When viewing a 360-degree image, you spin around and control the direction simply moving your finger on the image. It’s cool the first couple of times, but one can lose interest without engagement.
When one adds levels of interactive elements to a 360-degree image, it’s like having a microsite within your social media. Interactive triggers are called hotspots that pop up when you click it. The standard usually shows either an image, animation, or movie with the intention to communicate direction, information, demonstration, or using a call to action, such as a sign-up, donation, or purchase.
Staff training. Knowing how fast technology changes and because workplace training is mandatory by law, every company needs to stay on top of technology updates and provide training for staff. Providing traditional training for employees, keeping them up-to-date can be time, cost, and labor intensive. Virtual training is not only time and cost efficient, but it’s also trackable. Senior management can monitor what the employee viewer clicked on, how long they watched it, and how they problem solved.
Selling products often need to have a book of instructions, in multiple languages, and often littered with grammatical errors, occasionally leaving out one sentence that is crucial for someone trying to follow directions. Below is an example of how SEARS gives direction and customer follow-up after purchasing an appliance.
SEARS Home Services uses an interactive photo within their learning section article to explain common dryer misuse, along with tips to correct them and get dryers running properly. In addition to including common problems and helpful solutions, SEARS tags a YouTube video featuring top tips from a technician, and a link to schedule a demo with their repair services. The design uses custom icons and their own logo to match the look and feel of their website, reinforcing their brand.
Next, we show an example of a 360 interactive image promoting a cruise ship. Once the viewer enters, they have control over viewing in full screen with hotspots in the upper mid area, as well as images below that click through to additional areas of the ship in 360 images. Our issue with this project is that there is no indicator to the home area for the viewer to navigate to, or more importantly, a call to action to purchase tickets.
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