessions at the Retail Innovation Lounge, speaking on Innovation: Brands & The New Media Future. I'll be joined by Lori Schwartz and Tiffanie Stanard. We're speaking on Sunday at 1:45, and we'll cover a broad range of new media and how they will impact brands. They have a lot of great content and some good parties planned, so join us if you're in Austin.
kwolia’s Retail Innovation Lounge event at SXSW, presented by Shopgate, is a unique event experience designed to showcase the future of retail convergence and disruption with technology, marketing, commerce, media, entertainment and social good. Attendees will have the opportunity to connect with their peers, network with industry influencers and learn about the latest innovations in retail technology.
This year’s Retail Innovation Lounge is proud to welcome film producer and actor Tanner Beard as one of the event’s keynote speakers. Tanner is premiering three films at SXSW, including the highly anticipated Terence Malick film Song to Song. The opening film for SXSW Film features A-list actors Michael Fassbender, Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, Ryan Gosling and Rooney Mara.
If you're in Austin for SXSW for just in Austin, I'm also speaking at the Converge program on the 10th and 11th of March. I'll be speaking on a panel about Converging: Immersive Experiences VR, AR, MR I'll be part of a discussion on how new technologies are impacting everyday lives. How are immersive technologies impacting how we engage with products, services and brands? And what are companies doing create content in ways that engage consumers?
Come join us for a great 2 days by clicking here for ticket information!
WHAT’S CONVERGE?
A complimentary, two-day event taking place during SXSW designed for business innovation leaders who want to learn about the evolving convergence of consumer experiences, emerging technologies, new media and what it means to business + culture.
Gain insight on how companies are creating positive change and accelerating growth by improving teams, culture and consumer experiences.
Learn about emerging tech + media and how it applies to business: Mixed Reality, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Drones, AI, evolving social platforms Live-streaming and other new media technologies.
Experience hands on demos from emerging tech companies
I'll be speaking on March 15th at SXSW, talking about the lessons we learned from the first boom of VR back in the early 90's. Join Jacki Morie, Linda Jacobson, Chris Stapleton and me as we talk about what it was like in those early days and what we can learn today from our successes and failures back then.
If you're at SXSW, please join us!
VR IS a new medium; but we've been here before. Experts from the early days of VR will present lessons learned with their relevance to today’s more affordable and accessible VR. We’ll use our collective history and examples to look at the future. Today, VR is still being tied to old media - trying to be film, games and storytelling, when its strengths lie far beyond these older media forms. Even with more people creating VR, the gear is far more visible than the experiences enabled by it. VR creators must learn from the past, and build works to provide immersive experiences that bring us emotional resonance, and agency to form our own memories as a normal part of our everyday future lives.
