At the end of last year I went up to London to see Sanky from AllofUs do a president’s lecture for D&AD. A self described veteran of the digital era, previously from the agency Digit, his talk was engaging and entertaining from start to finish. Entitled ‘How Big is Your World?’ (a quote from Doris Lessing,) he kicked things off by asking everyone to shut their eyes and hum. Everyone in the auditorium did. It sounded great! Sanky talked about how humming is a human response to various situations, whether we are bored, uncomfortable or on top of the world. His talk was laced with observations about everyday human interactions and responses to situations and stimulus.

After sharing some interesting personal facts and examples of design that he found memorable, like salt and pepper shakers shaped like maracas or a whiteboard fridge, he then went on to talk through some of the projects he has been involved with at AllofUs.

The first example to really stand out to me was the wallpaper generator designed for the Miami Music Festival, sponsored by Motorola. AllofUs were commissioned to create something to support the launch of the event that would also appeal to the groovy young crowd and that they would interact with. They came up with a 5 metre interactive LED wall that produced a generative display when people danced in front of it, every user producing a completely unique and personal display. All assets were then uploaded to a site and made available as wallpapers and ringtones.

Next up a big slide of Maggie Thatcher, who got rid of all art in hospitals whilst running the country. This introduced the second really interesting case study of an interactive wall display for an anaesthetizing room called The Nature Window. Patients who use this room are waiting to go into major surgery and some of them might not come round from the anaesthetic, so it is quite a stressful environment. The canvas was an empty room containing a bed/chair and a clock. The work they produced involved beautiful illustrations laser cut from wood which framed projected animations. Users could control these using an ergonomic hand help wooden remote.  Patients reported that the time passed much more quickly and stress levels were dramatically reduced with this interactive distraction.

The third example that stood out to me, known to many already, was the Microsoft Interactive Canvas, first seen at Microsoft’s Remix event in Brighton. In essence a giant visitor's guest book, users write a message or doodle an image in a kiosk which can then be dropped into the large digital display. Once on the display, viewers can further investigate the scribblings with gestural movements.

Find more AllofUs projects here.