Future Makers
UX/Prototyping . Soon
In 2017 R/GA released the Siemens 360° App (Now called "Future Makers"). A 360° VR player that connects people to the world of Siemens through an immersive VR experience.
A year later, they wanted to expand Siemens 360˚ beyond Virtual Reality by creating a way to consume diverse content formats that inspire and change perception through a personalized view of what it’s really like to work at Siemens.
We started by exploring the current user base and what they were seeking in the existing app. We unraveled 2 different potential user types with differents needs.
User journey
To accomodate the different users we created a simple system to deliver the content as efficiently as possible. We divided the overall structure into 3 different parts, onboarding, container and content. After a one-off onboarding, the user just has to decide the way to consume the content before engaging with it.
Sitemap
We created an intuitive structure to support all this new content, allowing the user to action it and be proactive into what will be displayed. To achieve this, we analyzed the current user feedbacks and performed some benchmark. We came up with simple concepts encompassing the ideas of following, searching, saving, and discovering leading to the creation of sections with clear purposes to not dillute these core concepts.
Onboarding — Clear and simple onboarding aiming to create the most bespoke experience possible. To remove any friction, every step is easily skipable if irrelevant to the user.
Feed — A quick access to immediately display content and make it sharable straight away.
Following — An intuitive selection of themes that would inform the feed to serve the right content.
Search — A predictive search engine to streamline the exploration experience.
Saved — Allows to pin content and consume it when the user likes, even if offline.
Settings — Section where you can fine-tune your preferences.
We also decided to expand the content types within the app, to create a future proof and rich platform. To do so, we focused on VR, "AR", Video, Photos, Articles and podcasts. The overall content structure stays the same to keep consistency and create a recognisable pattern for the user, while we bring different module types to suit the different pieces of content.
During all this process we kept in mind the ultimate goal of Siemens, pushing people to apply for a job. To help them out to go beyond the one-sided aspect of the app and push the user to be more proactive, we made it easy to reach out people highlighted across all the content, attend the relevant events, and share more content.
This project was an interesting exercise — To clarify and bring a lot of voices together, but also give a human face to such a big company is not an easy task. Coming up with an app where the user can relate to Siemens and specific fields of work was challenging. We took an organic approach where the user is not siloed into exploring one area but is encouraged to explore to get a more holistic view of what Siemens is.
We layed out the ground work to shape future improvements, and evolve the app into a more integrated companion for employees and potential candidates.