I can’t believe it is now nearly two months since doing the Rotherham Show and disappointed we have not had chance to let everyone know how much of a success it was before now.
We were asked by Rotherham Town Centre to show off the new Renaissance project using our latest multi-touch technology after seeing a prototype system we created for the Young Entrepreneur of the year awards.
It would prove to compliment the model of Rotherham Town Centre perfectly, increasing interest and understanding when explaining what had already been completed. They also asked us to advertise their new online printable vouchers scheme, Click-Back.
Although time was limited, in truth only two weeks for both projects, we came up with a solution that gained much needed exposure for both the scheme and our bespoke innovative solutions. Customers would be able to navigate on screen with their finger, dragging and queuing up the vouchers, finishing off by printing them off there and then.
We also added into the mix our own multi-touch photo album viewer with built in panning and resizing, showing off a variety of Rotherham photos, including the work currently being done with the renaissance project.
The first day couldn’t have started much better with the sun shining and the skies clear, it was a great start to a scorching weekend. Having lived in Rotherham my whole life, I couldn’t believe this was the first time I had been to the Rotherham show and had no idea what to expect. Visitors started flocking into the 30th Rotherham Show from around 11 o’clock with more than 70,000 people attending the new temporary location in Rawmarsh over the weekend.
We were situated in the same tent as Barnsley & Rotherham Commerce, Rotherham Town Centre, RIDO Rotherham Enterprise and Business Information Library, all looking over the 8x5ft 3D model of the Town Centre. Once we had set up it would be nonstop, with visitors regular passing by wanting vouchers or just to have a nosey at the touch screen, not something everybody gets to play with everyday.
When their parents weren’t telling them not to touch the screen, children of all ages loved using the multi-touch technology and adapted amazingly to the different methods of interacting with it.
Without any intervention they started using gestures as if they all had iPhones tucked away in their pockets, showing the quicker adoption of new technologies and the demand for more ways to interact with information.
The touch screen even started to gain a fan club of little groupies regularly coming back throughout the day with an extra friend in tow.
The online voucher scheme gained much needed exposure over the weekend and allowed people that would be using them to print them off with ease.
We made sure the software was as easy to use as possible and even my five year old daughter, who popped down for the afternoon, printed off some vouchers to spend some of her pocket money no doubt.
One thing is for sure, it reiterated how valuable innovate multi-touch equipment and software could amplify interest and increase ease of use for all ages. A large number of vouchers were printed over the weekend and hope the scheme has gained increased interest since the show, especially with Christmas just around the corner.
Visitors could also take a look at photos of new developments of Rotherham or see what the town used to look like over the ages, a favourite with the older generation.
This was where using touch screens really opened the eyes of others. People in their 60s+, who usually shy away from new technology, seemed to take a much more natural approach as if they weren’t working with a computer and was interactive with physical objects and allowing them to navigate items using natural gestures without a second thought.
Lastly, the initial reason why we were asked to get involved, visitors could interact with the renaissance map and the information they needed to know. This interactive feature wasn’t only used by visitors and Clark Herron, communications manager at RIDO, took to using it to annotate the model they had on show, and was truely amazed by the possibilities. It highlights how useful interactive touch screens can be to help enhance knowledge and understanding of what’s on display with stats, figures and descriptions.
It was a great experience and was equally pleasurable working with Rotherham Town Centre to provide visitors with more information about the happenings in and around Rotherham. We met some interesting people throughout the day, both visitors and other stall owners and hope this is the first step in publicly exposing our innovative technology.
