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Following the success of Spyscape I returned to help design their new initiative Spygames; a multiplayer multi-game room immersive experience. Storyboarding and prototyping with developers, sound artists and writers to evolve 6 new physical games launching Autumn 2023.

Visit Spygames for more info.

Collaborators: Katerina Lilywhite & Spyscape team

Spygames for Spyscape

Working as Creative Lead & Experience designer I designed and implemented a new physical and digital experience for the British Council to showcase their Future of English research project. Exhibits included large projections of bespoke motion graphics, interactive exploration stations & a live animated data visualiser capturing and showcasing visitors opinions across 4 provocative questions. The exhibition is currently on display at British Council HQ with a version also touring the world

Collaborators: Elise Wade, Katerina Lilywhite & Factory42 team.

British Council for Factory42

National Grid wanted to share their vision for a greener future with the global thought leaders at COP26. So we built an interactive touch table that conveys their plan for reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 in a succinct and engaging way.

I worked as a UX designer on this project with Unit9 to develop the ‘Journey to Net Zero,’ an interactive multi touch table telling the story of National Grid’s ambitions to achieve net zero by 2050. The table was on display at COP26 and later toured around public libraries and schools in the UK.

How I worked

• Client workshops to gather requirements & target audience information.

• Creative workshops with the Creative Director & copywriter

• Creating a set of Experience Principles (to inform the team how the experience should feel)

• Creating a User flow document (for the dev team)

• Wireframes (for the Client, UI designer and dev team)

• Interactive prototype (Clickable wireframes)

• A number of key presentations and feedback sessions with the Client.

• Working closely with the UI designer and dev team to ensure the final product matched the UX.

Unit9 for National Grid

Through soundscapes, spoken word, hi-resolution digital imagery and gesture-based interaction this interactive experience provides a personal journey to discover not only the visual riches of the painting but also why it tells more than a Christmas story.

I was part of the creative team working on the experience concept for this installation. The final installation included 3 audio pods with high-res screens which took visitors on a rich visual journey around the painting. Moments of interaction allowed the user to zoom in and out of the painting (via gesture recognition) to really explore the ‘unseen’ detail of this magnificent Gossaert masterpiece.

How I worked: Sketches / Storyboards / User testing externally / User flows.

This exhibition will be on show until June 2021.

Find out more

We created Decode as an interactive learning experience to assist EY in educating and empowering their Global Directors about their new AI products and how best to use them. ‘Winning with AI’.

The first EY Decode AI event took place in Washington DC and included 10 teams playing 5 interactive experiences in 5 rooms. These included an Augmented Reality experience, an interactive floor, a multi-touch table, an audio game and a relay touch wall.

Following the success of the workshop the games have been rolled out in tablet format as an interactive toolkit so that many more EY members can benefit from the toolkit.

How I worked: Sketches / Software/hardware tests / User flows / Wireframing / User testing internally / Overseeing visual design implementation

Jack Morton for EY

The Deception Challenge was one of 5 interactive games I worked on for the Spyscape Spy Museum in New York. The games were designed to test visitors for different spy skills.

The Deception Challenge tests visitor’s lie detection skills. First visitors take the lie detection test themselves, where they are asked a series of questions whilst their pulse is measured and their face is tracked for signs of lying. The second part shows a video of a woman being questioned. The visitor is asked to spot when the woman is lying.

I led the experience design from initial concepts, through design and build, to implementation on site. All design and build work followed an Agile process.

How I worked: Sketches / Paper prototypes / Software/hardware tests / User testing internally/externally / User flows / Wireframing / Filming footage for prototypes / Creating prototypes / Directing filmed footage / Directing voiceover / Overseeing implementation on site

The Encryption Challenge was one of 5 interactive games I worked on for the Spyscape Spy Museum in New York. The games were designed to test visitors for different spy skills.

The Encryption Challenge tests how quickly visitors can encode and decode messages using a cipher alphabet, to complete their mission before time runs out.

I led the experience design from initial concepts, through design and build, to implementation on site. All design and build work followed an Agile process.

How I worked: Sketches / Paper prototypes / Software/hardware tests / User testing internally/externally / User flows / Journey maps / Wireframing / Overseeing implementation on site

The Surveillance Challenge was one of 5 interactive games I worked on for the Spyscape Spy Museum in New York. The games were designed to test visitors for different spy skills.

The Surveillance Challenge is a speech recognition game that tests the visitor’s observation skills by seeing how quickly they can spot and give information about different ‘persons of interest’ across multiple CCTV streams projected around the room.

