Successful cooperation between SKIDATA and Salzburg University of Applied Sciences: From Wheel to "Multimedia Wheel".
The phrase re-inventing the wheel is about to get a new and thoroughly positive meaning. Together with students in Multi-Media Art, Austrian-based world market leader in access solutions SKIDATA has developed a particularly user-friendly concept for using its new ticket payment and vending machine.
The project requirements were quite exacting: using the device had to be easier and more convenient than in any existing device of this type. For that purpose, the students were tasked with developing a design study for possible use in future device generations. Innovation requires inspiration, explains SKIDATA project leader Manfred Seiwald, and thats exactly what we found in the students of the Salzburg University of Applied Science. Their motivation and youthful creativity, he said, had provided the .
It was in the spring of 2007 when the team of SKIDATA Research & Development began its cooperation with students Yuhsuke Akamatsu and Thomas Madreiter and the head of the universitys Game Design & Development department, Josef Schinwald. They soon came up with an inspiring idea: a user surface where all functions of the machine can be selected by means of a graphic three-dimensional selection wheel.
Its all based on a touch screen where you can spin the wheel with your finger, as the students explain. This makes complicated on-screen menus of todays vending machines a thing of the past. Its the intuitive, playful element behind the selection wheel design that will make user interaction mere childs play..jpg)
The project requirements were quite exacting: using the device had to be easier and more convenient than in any existing device of this type. For that purpose, the students were tasked with developing a design study for possible use in future device generations. Innovation requires inspiration, explains SKIDATA project leader Manfred Seiwald, and thats exactly what we found in the students of the Salzburg University of Applied Science. Their motivation and youthful creativity, he said, had provided the .
It was in the spring of 2007 when the team of SKIDATA Research & Development began its cooperation with students Yuhsuke Akamatsu and Thomas Madreiter and the head of the universitys Game Design & Development department, Josef Schinwald. They soon came up with an inspiring idea: a user surface where all functions of the machine can be selected by means of a graphic three-dimensional selection wheel.
Its all based on a touch screen where you can spin the wheel with your finger, as the students explain. This makes complicated on-screen menus of todays vending machines a thing of the past. Its the intuitive, playful element behind the selection wheel design that will make user interaction mere childs play.
Award-winning design
In 2008 the basic concept was developed further in a UAS course given by interaction design specialist Matthias Edler-Golla. The result was a detailed style guide and comprehensive documentation of the interaction processes.Public acknowledgement followed in Amsterdam in early April at Intertraffic, the worlds largest trade fair for traffic technology: along with its new range of vending machines, SKIDATA presented the 3-D wheel design study and promptly won the 2008 Intertraffic Innovation Award for the overall product concept.
The co-operation with the university has been excellent, says SKIDATA VP Marketing & Sales for Car Access, Herbert Pamminger. Innovation doesnt happen in the laboratory. Especially partnerships with universities and research institutions are of huge importance to us for ensuring our worldwide innovation leadership in the industry.
Contact details:
SKIDATA AGMag. Andreas Florian
+43 6246 888-2145
andreas.florian@skidata.com
Salzburg University of Applied Sciences
Manuela Kliemstein
+43 50 2211 1021
manuela.kliemstein@fh-salzburg.ac.at
With the 3-D Wheel design developed with the help of the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, using vending machines will become mere childs play.
