The 210

The 210 is a smartphone app (for iOS & Android) designed for a company’s 210th anniversary event.

The application splashscreen with The 210 logo

The company wanted a photo application that allows employees to take pictures of the event in an unique way. Not just another photo app that can be found on app stores, but something that convey the company culture and enhance the event experience.

The event concept was all about the company’s success over the years so using the analog camera metaphor to design the app was obvious.

A three screen walk-through to explain the analog camera metaphor

The app concept is quite simple: People have a limited number of 21 shots and they can’t see the pictures before they are “developed”.

The camera interface with a button inspired by The 210 logo

When taking a picture, the button turns into a timer and the remaining shots indicator is updated

The development process begins after the event with two outputs:

Everyone can see his own pictures in the app Gallery at the rate of one picture a day
All the pictures are accessible on an interactive installation made up of two touchscreen tables in the company’s headquarter hallway

The photos are “developed” at the rate of one picture a day after the event

Employees privacy and data security were important guidelines given by the company. The simple form below is designed to gather information about the person that take the pictures without being able to figure out the identity of this person. With roughly 30,000 photos taken, the interactive installation needed a simple way to sort and filter pictures. With basic information, categories and tags can be applied to images. After the event, on the touchscreen tables, people can choose to see, for example, pictures taken by women from Europe in the communication department.

A simple form allows to cluster pictures while providing anonymity

The app was also used by the company to communicate important information during the event with the people. For this system to work, iOS users have to allow push notifications. A good way to ask for iOS permissions is to explain the value people will get out of notifications before asking them and use a two steps validation pattern that optimize acceptance rate.

The two steps permission pattern guarantee almost 100% of acceptance after tapping Allow

For this project, I was in charge of User Research, Visual Design and Interaction Design. The challenge was to invent a photo app concept that fits the context of the event, reflect the company culture, respect the people’s privacy and matches the security guidelines. I worked closely with the client through a serie of workshops to validate ideas and make sure everybody was on the same track throughout the whole process.