We create interactive experiences
Formula D_ has been designing visitor experiences since 2007 for clients around the world. We are renowned for pioneering immersive exhibit and visitor experience design using leading edge media technology. Having delivered award winning projects internationally, and serviced clients in the USA, Middle East, Europe and Asia. Our experienced team ensures excellent performance at all stages of the visitor experience project development, from inception to installation.
Focus
Portfolio
MOSTI Museum - Saudi Arabia
Formula D interactive and partners designed 21 digital interactive media installations for a science and technology museum in Saudi Arabia. The interactive AV productions explore various aspects of the technical and scientific advances of the Muslim world from 700BC to 1700BC in the fields of maths, medicine, botany, chemistry, astronomy, art and architecture, amongst others. The interactive AV’s produced in the course of the project include multi-touch tables, large touch screens and other cutting-edge interactive installations.
Wonderdal Kids Edutainment Centre
Wonderdal is an innovative, immersive, fantasy edu-playpark for children, where adults can sit back, relax and know that the kids in their care can learn, be inspired, and play in a safe space, where magic comes to life.
Opening its doors in April 2019, Wonderdal will be the first of its kind in Africa. It is a magical place that ignites children’s sense of wonder and curiosity and shapes a world of learning about science, life skills and physical aptitude. Combining technologically-advanced and natural elements, Wonderdal takes children, aged five to twelve, on a two-hour journey of discovery in which little ones will learn how to harness positive energy, learn about self-nutrition, how plants are being grown and how they can help care for the environment. Each experience is enriched with 3D virtual reality and each young guest can engage with their very own virtual tour guide.
Old Fort Museum
The Old Fort on the Constitution Hill precinct has undergone a visitor experience upgrade, designed and crafted by Formula D interactive. The new exhibitions use technology and innovative design to showcase a pertinent part of SA’s history and journey to democracy.
Old Prison Museum
The old Burger Street prison in Pietermaritzburg has exceptional historic significance for South Africa and its people. The building is a monument for the ill-treatment of human rights in South Africa during colonial rule and Apartheid regime. Formula D interactive was commissioned by Project Gateway to present a conceptual road map for the creation of a state of the art museum within the walls of the prison. Whilst maintaining the original layout and harsh features of the location, the proposed exhibits enhance the authentic experience with information graphics exhibits as well as cutting edge multimedia displays.
Energy City Game
The City Model 3D Exhibit is an interactive energy exhibit designed as a 3D cityscape onto which various scenarios are projected based on the interactions visitors have with the touch devices permanently installed around it. Visitors approach and engage with the content loaded onto the touch devices which challenges them to make choices about energy-efficient city planning. Their choices have immediate effects on the images projected onto the cityscape providing instant feedback on the choices they’ve made and ensuring learning outcomes are achieved.
The interactive exhibit:
Is designed for a multi-user educational experience
Provides information on different types of power generation
Includes information on solar, wind, coal, hydroelectric and nuclear power
Presents challenges to the visitor around choices on lighting, heating, cooking etc
Asks the visitor to balance monetary and environmental effects
Designed for intensive museum and exhibition environments
Shark Sense VR
Winner of the 2016 Red Dot Design Award for outstanding design quality, the Shark Sense 4D virtual reality exhibit is now available for your aquarium, zoo or visitor centre. Our durable virtual reality exhibit provides an immersive, multisensory and educational journey that teaches visitors about sharks’ senses.
The Shark Sense 4D virtual reality exhibit debunks myths by teaching visitors how interesting sharks really are. Based on the principles of experiential learning, the experience is designed as an immersive virtual reality game that educates visitors about a shark's highly developed sense of hearing, smell, sight and feeling.
Virtual Chemistry Lab
An exciting alternative to the standard chemistry laboratory in schools and science centres, it offers a safe, interactive environment in which students can explore chemistry principles and experiment via a tactile, collaborative learning experience.
River of Grass - Frost Museum of Science
Formula D were awarded the contract to design an interactive display at one of America’s leading museums to create awareness about the conservation of local Florida wetlands (everglades) while exploring the topics of environmental science, ecology and hydrology.
This immersive environment will help young visitors to explore the relationship between water levels and the animals and plants of this special place. It is also designed to engender a sense of both wonder and empathy, with the intent of encouraging people to want to help conserve these wild places and better understand their importance.
The installation includes a wall projection of about 20 meters in length and about 45 square meters of projected floor space. Children will be able to interact with a three-dimensional animated water system by building dams with log-shaped cushions on the floor which redirect the projected, virtual water streams depending on where they are being placed by the children.
The simulation software will then respond by changing water levels, plant and animal life accordingly. Children will also be able to interact with typical Everglades
animals such as water birds, otter and Florida panther, and of course the alligator.
Gulf Stream - Frost Museum of Science
Interactive projections with motion tracking technology create an immersive environment that can be customised for museums, science centres, public spaces and branded experiences.
Formula D’s Immersive Interactive Experiences enable your audiences to interact naturally with life-sized interactive audio-visual projections. Let visitors dive into the Mariana Trench or climb the Olympus Mons with a technology-packed gallery at your museum or science centre.
Reviews
the project
Custom Software & AR Dev for Science Museum
"Formula D clearly understood what we wanted to achieve and worked closely with us to exceed our expectations."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the VP of special projects at a science museum in Florida. When I worked with Formula D, I was the VP of exhibitions.
