How to Showcase Innovative Engineering Through Interactive Touchscreens

Are you looking for a way to generate interest and showcase your innovative engineering solutions in a way that clearly articulates the value you deliver and visualises what you do?

Often when you have complex solutions to explain to people, you’ll find that going through reams of sales and marketing asset including brochures, drawings or blueprints isn’t always the best way to capture a customer’s imagination – and can sometimes lead to information overload!

But what if you could showcase your solutions in a visual, intuitive and engaging way?

An interactive touchscreen can be the perfect way to demonstrate your engineering firm’s solutions in a way that almost makes them come to life in front of your customers’ eyes, using visuals and interactive features – not to mention being able to store a wealth of information and content that’s accessible at the tap of a button!

So, whether you have a big event looming, or need to showcase your solutions as part of a sales suite or showroom area, here are some of the best ways an interactive touchscreen can help you ignite interest and ultimately drive sales achieve the results you need.

Interactive menus

If like many engineering firms, you have a wealth of information you need to get across, without being overwhelming, interactive maps and menus are an easy way for your customers to interact and find out more, by selecting the areas they want to read about the most.

This lets you appeal to those that maybe just want to get a top level view as well as those that want to deep dive into more detailed content. Users can simply pick and choose what they want to do on your touchscreen putting them in control and appealing to innate desire to explore.

3D models

Another way to simplify your solutions and make things more visual is by introducing 3D models and diagrams into the mix. This allows you to build up the model step-by-step, so customers can get a better idea of how something works in a way that’s easy to understand. Users can interact with the models rotating and zooming in and out of details.

The result? More educated customers who aren’t just being told how something works (as people tend to switch off when just being talked at), but shown in a more visual and memorable way. Another added bonus is if you can make these 3D models interactive, as we find this adds another dimension of engagement, keeping people’s interests piqued for longer.

Visual stories

You may think stories and engineering aren’t a great match, but you’d be wrong. Visual stories can help to connect with your customers and help them understand how your solutions can impact their business. How? Well, we’re hardwired to be attracted to stories, and we use them to understand the world around us and if you can visualise your customers business and world then it doesn’t require any effort on their part to understand how you fit in.

If you can add the visual element, you’ll be creating something that’s not just compelling, but also memorable – considering how our brains process images 60,000 times faster than words!

We also have a much higher memory retention rate when using visuals, 65% compared with just 10%, when only processing words, after just three days.

Gamification

Quite a buzzword but if done right it can be a very powerful tool that combines visual storytelling, interactivity and learning based psychology to create an experience.

The idea is that people retain information far more effectively and get a better understanding of what you do if you can create an experience that requires them to engage the brain in figuring out answers. It’s a fine balance to ensure they aren’t turned off because it’s too complex, or simple, and has to have some kind of reward at the end of the experience, such as a winners table or prize.

In the above example of a gamified experience for Citrix users of the experience could win an Airwheel

An immersive space

An interactive touchscreen experience doesn’t just have to end on the screen; it can also interact with other objects and elements in the room. So, if you want to create a more immersive experience for your customers, consider thinking about the surrounding space, too.

For example, there’s the option of displaying a physical model or product in the room – but not just for display. When users interact with your touchscreen experience, parts of the model or product can light up or be illuminated, corresponding to whichever part of the touchscreen experience users are interacting with.

Touchscreens can also recognise objects brought up to them and trigger content.

Downloadable content

Regardless of how visual and engaging you make your content, you can’t expect your customers to remember a litany of details and specifications. Especially if you have larger and more complex engineering products and solutions you want to showcase, we’d recommend letting users send themselves the information they’ll need to look back over later.

You can do this by getting them to enter their email address or use a QR code on your touchscreen experience. The types of content they can do this with might include blueprints or maps, PDFs, documents and even visual content such as infographics or videos. Content can be marked by a user for download and be put in a basket of content ready to be sent.

Advice on your next steps

Now that we’ve given you a better idea of some of the ways you can showcase innovative engineering could an interactive touchscreen be the way forward for you? In truth, there are so many possibilities that interactive touchscreens open up – the only limit’s your imagination!

If you get it right, interactive touchscreens can be a great addition to your customer-facing space. But how do you go about doing it? Well, we’ve put together some tips on how to get started right here on our blog. Hopefully, this should give you some key pointers to think about.

However, there is a lot to consider, so if you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed, our advice would be to seek out an experienced interactive design agency who should be happy to listen to your needs and give you some free, impartial advice before going any further.

We’d also recommend asking to see some previous examples of their work on similar projects.

If you’d like to learn more about what’s possible with an interactive touchscreen experience for your engineering business get in touch with us. We’re always here to answer any questions to help talk you through your options. We read and respond to every message we receive.