Google Impact Challenge
Heimat Berlin and B-Reel joined forces on the campaign for the first Google Impact Challenge in Germany. We worked on behalf of B-Reel to develop the voting application for the innovative outdoor solution installed at Hauptbahnhof in Berlin.
The Google Impact Challenge is an initiative by Google.org to fund the most innovative community ideas. Google.org collected a series of proposals from German local non-profits. Thereafter, it was up to the public to cast their votes deciding which social initiatives get to share in the € 3.75 million prize money. At Berlin’s Hauptbahnhof, Google placed touch screens where people passing by could cast their votes.
We were responsible for the development of the voting application. The application runs on a 70-inch touch screen. It contains four versions with each their own set of projects and visual differences.
A reliable and easy-to-use installation, update and data-retrieval process were set up. This allowed us and the engineers from Stroër to manage the application on location as well as remotely.
The health of the system, application as well as the voting data could be monitored during the campaign. To secure the vote data, the application made automated back-ups which it pushed to a secondary server.
We randomised the sorting of the projects to ensure equal visibility. If requested by the client, verification could be done at all times throughout the campaign.
User Experience
The user interface designed by B-Reel is informative and very easy to use, allowing people to explore the projects and cast their votes. The application has two states, the active state when a person is interacting with the screen and the idle state which starts when no one has interacted with the screen for a certain amount of time.
Shown below is a screencast of the application on a non-touch device.
At Berlin’s Hauptbahnhof
A promotion team introduces people to the Google Impact Challenge.
Result
It’s been a great collaborative effort with a process and result that we are delighted with. Building an application for a 70-inch touch screen has been a rather unique and refreshing experience. The type of collaboration we look forward to being part of again!