Sharing the experience

A few days ago we lauched HDtravel, a new online magazine that features our favourite travel experiences in large photos and high definition videos. The idea is to present the stories with a personal touch and to create an uncluttered experience in order to create visual and emotional impact.

Designing the interface

One of the most important considerations when designing the interface was that it shouldn’t get in the way of the experience. The flow of the story shouldn’t be interrupted by the user having to click on images to see larger versions. Nor should users be distracted by other information on the page. Ideally, I wanted the interface to have an app-like experience, focussing on one thing at a time. This would also make it intuitive to use on iPads and other mobile devices.

I came up with a clean layout that displays large images and video in a continuous horizontal row across the screen. In theory it would have been possible to have each photo or video fill the whole browser window, but that would create too much of a slideshow feel. When looking at one piece of the story, I wanted the next and previous pieces to be partially visible in order to create context and visual flow.

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Mercedes-Benz interactive films

Mercedes-Benz recently released a couple of interactive films on their website, featuring their SLK and C-Class Coupe models. Although they are sometime struggling to bridge the gap between creating engaging entertainment and communicating information about the cars, I have to say the films are cinematically quite beautiful. The C-Class Coupe film is modelled after Hollywood-style action thrillers, whereas the SLK film is a road movie featuring... you, the viewer, stuck in the desert, when a beautiful and mysterious stranger pulls up in her fancy SLK.

From a user experience point of view I'm always on a fence with interactive movies. It has to do with storytelling. A good story needs a storyteller, who skillfully guides you through the twists and turns of the narrative. Introducing user input always makes me feel I might not be getting the best experience, the best version of the story. The point-of-view style cinematography in the SLK movie on the other hand is interesting and does kind of draw you into the action, making the interaction aspect feel more natural.

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Trailer for Marc Cornelissen

Recently I finished this trailer for Marc Cornelissen, dutch polar explorer and sustainability pioneer. The project was quite involved and presented a lot of interesting challenges. I'm in the process of writing a long blog post about how it all came together. In the mean time however, enjoy the end result. This one is in dutch since we're still working on the english version, but I think you'll get the picture anyway.

Stories from the arctic

At the moment I’m sending out daily updates on poletrack.com about a short expedition to the north pole which is taking place as we speak. It’s a fun thing to do even if it’s just for the fact that it involves receiving daily phone calls from the arctic ice cap.

Technology has advanced a lot since the days of the early explorers. It’s now technically possible to send voice messages, emails and photos from these remote parts of the world via satellite phone. During this expedition for example we’re having the team call in and leave voice messages every day, which subsequently get posted on the website. This is a relatively simple thing to do, but it gives a more personal touch to the whole thing to hear someone tell about their adventures in their own voice instead of me just writing about them.

I’m continuously looking for compelling ways to tell these kinds of stories from remote corners of the world, and things like social media and mobile web devices create some really cool new ways of doing this, both on the creator and the consumer side. I like to refer to this as “Exploration 2.0”. Almost anyone in the world might be soon able explore previously inaccessible locations through almost-live information and high definition experiences. I might write some more about this topic in future blog posts, as insights, ideas, and technology continue to evolve.