KinderBueno Interactive X Game on a Vert Ramp
The Interactive X Game project created the dynamic user interface on a Vert Ramp for skateboard, aggressive inline skating, and BMX biking players. Based on the user interview and behaviors analysis I created three personas. In the end, the players feedback about how they enjoy being part of the graphic creator and feel immersive visual feedback. It was a fancy street event for the Kinder Bueno company which achieved the branding image.
Image 01: stakeholder’s brand and product
As this brand has been existing for more than 20 years now, Kinder Bueno reminds pleasant moments of childhood. Young adults who are eating a Kinder Bueno bar today are remembering their childhood when they were already enjoying the chocolate bar. The purpose was to make people discover and rediscover this chocolate bar in a special place.
This event of street marketing was a way for the brand to emphasize this energy, youth, and refill for a high level of physical exertion. therefore X Games involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion, and highly specialized gear which is a good expression for those branding spirits.
There are three activities we chose: skateboarding, aggressive inline skating, and BMX biking (The images below), We invited players between the age of 16 to 27 years old who already had over 5 years of professional experience. The event location was in the Xinyi shopping mall in Taiwan’s commercial district.
Aggressive inline skating
Skateboarding
BMX bike
User Personas
I started to do the user behaviors analysis and user interviews to know the tricks of the X Game activities. There are three user personas below to present the details of user behaviors when the player does skateboarding, aggressive inline skating, and BMX biking who are the very professional players in the X Game field.
Skateboard player
Skateboard movement analysis
Name: Kevin Chen
Age: 25
Playground: Bowl, Launch ramp, Rail, Mini-Ramp, Bench, Street, Embankment
BIO
Kevin started skateboarding when he was eight years old. He won his first silver medal in an international competition when he was 12 years old. He already has over 10 years of skateboarding experience. He received sponsorship by NIKE Taiwan, Little Paw, and Paranoid Bag. His basic tricks are “Rock To Fakie”, “No Comply”, “Drop In”.
ROCK TO FAKIE
A rock to fakie is a skateboarding trick that combines two moves—a rock ‘n’ roll and a fakie. A rock ‘n’ roll is a ramp trick where you ride up to the lip of the ramp, push your front truck over it, stall, then kick turn 180 degrees to reenter the transition. A fakie is when you’re in your normal stance and rolling backward.
NO COMPLY
In a no comply, the skater pops the board into the air using his back knee while planting his front foot on the ground for only a moment. The rider must plant his or her front foot and pop the board with only their back foot. The trick is usually done on flat ground.
DROP IN
In skateboarding, a drop-in is an act of going from a flat platform into a steep transition, beginning at the top edge of a bowl or ramp with the tail of the board resting on the coping. This is the most important thing to learn if you want to ride transitions. Therefore, it’s the foundation of every other trick.
Aggressive inline skating player
Inline Skating movement analysis
Name: Chien Kai Hong (Mars)
Age: 27
Playground: Bowl, Launch ramp, Mini-Ramp, Bench, Street, Quarter-Pipe, Swale.
BIO
Mars started to play inline skating when he was 15 years old. He won two gold medals in the national competition and three silver medals in the Asian X game challenge. His special trick is a 720-degree spin which led him to win the first gold medal at 18 years old.
Aggressive inline skate is specially modified to accommodate grinds and jumps. Aggressive skating can take place on found street obstacles or at skate parks. His basic tricks are “Frontside/Backside Stall”, “Vert Skating”, “Roll In Drop”.
FRONTSIDE/BACKSIDE STALL
The frontside and backside are used to describe the way the skater’s feet are positioned when grinding on an object. The picture shows the skater is doing a frontside grind. Their whole body will be facing the object.
VERT SKATING
Vert skating is a discipline of inline skating held on a vert ramp. It focuses primarily on air tricks, such as rotations and grinds tricks on coping.