What challenge were you trying to address with Formula D?
We needed their expertise in interactive AR production.
What was the scope of their involvement?\
Formula D produced a large-scare production mapping and a digital interactive experience tool using AR technology. We had a brainstorming session to discuss our initial concepts, and their team helped us refine and finalize our ideas. Upon concluding that phase, Formula D then designed the AR characters, managed the software, and worked with another company in charge of installing the equipment.
Their team gave us exclusive rights to the product content and software. One of the AR tools detected movements of the audience and projected these onto the screen as if they were interacting with objects from outer space. Their movements and the AR-designed objects and characters were projected on the four walls of our museum, creating an immersive digital experience.
What is the team composition?
We worked with a team of 5 resources, including a project manager, developers, and designers.
How did you come to work with Formula D?
Our CEO visited South Africa and encountered Formula D's work at an aquarium convention. He was interested enough to look for their online portfolio, and he then contacted their team to take on this AR development project.
How much have you invested with them?
We invested over $2 million.
What is the status of this engagement?
The project ran from January 2015–May 2017.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Formula D generated superior AR and software design that blew us away — they were able to bring our complex ideas to life, and everyone commended their top-notch production skills. I'm a firm believer that nothing in the world is perfect, but their work was so close to being that.
How did Formula D perform from a project management standpoint?
We communicated via email and phone calls. Formula D collaborated seamlessly with our team and eagerly met our deadlines. They dealt with any quality or timeline-related issues with ease and had a dedicated project manager who helped us every step of the way.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Formula D clearly understood what we wanted to achieve and worked closely with us to exceed our expectations.
Are there any areas they could improve?
They could consider refining their after-service support. We were expecting to still be in touch with them after the product's completion in case we needed maintenance or repair, but it was hard to get a hold of them after we settled the last payment.
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
Outline a clear scope of work and maximize your communication channels with their team to ensure that they're working towards your goals.
the project
Interactive Exhibit Dev for Winery & Education Center
“Formula D is very creative; both with content development and with solutions for technological challenges.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the managing director of a wine estate and an edutainment center for children in South Africa. We have many different offerings in our estate. One is an edutainment center for children between the ages of 5–13 years old, in which they learn while playing.
What challenge were you trying to address with Formula D?
We had the idea of creating an interactive exhibit for our edutainment center, but we needed someone to design, develop it and bring the ideas to life.
What was the scope of their involvement?
With the help of Formula D, we developed the concept and the technology behind our idea.
It's an interactive edutainment centre, where education and entertainment are seamlessly integrated for a holistic, sensory-rich and wonderous experience. It consists of multiple high-tech interactive learning zones that were designed to cover all learning areas of the CAPS curriculum and an outside play area built to develop both fine- and gross motor skills.
This project included, among other things, conducting educational research, developing of the content, creating the animated characters, designing the activity stations and exhibits, developing a registration system and integrating it with the ticketing system.
When a child comes into the center, they register and get a bracelet with a chip in it. They then can activate the stations with this bracelet. The first time they get to a station, one of the five characters appears on the screen and then accompanies them throughout their activities.
Formula D helped us create animated characters for our virtual stations; they brought them to life. For this, they created some sketches and worked with us until we developed together the character that we had in mind. Those characters represent the elements required to grow plants and create life: the sun, the earth, the water, the air, and the love and care.
The registration process includes getting all the details of the child and the parent who is in charge. One of the most important elements of this experience is the security and safety of the kids. We gather all the information from the parent or guardian, as well as from the person coming to pick the kids up at the end of the experience.
When they finish the experience, the person fetching them receives an SMS to their phone letting them know the child is ready to be collected. When they check out at the end of the activities, the parent gets an email summarizing the activities that the kid completed. If they still have other activities to complete, they can experience them on the next visit.
Formula D continues to work with us. We’re now working on some changes to optimize the experience, based on the feedback from our employees and the visitors.
FormulaD has a customer service line, through which our teams communicate when various issues arise. They also provide maintenance services to the software used for our exhibits.
What is the team composition?
I work directly with Formula D’s manager and the head of the technical team. I don’t know how many people work in the technical team.
How did you come to work with Formula D?
We started working on this idea with another company, but they were based outside of South Africa. They were very good, but we were about the future interaction with an overseas company.
We decided to look online for local companies that could execute such a project. There’s an aquarium in our area, and Formula D had designed an exhibit there, so we contacted them and told them what we had in mind. They showed us their portfolio, and we continued from there.
What is the status of this engagement?
We worked together from June 2018–June 2019 to create the exhibit. However, our relationship continues, and we have a maintenance service agreement in place.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The whole exhibit is working well. We’re now looking into opening another branch. We want to continue working with Formula D on future projects as well.
How did Formula D perform from a project management standpoint?
We’re happy with Formula D’s project management capabilities, and this is why we’re still working with them. There are systems in place for our ongoing work, and they work very well.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Formula D is very creative; both with content development and with solutions for technological challenges. We started with an idea and a concept in mind, but they helped us develop it and bring it to life.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Nothing specific.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
It’s very important to manage your expectations from the beginning. Be very clear about what you would like to achieve and test the product thoroughly prior to going live.
Proving their team's production skills, Formula D generated buzz-worthy AR deliverables that impressed the client and their audience. The team built solutions that met the client's needs and creatively incorporated their ideas into the final results. They were also commended for being collaborative.