Ken is a multi-disciplinary approach to ideation, design and development. We bridge gaps between brand, technology and behavior.
development
Sennheiser
design / development / ideation / interactive experience / marketing strategy / social media / work

Sennheiser

by admin on Aug 12, 2012 • No Comments

The Ken team enjoys working with Sennheiser on the global communication of product offerings at trade-shows and events. Founded in 1945, Sennheiser is a global company with an unparalleled reputation for creating top-quality products, true sound and tailor-made solutions for every aspect of recording, transmission and reproduction of sound.

Ken’s work with Sennheiser includes the creation of interactive experiences focused on attracting, engaging and informing prospective customers. Specific contributions include: Interactive experience strategy based on audience segmentation, user-experience/user-interface design, interactive delivery system design and development.

EMP Sound Lab
design / development / interactive experience / work

EMP Sound Lab

by admin on Jul 4, 2012 • No Comments

In one of the most complex projects we have worked on, the Ken team architected and developed a full technology update for the Sound Lab exhibit at the Experience Music Project. This installation consists of installations that allow visitors to quickly learn to play instruments, including Guitar, Bass, Keyboard and Drums.

Each station includes an instrument that has the ability to cue the user via lights on the frets/keys/drum heads and a touch screen that provides the user with instruction that includes voice over audio, music, video, still images and animation. Individual stations are grouped into “trios” that can interact with each other so that users can play together if they like, or they can play separately with no audio feed between the stations.

The installation makes use of a number of different systems and technologies that must communicate with each other in real time with no delay or lag to provide a seamless experience.

The menu UI is written in Flash running in the AIR run-time environment. It communicates via XML over a socket connection to a Windows Service component that manages all of the interaction with the instrument for audio playback and control of the cue lights, and with a third-party audio processing system for effects and channel mixing – all via MIDI data over USB. Additional support is provided for proprietary protocols used by the Guitar and Bass, for intra-station communication via XML to manage the audio feed that allows users to play together, for real-time status checking of all system components and other features.

This project was technically complex, high profile and significant in scale in scope. The Ken team conceived, designed and developed all of the software components and worked with the EMP team to define the hardware requirements for the installation.

Dupont Environmental Education Center Installation
design / development / interactive experience / work

Dupont Environmental Education Center Installation

by admin on Apr 1, 2012 • No Comments

Working in collaboration with Interpret Green, we developed three interactive, touch-screen installations featuring the history, environment and sponsors of the DuPont Environmental Education Center, a wetlands conservation facility in Wilmington Delaware. The interactive applications were developed using a custom Flash client rendering via XML templates in the Adobe AIR player.

Pizza Run Interactive Game
development / interactive experience / social media / work

Pizza Run Interactive Game

by admin on Feb 23, 2012 • No Comments

The Pizza Run game developed for the STARTUP gallery at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque, NM provides players with the ability to create a simple computer program that will control the route of a car making a pizza delivery. The programmer is given points for creating a route with the minimum number of steps, fastest delivery time and other factors. The route must also avoid obstacles including once way streets, red lights, trains and some less common dangers including a Tyrannosaurus Rex that may appear when you least expect it!

For the Pizza Run interactive game, our team defined the overall architecture of the application, including the process for remoting multiple player inputs to a central, server-controlled screen, animation over a defined path, hit testing, random events, user feedback, audio control and other requirements.

Pizza Run was the recipient of a Silver Level MUSE award and received the following praise in WIRED magazine: “the most impressive exhibit of all was a maze game, projected from above onto a huge table, an image cast over a cartoon city’s rolling landscape. Blacklit dwellings were embedded into its surface like radioactive Monopoly hotels, distributed around a grid of roads full of threats to the four players pizza delivery vehicles.” – Rob Beschizza, WIRED Magazine

Xeko - Online Game Play
development / ideation / work

Xeko – Online Game Play

by admin on Dec 28, 2011 • No Comments
The ken team created Xeko Online, an online community, game and website for environmentally conscious parents and kids who are looking for enriching entertainment.  Kids love animals, and it was great to see this audience of boys & girls ages 8 and up, captivated by the Xeko fantasy.
The ken team’s work included website design and development, gameplay design, and UX consulting, as well as overseeing and coordinating the efforts of all project partners and team members.


