HBO Imagine
Now this, right here, is what I’m talking about.
From the site description:
The HBO Cube embraces the spirit of HBO telling deeper more engaging stories in innovative ways. Demonstrating that a change in perspective changes everything. The HBO Cube shows four sides of a single story simultaneously. Only when you’ve seen all four sides of the story will you begin to see the bigger picture.
Do yourself a favor and play around with this for a while and, then, when you’re ready, come back.
…. You’re back already? Great.
In addition to the perspective-shifting functionality described above, this site also incorporates a web of stories that branch off of the initial one and then come together again to form a loosely-coherent, master narrative. The user gets to piece everything together as he or she explores the different stories.
The story itself? It’s moderately neat; it’s not a non-linear masterpiece like Magnolia or anything, but it keeps you engaged. But the user experience? Well, the way this thing is put together is so cool that I can’t talk about it for more than twenty seconds without building to excited shouting and vague, frantic hand gestures. It’s just the coolest.
What I love so much about this is that it’s a sterling example of content that’s enhanced because it’s on the web, rather than content that just, you know, happens to be on the web.
Consider your typical, hilariously clever internet video: the fact that it’s on the web makes it easier the content producer, to disseminate to users, but once those users actually get to it, they might as well be watching it on television. It’s a passive experience. In contrast, HBO embraces the possibilities of the internet to provide users with an active “watching” experience.
I think a lot of web video content is developed to replicate the user experience of an earlier medium, in this case, of watching television. Similarly, and I’m probably only getting to the lede now, I also think a lot of e-learning is conceived and developed as a translation of traditional training experiences.
Most e-learning, I would argue, is meant to duplicate the experience of sitting through a PowerPoint-based instructor-led training. There are bullet-points, images, and screen text and audio… but the only thing that’s foundationally different about the user’s part of that experience is that instead of being in a room with another human being, the user clicks a next button on a computer
That’s why at NogginLabs, we get really excited about things like Level 4 simulations and games and social media.
Technology can be much more than delivery platform; it can provide users with a whole new way of experiencing your content. One of the things that I like the most about working at NogginLabs is that we really embrace the spirit of that.
So, again, high five to HBO.
Bill Cochran
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Senior Instructional Designer
NogginLabs, Inc.
