We Are Magnetic

I’ve mentioned Razorfish – Emerging Experiences before, but thought it was well worth another visit to see how their digital world is shaping up. My findings were pretty striking…

It’s pace has been phenomenal, and it’s impact monumental. Digital is now the new reality. And the reality is this digital world is taking over.

Digital experiences have always been the domain of the office or the home. PC’s and game stations have, until now, been the guardians of such experiences. But this control of the digital platform is starting to wane. Digital is finding its wings, breaking free from its traditional tethers, and entering spaces once the reserved of the humble human…

The emerging platform

This migration out of the home and office first started through our mobile phones. Little digital applications made their break for freedom within the confines of our portable devices. These first steps were controlled, safely held within our controlling grasp. Their experiences were still personal, kept close, for the eye of their master only. But this taste for freedom grew, and grew stronger with every foray.

The next evolution was the jump to digital paper. The paperless book and the rise of the tablet was digital’s next leap into the world of the living. And, as users, we embraced this modernisation with open arms (or hands full of technology), it was the next logical step. Digital’s confidence grew, its packages of code could walk with us, travel with us wherever we went and accompany us throughout our day.

Now the time has come for the next transition. A metamorphosis from the personal domain to public spaces. Digital has not only found its freedom, it has a public persona and everyone is invited to observe your interactions.

This new connection between man and machine is to start in the high street.

Digital goes shopping

Customers are being faced with increasingly complex buying decisions, the options available for any single product cannot simply be counted on one’s fingers. Products options differ with the needs of their customers, and they now contain innumerable features and benefits (often making us glaze over to protect our fragile minds).

As a result, increased pressure is being placed on shop assistants to provide the eager customer with knowledgeable, simple and effective advice.

Razorfish’s Emerging Experiences team state (on their website) that they have used this opportunity to ‘develop a solution to demonstrate how an immersive interactive experience can assist customers and store associates with complex buying decisions in a retail setting’.

The result is a fully immersive digital experience that mixes 3D technologies with interactivity, to guide the shopper through available product options, allowing them to find their own ‘perfect product’.

The benefits of this type of technology speak for themselves – less time and money spend training staff on product specifications, less risk of valuable knowledge being lost when retail staff leave employment, and, perhaps most importantly, grabbing the shoppers attention long enough to increase sales opportunities. Those with will soon be the envy of those without.

The move from personal to public

What remains to been seen is how shoppers will react to this very public display of digital interaction. Will the in-store retail experience become less ‘touch and feel’ and more ‘point and click’? How will people feel when the next shopper is looking over their shoulder checking out their product configuration? Will people interact as freely as they do with their PC?

We await to see the reactions of the busy shopper, and whether the new queues will be for the digital pod instead of the checkout?

My feeling, and it’s highlighted by the EE team, is that this sort of shopping experience will be perfect for those technical products, where options and features can be explored and configured to suit the customer need. (as shown in the video).

Love technology, love shopping

If nothing else, I’m sure the introduction of this technology will bring a refreshing new appeal to the retail environment, for all those men that lovingly follow their partners around the shops of a typical Saturday afternoon (or is that just me!!).

Allowing this new digital world to intermingle within our own, if done well, can only enhance our physical experiences. Digital is here to make our lives easier. The more we invest in making our life decisions more complex the more we need digital solutions to solve those problems.

If this new digitally enhanced retail experience looks and feels as good as the applications created by Razorfish, I for one will be heading straight down to my local shopping centre and fully connecting with this new public digital space.

Exceptional work.