Client

IBM

Timeline

September 20, 2014

Role

UX Lead

The brief

IBM was seen as a supplier of hardware and software, not as the source of analytical smarts that go with it. They wanted to show their business audience their skills in big data.

Our strategy was to give tennis fans something they’d never experienced before; the chance to face a serve from their favourite players. Not just any serve - one that happened on court as little as six seconds earlier at Rod Laver arena.

Challenges

Big data + Oculus Rift technology was new territory. I broke down each stage of a physical and digital experience; what would fans do while they queued? How would they calibrate their senses? What does “data exploration” in VR really look like and how would people share their experience with others? I prototyped ideas with the team to explore answers to these questions and socialise progress.

The project development timeline was just 2 months. 1 month for a proof of concept and one to develop the entire application. As the team built a digital version of Rod Laver arena and developed an accelerometer-enabled racquet for the Oculus rift, we kept experimenting. Real world cues – like bouncing a ball before serving – were added with each iteration to make it as immersive as possible.

Outcome

As Federer served the ball at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, it was digitally recreated 6 seconds later from court side data. Using VR, fans had two opportunities to return the same serve - with the added advantage of data insights and tips shared before the second attempt.

Pop-up virtual courts were built on four sites across Melbourne and Sydney – where the live serves of Federer, Nadal, Williams and Sharapova and 49 other star players were available in near-real-time. We also delivered a desktop version powered by the same data, which anyone could play online using their mouse as a virtual racquet.

10,183 

fans played at the pop-up courts

270,000 

fans played on their desktop

Winner 

AIMIA 2015