Steel City 贸易展览的亮点 by Responsive Spaces is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 A' Design Award 银奖 in 界面、交互与用户体验设计 Competition Category.

银界面· 2020

Steel City 贸易展览的亮点

by Responsive Spaces

Client: Primetals Technologies Austria

A' Design Award 银奖 Winner in 界面 Category

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Verified Award Winner

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The Design

About Steel City 贸易展览的亮点

钢铁城是一个描绘未来钢铁厂的风格化模型。它由放置在 LED 墙上的半透明亚克力模型组成，充当屏幕，通过让钢铁之城发光来演示各种用例：当在终端选择其中一个场景时，用户会触发动画，将场景可视化通过顶部的亚克力模型投射出光彩绚丽的烟花，展示钢铁厂的流程和工作流程。整个体验通过专业的信息层得到扩展，可以通过独特的触觉界面在终端上访问。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 银奖

Steel City 贸易展览的亮点是 A' Design Award 银奖得主，这是授予顶级、华美而令人印象深刻的设计的极为崇高的认可。银奖得主是极其卓越、极具创造力的作品，展现出其设计师杰出的专业技能、才华与敏锐。预计Steel City 贸易展览的亮点将成为一件出色的典范之作，兼具非凡的专业性与深刻的创新性。这件赢得 A' Design Award 银奖的设计是一项备受瞩目、令人钦佩的发明，造福并拓展艺术、科学、设计和技术的边界。Steel City 贸易展览的亮点是一件令人羡慕的创作，它唤起渴望，带来积极的情感，并激发惊叹与赞叹。

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

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.
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.
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.
Team Members: Director: Markus Pargfrieder
Spatial Experience Developer: Katharina Mayrhofer
Interface Engineer: Julian Reil
Spatial Experience Designer: Martin Zeplichal
Image Credits: Photo credits: Responsive Spaces & Philip Kistner Fotografie
Video credits: Responsive Spaces & Eyup Kuş