How Do You Emotionally Engage Your Audience?

 

Windows Hello uses Iris detection technology source: Mashable.com

Humans are animals. Sure, we have a consciousness that our primate counterparts might be lacking but we are still driven by instinct. We still have no control over our emotions.  Our emotion is what drives our behaviour - and it is for this reason why brands need to consider engaging on a deeper, emotional level if they really want to reach their audience meaningfully.

Engagement involves understanding what your audience wants, grabbing and sustaining attention and keeping ideas simple. But emotional engagement is a whole step up from this.

So how can brands meaningfully engage with audiences? There are many different ways, dependent on both brands and audience.

Microsoft has focused their energy on creating a more personal computing experience for their customers. Recently, this has involving the release the Windows Hello. Windows Hello means your computer or device is able to recognise your fingerprints, face or iris. As well as enhancing peace-of-mind by significantly improving security, the device becomes a highly personal and personalised piece of technology. Windows Hello authenticates applications, enterprise content and customises online experiences. The technology adapts to the user instead of the other way around.

Microsoft is a great example of the application of technology into peoples lives to impact them beneficially. With beneficial impact comes emotional engagement. As technology becomes increasingly sophisticated and the digital and physical worlds meet on the edge, this beneficial impact becomes more of a possibility.

This edge of the physical and digital world is an exciting step for engagement as brands have the opportunity to talk back to people. A static marketing brochure can suddenly become an exciting choose-your-own video journey, chosen through an immersive touch screen. Interactive media is up to 41% more emotionally engaging than regular static media. This is because people treat interactive media like a person, we suspend our disbelief of the virtual world and brand messages becomes a two-way, dynamic conversation.

Digital tables are the result of advancements in technology; delighting, engaging, two-way interaction. The digital table is a phenomenon because, unlike other forms of technology, it is designed for many people at once. Multi-user interaction means conversations happen in-person with friends and family, creating deeper emotional engagement. This is because as we interact, chat, share and laugh, we unconsciously draw these emotional connections.

The gradual meeting of the digital world with the physical world, with more personalised computing and the application of technology to enhance peoples lives, represents an exciting step in user interaction and emotional brand engagement.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter to learn more about digital tables or other emotionally engaging multi-user solutions.

 

Users interact on a digital table

 

One Device Life

Can you imagine living with only one device? No computer, no tablet, perhaps even no phone. This idea is even more radical than it sounds. The announcement this week by Microsoft of the Microsoft Continuum gave us a strong insight into where technology and more significantly, human interaction, is heading. This is not in a far-off sci-fi future, this is the immediate future. We will all be living this vision shortly, which is why it is especially important to consider the ramifications beyond the technology itself.

The Single-Device Paradigm

Your phone as your PC, and your tablet, and your work computer, makes sense. You get to discard the fragile, expensive large screens from your life, and at the same time get to access the full power of a PC everywhere with no tradeoff. This idea, however, does pivot on the assumption there are screens to access.

The private sphere will move from personal or work computers to single devices connected to shared screens. Our concept of public screens will be uprooted. They will no longer be out-dated public library computers, shared screens will be the norm. 

The Microsoft Continuum has the potential to help bring people together and in the process, enrich their experience with technology, each other and their lives. Traditional computer monitors will no longer be necessary. Since its inception, the vision at nsquared has been to put digital tables everywhere in order to enhance collaboration and get people talking away from isolating personal devices. The Microsoft Continuum represents a step toward this vision.

The digital table is a social technology that allows people to share the same screen. In the same way, the Microsoft Continuum is a tool for people to share screens. Sitting at home, the family will be able to sit around their digital coffee table, their devices connected simultaneously, exploring and sharing together.

This is no small announcement. Microsoft has given us a profound vision to the potential of technology to enhance our lives. Microsoft Continuum and shared screens is a future worth looking forward to.

A revolution in technology… what's next?

Pioneering technology since 2008

The nsquared digitable has come a long way since 2008.

Back then, when massive multi-touch technology was still being realised, we only had the Microsoft Surface 1 to work with.

We recognised the huge potential for education, as a tool for collaborative learning and teamwork development. Personal devices might not have been as pervasive then as they are now, but technology was still focussed on the individual. Because of nsquared's vision, we have helped libraries, university students and school children advance their learning through teamwork. Our promise and vision was clear. We became Australia's first Microsoft Surface strategic partner.

Always on the forefront of technology, we were pioneers of the Samsung SUR40 technology complete with Microsoft PixelSense once it was released. We once again received incredible attention for our efforts in using this technology and we became Australia's first Microsoft Premier Partner Award for Pixelsense.

And most recently, we achieved the highest commendation for technology design in Sydney last year, winning the technology category in the Sydney 2014 Design Awards.

We have proven ourselves to be trailblazers, but this is only the beginning.

In the next few weeks, we are excited to announce,  we will be launching our latest table. With absolute care and consideration taken down to microscopic detail, this digitable is the most sophisticated yet.

Designed specifically for business,  this table will give you the most efficient and productive meetings you and your team have ever experienced.

To learn more, send us an inquiry at info@nsquaredsolutions.com. Much more to be announced soon.

Our Digitable55 in 2014