Manifest Digital Human Experience Society

User-centered design usually means putting people before technology. Manifest Digital does that for dozens of clients, helping them select the best tools for actual business needs. 

But there’s an added dimension to the challenge when you’re inventing the technology at the same time.

Such was the case for the Bally Results Center, the seven-foot motion-actived interactive wall Manifest developed for the national fitness chain.

Besides providing the client’s customers with an experience unique in the industry, the Results Center helped Manifest designers confirm that they were capable of creating a new kind of device and building strategy around users’ experience of it simultaneously.

And their hard work is already being recognized – the Results Center has been chosen by Intel to be part of an exhibit of six new technologies at the World Retail Congress, taking place September 25 – 28 in Berlin.

“We all pushed the limits on this project,” said Ryan Noel, who drove strategy on the project. “It is wonderful to see it become such a success.”

The Results Center is a familiar site to anyone who has stopped by Manifest’s offices. Known within the building as “the Bally wall,” it occupies a prominent place near the reception desk. Simply look at the device and you’ll likely be impressed, given that it is made of four borderless 46-inch plasma HDTV displays.

But looking alone does not reveal the Bally wall’s magic. Wait a few minutes, and you are likely to see a Manifest employee walk along, stand before the wall, and wave, activating the device’s full potential. Not only does the wall respond to motion and touch, but it contains several applications to enhance the experience of a gym member – or perhaps a Manifest guest looking to experiment with something cool.

The wall includes four separate applications – an unprecedented variety of functions for a device of its size and complexity. The most simple is the Bally Logo Break, which helps users learn how to control the screen by shattering the familiar red Bally logo into many smaller pieces, then moving them around to reveal fitness and nutrition tips. The Nutrition Wall application helps users gain knowledge that will help them inside the gym and out. The Workout Counselor enables gym members make the most out of their experience, providing exercise recommendations to target specific muscle groups. Finally, the Future Self application is a sort of “funhouse mirror” that shows users what they might look like if they keep at their workout routines.

Each of these applications fulfills a specific purpose within the greater digital strategy Manifest executed for Bally, of which the Results Center is just one part.

Manifest and Bally began working together in 2007, but in 2010 the company engaged Manifest in a major new project to help gym members work with Bally to realize their health goals throughout their lives, not just when they were in a fitness center.

“Bally becomes much more than a gym you go to,” Noel said. “It becomes a part of your lifestyle.”

According to Noel, an important first step toward that end was engaging the customers already experiencing the Bally brand in the gym with a “high digital touch” that would alert them to the new technology the company is bringing online. Many of the newly digital improvements integrated into Bally’s gyms are subtle, from the touch screens in the juice bars to the digital tablets employees use as they help members plan their experience.

The Results Center, on the other hand, was designed to be noticed.

“It is a centerpiece that conveys to members that Bally is very focused on being the technology leader in this industry,” Noel said. He added that a consistent visual design unites all the digital improvements as well as Bally’s website, inviting members to bring these new tools into their homes.

Noel said he feels the Results Center represents a significant achievement for Manifest.

“I believe it is the most robust application of its type in production right now,” he said.

But the real value of the Bally wall was not its bells and whistles, as impressive as those might be. Instead, it was the way the technology met the specific needs of the company and its users.

“We really understand their business and their industry well,” Noel said. “We have fundamental knowledge that a lot of other people don’t have about how they would like to engage consumers.”

While many different Manifest designers were working on different projects for Bally, Noel said that the Results Center “gave us a tangible symbol we could execute the strategy against. We all knew it was possible, but none of us had ever seen it before. We have some really incredible people who are able to take what we had dreamed and turn it into reality.”

This story is first in a three-part series about the development of the Bally Results Center. Click here to read about how Manifest technologist Danny Davis solved several problems as the agency created the device.