The Space Needle
Interactive city explorers
The first experience, the "360° Teleporter", features dreamlike, immersive Microsoft Photosynth walkthroughs of famous Seattle sites that most visitors can’t usually experience, produced by Seattle agency Creature. From swimming through the Seattle Aquarium’s octopus tank to being in the locker room of the Seattle Sounders, visitors not only get exclusive peeks inside local landmarks but also are oriented to where they are in relation to the Space Needle’s observation deck.
The second interactive, "Zoomable City", features a rich gigapixel panorama of the entire city, shot from the Space Needle’s own spire by Gavin Farrell. Visitors can pan and zoom in to incredible levels of detail using a custom-made viewing application, and explore a vast array of historical, cultural, and “locals-only” landmarks.
My Role
I worked directly with the client at The Space Needle and Creature Design Seattle, who was responsible for the Creative Direction of the entire experience. I primarily worked in Adobe Illustrator for all UI elements.
The Space Needle
360° Teleporter Experience
The 360° Teleporter takes advantage of Microsoft’s Photosynth technology to give visitors unprecedented access to sites throughout the Seattle area, some of which include swimming through Seattle Aquarium’s octopus tank, walking from the Seattle Sounder’s locker room onto the field alongside the starting eleven, and even getting rare access of one of Seattle’s famous Lake Union houseboats.
Attract State
Before visitors start exploring the landmarks, they can pan and zoom the large gigapixel image of Seattle. The carousel comes alive with animated videos for each location to give context to the user.
The compass at the top gives the visitor a sense of direction as the move around the image.
Exploring Landmarks
Visitors virtually transport to various points of interest and can follow a guided tour.
Sharing Progress
I shot this video to share our progress with the client and as a short teaser for our website. Sharing progress early helped to mitigate last-minute changes.
The Space Needle
The Zoomable City Experience
Zoomable City is a gigapixel 360° panorama of the entire city of Seattle. The image was shot from the top of the Space Needle’s spire. Visitor’s can pan and zoom in to incredible levels of detail using a custom-made viewing application, and explore a vast array of historical, cultural, and “locals-only” landmarks.
Pan and Zoom
This gigapixel image of Seattle and the surrounding area provides more than just a spectacular view, it allows visitors to dive deeper and learn about dozens of points of interest.
The simplified filter, pan, and zoom control made exploring and finding places of interest easy.
Quick Jump Menu
The UI was designed as a top-down view of the Space Needle and was aligned to the visitor's location. The interface served multiple roles, it exposed all of the various points of interest organized by corresponding filters, provided perspective as to where they were located in context to where they were standing, and allowed them to jump to the location quickly.