Target Back to College Facebook Apps
design / development / social media / work

Target Back to College Facebook Apps

by admin on Dec 11, 2011 • No Comments

For Target’s Fall 2010 Back to College Campaign, our team worked with Smashing Ideas and Wieden + Kennedy to produce a set of integrated Facebook apps designed to support college roommates with messaging, financial management, shopping and related tools. The apps were developed using PHP and MySQL rendering FBML for compatibility with the Facebook profile tab environment.

Preceding Facebook’s own “private groups” feature, the Target Back to College apps allowed users to create roommate groups by inviting their friends to join a “room”. Once in the room, group members had the ability to communicate via an instant messaging service; collaborate on creating a shopping list for their room, with individuals electing to contribute specific items; manage room finances through a “bill splitter” feature and share an event calendar.

The architecture for the Target apps featured a REST web service integrated with Facebook via the Open Graph API combined with an XSL-based UI rendering engine for flexibility in generating and updating the user interface. Data exchange between the client and the REST web service was accomplished through JSON data communicated via the Facebook FBJS AJAX capability.

THE CHALLENGE
In the summer of 2010 Target and AOR Wieden+Kennedy were seeking to create a big idea to live in social media and beyond that (would) differentiate Target from the pack and show students and Mom that they understand (their) college lifestyle better than any other retailer.

THE STRATEGY
Provide authentic social solutions for real college situations.

THE SOLUTION
Create a Facebook solution “The Back to College Roomate App”™ – to serve returning college students with useful tools, while telling branded, product-centric stories.
Minimum requirements included:

  • Facebook integration, blending technologies (FB, YouTube, others)
  • Translation of creative vision and grounding it with real application capabilities
  • Interpreting and integrating both clients™ feedback (Target and Agency) into a seamless customer experience

THE WORK
Our team worked iteratively and collaboratively to ensure that the clients goals we’re met, and exceeded. Our consensus driven process helped the clients to understand technological potential vs reality as well as understanding best UI practices relative to FB API utilization.

We constructed all framework and functionality required for a feature rich Facebook experience within a 10 week time-frame. Key App Features included:

  • Facebook.com/Target
  • College Tab
  • Video Player with MTV Video
  • Roomate App, Dashboard, Interactive Shopping Checklist
  • Roommate Messenger
  • Events Calendar
  • and Bill Splitter

Bellevue Collection Facebook Apps
design / development / ideation / interactive experience / social media / work

Bellevue Collection Facebook Apps

by admin on Nov 20, 2011 • No Comments

The Ken team collaborated with Seattle-based social media marketing experts Friendly Voice to complete several Facebook apps for The Bellevue Collection, one of the nation’s top retail shopping and entertainment complexes. These apps, including an interactive store directory, a blog and an online contest, were all developed in PHP to dynamically render FBML for integration with the Bellevue Collection Facebook profile tabs.

URL: http://www.facebook.com/BellevueCollection?v=app_108153839208625&ref=ts

Wavelink Corporate Video Production
development / portfolio / social media / work

Wavelink Corporate Video Production

by admin on Mar 16, 2011 • No Comments

The Ken team worked with Wavelink, the leading provider of enterprise mobility software, to create a series of corporate videos that were used in the promotion of products including Avalanche, a mobile device and infrastructure management solution.

Working with Wavelink was a great opportunity to bring both our strategic planning skills, and our video and technical development expertise, together to create great audience engagements.   We consulted on the deployment of video content across platforms including websites, social and mobile networks, and events and trade-shows.

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