We were excited when our client on the Dell Cybersecurity VR project re-engaged with us for Dell Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The request was for us to ideate on how to use a technology like Augmented Reality to bring the core tenants of their cybersecurity story to life. The direction was, in their words, “something interactive, like an e-book on steroids.”
When we heard “e-book on steroids” we knew that as good partners, AR was not the right technology choice. We obviously are big believers in the technology, but AR is really good at some specific things:
What it’s not great at is conveying large amounts of complex information that doesn’t have a 1:1 visual, like a product or location. Why? It's an interaction you can only comfortably do for a few minutes max, mainly from a physical standpoint. Holding your device like a camera and interacting with it gets uncomfortable quickly. It's simply not enough time to get an e-book's amount of content across.
That is when we had the lightbulb moment to pitch an audio only piece. Narrative podcasts are becoming more and more popular, and we thought there was inherent drama behind the stories and details around cybersecurity.
Dell agreed, and we kicked off creating this audio only immersive project. Creative Director Brad Parrett led the project with Mike Wiebe, and it was a great opportunity for Andy Slater to dig into an audio-first project. Andy, our sound designer and accessibility advocate, is blind. We’ve worked very hard to bring accessibility to our projects, especially Space-Time Adventure Tours.
We are over the moon with how the final version came out and we’re excited to see what other stories we can bring to life. Audio is such an important part of immersive storytelling - and we’re excited about where we can push it next. Here’s a link to The Cybersecurity Tapes - Episode 1: Seemingly Normal, wherever you get our podcasts.