ROLL IN DROP
The idea is to hop over the coping and into the ramp, landing as high on the transition as possible in that locked forward position. It’s essential to lift your weight and drop it into the ramp.
BMX Biking Player
BMX Bike movement analysis
Name: Chiao Tzang
Age: 23
Playground: Bowl, Launch ramp, Mini-Ramp, Bench, Street, Pyramid,
BIO
Chaio is the first player on contract with Red Bull Australia. He won his first international gold medal when he was 17 years old. He started to play BMX when he was 7 years old. For now, He already has over 15 silver medals in the Asia BMX challenge. His basic tricks are “Performing a Barspin”, “Turning with a Fakie”, “Drop In”.
PERFORMING A BARSPIN
A Barspin is a simple BMX trick that the rider can perform in a multitude of different locations and styles. It is performed while jumping from your rear wheel.
TURNING WITH A FAKIE
A fakie is an essential maneuver in BMX; since you can’t come out of a ramp facing the right direction if the rider doesn’t perform a 180 on the ramp, the fakie is the best way to turn around.
DROP IN
The drop-in is shifting your body weight backward and simultaneously lifting the rider’s front wheel in such as way as to eventually land on both wheels at the same time, or land smoothly on the rear wheel first.
User Interface On the Vert Ramp
I sort out the user behaviors from the above user personas. We define three elements from point and line to plane for the interactive X Games on the vert ramp: 1. The plane is surface to show the brand logo as a background. 2. The line is the track patterns in which the x Game activities are a high-speed dynamic movement on the vert ramp. I want to create a real-time tracking path to show the footprint marks when the players do “DROP IN”,
Image 02: the graphic elements composition of the interactive user interface
“TURNING WITH FRANKIE”, “ROLL IN DROP”. 3. The dot is the behavior of those three X Games tricks that they stand or fly on top of coping when they do the “ROCK TO FAKIE”, “STALL”, and “BARSPIN”. From the diagram above, The user interface on the ramp is two backgrounds times three-dot effects times five-track patterns which total thirty combinations. The graphic user interfaces mockup on the below middle of slides to show the possible combination of the background, dot effect, and track patterns.
Based on the different tricks analysis above, we set the two effects of interactive feedback; 1. dot blast effect which displays when the players grind on an object/edge, fly in the air over the 3 secs or stand on the ramp over 3 secs. 2. The track pattern displays when the player’s high speed glides on the vert ramp.
We used the IR camera to do the image recognition for tracking the activities on the Vert ramp. So we need to make wearable sensors for the players. According to the user behaviors analysis, we choose the two spots to wear the sensors which wouldn’t bother the players’ activities and the sensors can keep sending signals without disrupting. BMX biking wears the sensor left side waist (IR sensor#1). Because they are seated on the bike and most of the time the foot on the paddle, the waist is a more stable part of the body.
The skateboard and inline skating players would wear the right ankle (IR sensor #2) due to the need to do the feet push.
(see the image on the right side)
Image 03: IR sensors spots
Conclusion
This was a B2B2C project that caught the attention of street shoppers through the interactive X Game show. We made various combinations of the user interface based on user persona. The feedback from the spectators felt energetic and cool. The primary stakeholder, the manager of Kinder Bueno acknowledged us which totally expresses the branding spirit. The X Game players gave feedback about when the track pattern and dot effects come out; they tried to mix that on the different spots on the graphical background. It looks like the players are part of the graphical creator. We kept observing the players’ behavior and checked the sensibility of IR sensors during the event. We did some of the technical side quick adjustments such as the IR sensors we set on the body which are not good for the skateboarding player. In the first round, we set the sensors on the ankle, but the skateboard blocked the signals when the player’s feet were standing on the skateboard. it couldn’t create a smooth graphical tracking mark. So We try to change the place to the hands and waist parts too. Eventually, we found that putting the sensor on the waist is the optimal solution. Both BMX biking and inline skating were working well with the IR sensors on the ankle and waist parts.