I don’t get to play with too many enormous touch screen displays, so the NYC official tourist office grabbed my attention as I walked by on 7th Ave the other day (between 52nd and 53rd). A typical tourism office has walls of brochures. (Fun!) But this tourist office brings the city’s options to life with a fun process that starts with grabbing a hockey puck (a little orange disk) and ends with a video display of your selected spots to visit in NYC. I can’t assess the utility of the service precisely—I’m not really the intended user, but I can tell you that I was delighted by the experience.

While not great for comprehensive information about potential stops (which would normally include reviews, schedules, etc.), it does seem to provide a fun way to put together an itinerary of stops that might criss-cross the city–a fun high-level planning tool (despite the lack of Google information you can get online on how to get from point A to point B and B to C and so on). That’s okay. For me, the novelty of the interaction made for a very fun 10-15 minutes and got me excited plan a fictional day avoiding work. The payoff is a personalized Google Earth tour of the stops I added to my disk on a huge screen in the back of the store. Tiny bit useful, super fun to see.

Lousy pictures here (I was feeling watched) and taken on an iPhone, so sorry for the quality level. But you get the idea. A great overview of the room can be seen on the photo slideshow on the NYC Go website.

Visit starts with simple instructions--Grab a disk

Step 1: Visit starts with simple instructions--Grab a puck

Step 1: Put the disc on the digital tabletop

Step 2: Put the puck on the digital tabletop, and the wheel of possibility (oh yeah, I'm trademarking that phrase) comes up

Step 3: Move the map with your fingers and watch the results from the category you selected=

Step 3: Move the map with your fingers and watch the results from the category you selected pop up around the puck. When you touch one, a box of info comes up (sorry, no pic). To see the other categories in the area you navigated to, you touch the color wheel.

Fun feature—see where celebrity locals recommend

Fun feature—see where celebrity locals recommend

You can email your itinerary to yourself or someone else—if the screen is smudged, this can be a little frustrating as it may not pick up your touch without a little extra effort

You can email your itinerary to yourself or someone else—if the screen is smudged, this can be a little frustrating as it may not pick up your touch without a little extra effort

Now there's a nice idea—you can even text your picks

Now there's a nice idea—you can even text your picks...

But wait! It's an AT&T feature and it's New York and I tried to send it to my iPhone, so it doesn't work. (That's a whole other issue, but I will say this. If you're going to errect a giant AT&T ad at Yankee Stadium, you should make sure people can send text messages when they're sitting RIGHT UNDER THE AD. And Central Park for a concert? Don't plan on texting friends to meet up. Deep breath.)

But wait! It's an AT&T feature and it's New York and I tried to send it to my iPhone. That's the triple whammy. Doesn't work. (By the way, if you're going to erect a giant AT&T ad at Yankee Stadium, you should make sure people can send text messages and make calls when they're sitting RIGHT UNDER THE AD. And Central Park for a concert? Don't plan on texting friends to meet up. Dear Verizon, please get the iPhone. Droid ain't there yet.)

Disc on the pedestal

Put your disc on the pedestal and get ready for the show

Your personal trip is shown on the huge screen

Your personal trip is shown on the huge screen

Love the flyover

Love the flyover

You can start to see you points plotted on the map, with a dotted orange line connecting them. It's nice to get a sense of the space, distance between spots, rough coverage of the city—a general lay of the land.

You can start to see you points plotted on the map, with a dotted orange line connecting them. It's nice to get a sense of the space, distance between spots, rough coverage of the city—a general lay of the land.

Imaging how much fun you'd be having right now if these pictures weren't so fuzzy :)

Imaging how much fun you'd be having right now if these pictures weren't so fuzzy and you were watching your picks on screen :)

Time to print my plan and head out

Time to print my plan and head out

Viola. On the front, a Google map with my markers. On the back, a color-coded listing of businesses, restaurants, Broadways shows and their addresses—plus (smart marketing) two ads, one offering a $4 discount on an exhibition with a special code.

Viola. On the front, a Google map with my markers. On the back, a color-coded listing of businesses, restaurants, Broadways shows and their addresses—plus (smart marketing) two ads, one offering a $4 discount on an exhibition with a special code.

 

What are other huge, interactive displays you’ve seen? The one in the Chicago airport comes to mind (so cool and unexpected–I’ll have to find pictures). And I haven’t been to Clo yet in the Time Warner Center–wine bar with a tabletop screen you can order with…I have to put that on the “must see” list.