I led the experience design from initial concepts, through design and build, to implementation on site. All design and build work followed an Agile process.

How I worked: Sketches / Software/hardware tests / User testing internally/externally / User flows / Journey maps / Wireframing / Overseeing implementation on site

The Special Ops Challenge was one of 5 interactive games I worked on for the Spyscape Spy Museum in New York. The games were designed to test visitors for different spy skills.

The Special Ops Challenge tests the visitor’s agility and response times by asking the visitor to hit as many buttons as they can in 1 minute whilst avoiding the lasers.

I led the experience design from initial concepts, through design and build, to implementation on site. All design and build work followed an Agile process.

How I worked: Sketches / Software/hardware tests / User testing internally/externally / User flows / Journey maps / Wireframing / Overseeing implementation on site

I worked as the Interactive Experience Lead as part of the in-house Spyscape creative team leading the Experience Design on the interactive games that are housed in the Spyscape Spy Museum in Mid-town Manhattan, NY.

The games test the visitors for various Spy skills, their results for each one saved to their RFID identity-band as they travel round the space. Games include the Encryption challenge (drawing encoded and decoded messages), Deception challenge (face recognition software that spots signs of lying), Surveillance challenge (a speech recognition game) and the Special Ops challenge (a laser maze),

In the final Debrief experience the results from each game are played back to the user and using an algorithm designed by ex-Mi6 spy trainers are used to determine what type of spy the visitor could be.

Press: Creative Review / Design Boom / Architectural Digest

Photos courtsey of Scott Frances for Spyscape.

I worked as a user experience designer with Wolff Olins to develop a new interactive group cycling experience for Virgin Active gyms called 'The Pack’ .  Following the concept 'Together we ride' and exploring what data was possible to obtain from the bikes, we developed, storyboarded and prototyped a number of multi-player games where the pack would be split in to groups and work together, exercising different skills, to compete against the rest. Gameplay included real-time visuals which were linked to the bike data as well as interactive lighting and sound. The focus was less on pro-performance racing and more on fun and motivation with games such as 'Sumo', 'Speed Freaks, 'Hold the line' and  'Big Burnout'. The product was launched in clubs in May 2016 with plans to roll out worldwide.

Wolff Olins for VirginActive

Press: Design Week

I worked with Streaker to build an interactive projection wall for the Canberra Shopping Centre. Users were invited to interact with the wall via touch to explore the 11 scene story of Jacob and Emily. The installation used 10 projectors to cover a wall of 12 x 3.5 metres. Conductive ink and Ototo boards were used to translate the user's touch into triggers for animations that told the story.

Streaker for QIC Canberra Centre

Whilst working at Dalziel and Pow as a creative lead on the digital team I worked with Mamas & Papas on digital strategy, concepts and content for a new store in London, Westfield. The concept was created with millennials in mind, using tech tools to assist with product choices and to inspire and support young families. 

We designed an interactive measuring tool as a fun playful feature for children to interact with in-store, matching up their size and weight to a cast of animal characters, as a way of checking height and weight for car seats. We also created a animated wall projection in the ‘travel area’ showing the process of Mamas & Papas's rigorous buggy’ testing. These stories highlighted facts, features and services associated with travel related products.

Read more

Dalziel and Pow for Mamas & Papas

Awards: Retail Week Awards (Nomination)

Whilst working at Dalziel and Pow as part of the digital team I worked with O2 on a new store concept for Manchester that set out to re-think the nature of telecoms retail. The new concept invited customers – whatever their network – to interact with the store in a way that suits them. Whether working remotely via the free Wifi at the large community table with a complimentary coffee, hearing about the latest local music events or taking a workshop with an O2 Guru, the new space set out to become not just a retail space but a relaxed, agile and social home from home.

I was a creative lead on this project working on insights & strategy, service design of the space as well as digital strategy, concepting & content.

Read more here

Dalziel and Pow for O2

Awards: Retail Week Awards (Nomination)

 For the Retail Design Expo 2015 we created an interactive exhibition stand demonstrating how appropriate technology can be used to engage and create shareable content. Our illustrations screenprinted with conductive ink sprung to life when touched, triggering projection mapped animations and sounds to surprise the user.

For this project we used Bare Conductive Ink and Ototo boards to detect touch inputs. Check out the video to see how it worked. 

Dalziel and Pow for Dalziel and Pow

For the new Zippy kidswear stores in Porto and Setúbal, we produced three bespoke interactive installations.  These are part of a number of engaging and playful experiences throughout the store that aim to engage the children as well as the adults in the in-store shopping experience. 

