Manifest Digital Human Experience Society

This is the third in a three-part series on the creation of the Bally Results Center, the seven-foot interactive wall Manifest designed for the fitness company. For the first story introducing the “Bally wall” and its features, click here. For the second, examining the technological challenges overcome while designing the wall, click here.

Danny Davis knew he had succeeded when he wasn’t the expert anymore.

Davis was touring a Bally Fitness Center in Baltimore along with several members of the Manifest team shortly after the company had installed their creation, the Results Center.

“There were a couple of employees who you could tell were gamers at home. You could tell they were experts,” Davis said. “They knew how to use it better than I knew how to use it.”

As with every Manifest project, the ultimate test of the seven-foot interactive wall the company designed for Bally was whether it provided users with the kind of experience they were looking for.

“Now we have seen it in every club where it was installed,” Davis said. “We have seen other users playing with it and enjoying it.  I knew this was a success and I knew it could be better in the future.”

But Manifest never takes a wait-and-see approach to user experience. The design process employed by the company ensures that their needs, desires, and concerns are accounted for throughout.

“We did a lot of research on how consumers would engage with something like this,” said Ryan Noel, who drove strategy on the project. “Even though it’s a seven-foot interactive wall, it is a very personal experience.”

Users may not know their needs are being taken into consideration when they approach the Bally wall – in fact, if the user experience is done right, they’ll probably just think they’re playing around.

Davis said that was the hidden value of the Bally Logo Break, an app within the Results Center where users smash the company’s red “B” then re-assemble it to reveal fitness and nutrition tips. It’s fun to mess around with, but not as obviously relevant to a gym member’s health as the Nutrition Wall or Workout Counselor.

Still, Davis said he insisted on the importance of the Logo Break app throughout the design process for one simple reason: it was easy to use.

“It’s like a kids’ ball pit,” he said. “If you just threw them into Workout Counselor, it might be too much. They end up learning the Wall first before you throw them into any complex navigation. It’s the easiest way to learn – having fun.”

The Manifest team was certainly happy to see Bally employees and members having fun together in front of the Results Center during their visit to Baltimore. At that particular gym, the staff had already integrated the wall into their sales process, adding that extra “wow” factor for potential customers. Davis said he thinks the technology could soon be doing even more for gym members.

“I think it can go from a tool that is just kind of fun to one that is even more useful and integrated with gym members’ needs,” he said.

But fitness centers aren’t the only place where Manifesters will get to observe users interact with their creation.

Later this month, the device will be part of an exhibit of cutting-edge technologies sponsored by Intel at the World Retail Congress in Berlin. Noel said the gathering could open up a new world of possibilities for Manifest and the team that built the Bally wall.

“It will be a chance to potentially show it to all the major retailers in the world,” he said.

The conference will take place September 25 – 28 at Berlin’s InterContinental Hotel.

While it’s exciting to think about thousands of marketers admiring Manifest’s technological prowess, Noel said that what he hopes exhibit visitors really understand is the thought process that went into the Bally wall’s design.

“What I would love for them to say is, ‘How do these guys think?’” Noel said. “‘How could this fit into my business strategy, not just my digital strategy? How could this help drive new business for me, or drive exhibitions, sales, retention?’ I would love for them to say, ‘Manifest, give us 30 minutes of your time.’”

It’s not hard to imagine a technology like the Results Center as a great addition to a direct-to-consumer retail environment. Noel pointed out that such devices would give stores a natural bridge between their online and in-store experiences. But instead of simply redirecting consumers to the company website, such devices would reinforce the value of visiting the brick-and-mortar store.

The payoff could be even greater if the wall were integrated with an e-commerce backend, Noel added, saying “it could ultimately become a sort of interactive Amazon inside the store.”

A few retail outlets have already implemented technologies that allow visitors to do things like virtually try on clothes. But Noel said that most of the ones he’s seen have been “really clunky.”

“We could do better,” Davis said.

Members of the team behind the Bally wall listed many more potential uses for the technology: immersive informational displays at corporate headquarters; “funhouse mirror” applications to entertain teenagers at the mall or kids at an amusement park; social experiences that enhance the enjoyment of concerts and festivals — the list goes on…

“Every business in America could benefit from something like this if it is implemented correctly,” Noel said. “I would love to see one of these at Best Buy.”

“I would love to see this used in medical applications,” said Davis. “There have got to be applications of this technology that would be helpful to people.”

The opportunities are limitless. But for now, Noel said he and the team just want to take a moment to appreciate what they’ve done.

“At the end of the day, we did something that was fairly revolutionary,” he said. “There was no template for how something like this should be done. There’s always risk associated  with that – but we did it, and I’m ecstatic with the outcome.”