- Signals
- 3 One buzz left, two right, three: you’ve arrived.
- Pairs made
- ~50 Arduino inside, 3D-printed cases. Never sold.
- Views
- 10M+ Tens of millions across press, online and TV, by easyJet’s own count.
- Press in
- 5+ Countries: Spain, the UK, France, Italy and the US.
The bet
Travellers explore new cities staring at a map on their phone. We wanted to give them their eyes back.
easyJet was already our client for communication and advertising, mostly digital. Nobody asked for sneakers: it was our idea, we put it in a presentation and took it to them, and it was love at first step. It was never meant to be a product. It was a notoriety campaign, built so people would talk about easyJet and travel without their eyes glued to a phone.
Decisions
Why the feet
- We chose
Sneakers, in easyJet orange.
- Why
This was about travelling with no screen and no gadget in your hand. Wearables were booming, the brand needed a territory of its own to talk about, and the orange made them impossible to miss.
- The hard part
Finding sneakers with a sole deep enough to hide the electronics, with some personality, and available in enough quantity to test.
Three buzzes
- We chose
One vibration: turn left. Two: turn right. Three: you’ve arrived.
- Why
It was the most efficient way to talk to someone through their feet. The whole interface fitted in three signals.
The phone stays in the pocket
- The catch
The shoes still needed a phone, for the route and the connection.
- We chose
An app that did almost nothing. Open it and the shoes pair on their own; type where you’re going and start. Then the phone goes in your pocket.
- How
Nokia’s maps API gave turn-by-turn directions with the screen off and the phone put away. The app didn’t do much more, and that was the idea.
Change partners halfway
- What happened
This wasn’t only software. The first development team couldn’t carry the hardware forward, and kept asking for more money to do it.
- We chose
To change partners halfway through development, and still deliver on time.
- Why it was hard
It was a prototype through and through. When something failed, it was hard to know where: the connection, the motor, the Arduino or the vibration.
How it went
- The pitchLove at first step
- The prototypeSketches, Arduino, a new partner
- March 2016The Barcelona Street Project
- AfterAirports in Dubai, London and Paris
My part was making the idea real with the team: the first sketches and Arduino plans with the developers and engineers, and the iOS app, in tandem with another UX designer. At the Barcelona Street Project people tried the shoes and let them lead the way to Gaudí’s Casa Milà and Casa Batlló, with a party, press, well-known faces and live music. About fifty pairs were made. They were shown at airports in Dubai, London and Paris, and given to celebrities and the media to get people talking. The coverage reached Spain, the UK, France, Italy and the US, from NPR to Digital Trends and New Atlas.
What we got wrong
The pitch promised shoes you could buy on board. They never made it onto a plane.
Selling them on easyJet flights was the idea we pitched, and it would have been the perfect ending. It stayed a campaign. And the first prototypes were hard: this wasn’t only software, the hardware needed a lot of research to find solutions that were good and viable at the time, and the first team we trusted with it couldn’t deliver.
If I did it today
Easier to build
I know much more about hardware now, and with today’s 3D printing the product would be far easier to make.
A different project
With today’s AI it would be a very different project.
Less noise
It would also make much less noise than it did. Connecting the dots backwards is easy; the hard part is guessing where they will appear next.
Less screen, more scenery.