The ‘Sound Poster’ is a screen-printed panel that uses conductive ink to trigger sounds from the printed characters.  Each character can play a number of different sounds, encouraging the child to explore the board discovering the different voices and sounds.  We wanted to hide the digital workings behind the 'Sound Poster' so we used screen-printed conductive ink to print the characters on to the plywood. These are then linked to an Ototo board behind the panel which stores and plays all the sounds.

The ‘Fun Receipt’ gives the child their own takeaway whilst also making them feel included in the checkout phase.  The takeaway receipts are printed out of a giant mouth on the cash desk and include characters to colour in, mazes and other games.

The ‘Light Up Rocket’ connects a large LED rocket on the wall to a launch button mixed in within the products. On button press the Rocket is launched, bringing to life the installation with light and sound.

Allowing the customer to interact physically with the store, and to experience a digital or analog result from their interactions, can be surprising and inspirational.  If this is done well it can increase dwell time and transform a retail experience from the mundane to immersive and rich.  

To see more pics showing the development of this project check out 'the making of' blog post I wrote for D&P here.

Dalziel and Pow for Zippy

Awards: POPAI Gold Innovation Award

The Unite All Originals experience sees hip-hop legends Run DMC collide with turntablist extraordinaire A-Trak in New York, wreaking creative havoc across the city. Users are invited to create their own visual remix of the video by shouting out things they see in the film, triggering animations and special effects in real time. Each interaction unlocks rewards related to the new FW13 adidas originals range — which then connect to the Adidas e-commerce platform.

This project uses Chrome Web Speech API to access voice input. On less modern browsers Keyboard input is used as a substitute. 

In total there are more than 15000 keywords localized in over 50 languages that trigger hundereds of different animations. 

I worked as the UX designer on this project creating user flows, storyboards and wireframes.

Stinkdigital for Adidas Originals

Agency: Sid Lee

Awards: FWA Site of the day

A Facebook app that analyses Facebook data to compile a unique animated film for each Ray-Ban fan.  Working with Animade we created a collection of individual animations, which were then compiled into a sort film, uniquely personalised for each user.  The results could then be shared with friends, alongside a bespoke personalised cover photo for their Facebook timeline.

I worked as the Creative Technologist and UX Designer on this project doing the UX, wireframes, user and data journeys and research and prototyping with the Facebook API as well as other third party API's.

Stinkdigital for Ray-Ban

Awards: D&AD Yellow pencil

This is an interactive charity box that we made at Wieden and Kennedy London to help raise money for the Japanese Earthquake / Tsunami Appeal.

Put your coin in the slot at the top and watch it get sent down a tunnel that stretches all the way through the earth and pops out in Japan. The pipe ends at a different Japanese location each time.

All money collected went to the Japanese Earthquake Relief Red Cross Collection.

Skills used

Arduino, AS3, Electronics and build

Wieden and Kennedy for Wieden and Kennedy

'I Could Do That' is an experimental project where members of the public are invited to write comments about works of street art in and around East London. We thought, if you can post words of praise/criticism/abuse under videos on YouTube, why can't you do it for graffiti? The streets belong to everyone don't they? Why shouldn't everyone have a say?

We toured round the best pieces of graffiti in Shoreditch and Spitalfields and stuck up QR codes. If you have a QR reader on your phone you can scan the sign and you'll be taken to a webpage where you can read what people are saying about that piece of art and leave you own comment. 

The site is now down.

Poly is a 'living bar chart' formed from a series of translucent collapsible pillars suspended from the celing. These concertina-like structures expand and contract via a discrete wireless motor and pulley mechanism. The pillars respond in real-time to digital inputs such as RSS feeds or online polls to form a live animated graph.

The first phase of this project was the installation in Digit’s reception of two pillars that respond to user-generated polls. Visitors to Digit's website could submit a question and then watch as Poly illustrates the response.

Skills used:

Processing, AVR Microcontrollers (Arduino and C), Xbee radios, Electronics design and build

Bob the lamp was a project that developed from the idea of creating an everyday object that could be used to physically show digital data. Bob connects to the BBC news feed, reads the latest headlines and reacts physically to the content.  It the news is bad Bob hunches over and omits a blue light. When the news is good Bob stands tall and glows yellow.

As well as reacting to the news Bob also has a web page where people can log on and chat to him.  Compliments make him happy and criticisms as expected get him down.  The idea is the control of an everyday object is taken away from the user and placed elsewhere.  Bob as a result becomes a link for the user to the ups and downs and goings on in the world outside.

Bob has been presented at the ICA for BD4D and a Future Everything held annually in Manchester.