Roland Berger –
Virtual event platform
An innovative web experience enables visitors from all over the world to come together during times of a global pandemic. The platform achieves to create a sense of community in the digital space, while attracting visitors with inspiring live talks, collaborative workshops and breakout sessions as well as valuable on-demand content – all in a custom built 3D-world.
Impact
For the first event the platform hosted 300 visitors from 33 different countries.
The platform quickly established itself as a blueprint for further internal and external events alongside measurable participant numbers and qualitative feedback.
Client
Roland Berger
Role
UX Lead, Concept, Wireframes, User flows
Duration
September 2020 - December 2020
Awards
The Lovie Awards - 1x Gold
Art Director Club - 1x Silver, 1x Bronze, 2x Honor
Deutscher Digital Award - 3x Silver, 1x Bronze, 1x Shortlist
Digital Communications Award - 1x Silver
Red Dot Design Award - 1x Winner
The Challenge
The pandemic forced Roland Berger to reimagine their annual leadership camp as a fully digital experience for employees worldwide. How can we create a digital experience that fosters genuine human connection when people can't be together in person?
Keeping the World
Connected
The approach was to create an event platform, which focuses on emotionality and liveliness. One that brings people from all over the world together, creates a community feeling and offers space for cooperation and dialogue.
Identifying User Needs &
Defining the 3D-Space
After identifying the organizational and employee needs for the internal event, I defined the core user types and feature set—spanning live presentations, collaborative interaction, and on-demand content. I then mapped these functional requirements into a 3D spatial framework to ensure the environment supported each use case intuitively.
Intuitive Navigation
First concept sketch and wireframe
Hotspot Navigation: To make navigation as simple as possible I created interactive hotspots, which intuitively guide user through the spatial environment. On click the user and its corresponding wisp get transferred to the selected location via camera ride.
Hub View: Initially users are located in the so-called hub view to gain a perfect overview of the platform and its virtual spaces.
Live Badges: Live badges provide real-time indicators of ongoing activities, helping participants quickly see what’s happening at a location.
Side Menu: To keep essential features accessible in the 3D environment, I added a side menu for the schedule, people list, profile, and support.
Convey the Feeling of Community
Most online events have one thing in common – they feel quite lonely. To change this, I defined a range of features that would help to convey the feeling of a social gathering in the virtual world.
1. Display users in the virtual world
To convey the feeling of a social gathering, I explored ways to represent users in the virtual space. Instead of playful avatars, I used ‘wisps’—small, glowing particles that float around the environment. Wisps are visually subtle, can represent large crowds without expanding the 3D space, and perform efficiently. In real time, they highlight areas of activity, helping users quickly spot where interactions are happening.
2. Let visitors share their emotions
To keep the platform intuitive, I integrated emojis, a familiar form of expression. Users can share their emotions live with the community, bringing the space to life. Selected emojis appear above each user’s particle, directly reflecting the crowd’s mood in real time.
3. Exchange via chat or video call
I designed a comprehensive event chat to support interaction between participants and moderators, including Q&A sessions during live presentations. Visitors can network via private 1:1 or group chats and initiate video calls with selected user groups at any time.
Wireframes
Example Click-flow
Video Call integration via Zoom
Onboarding
To help new users orient themselves, I designed an intro sequence that appears after login, guiding them through the virtual 3D world and highlighting key areas and platform features.
An Extraordinary Experience
This innovative 3D web experience achieves to let the employees of Roland Berger come together in times of a
global pandemic and beyond. With its extraordinary look the platform allows visitors to dive into a totally new type of virtual world.
Fighting the battle against Zoom Fatigue and creating a buzzing live experience.
What the users say…
„I was blown away by the quality
of this virtual event!“
– Participant, Christopher Lang
“It’s a fantastic experience!!!”
– Participant, Maria Mikhaylenko
“Very creative and with perfect technology!
Thank you very much to the organizing team.”
– Participant, Karsten Neumann
“Thank you for this format -
this could be a blueprint for the future.”
– Participant, Torsten Henzelmann
Press Features
Featured at Page Magazine
Featured at Red Dot B&C International Yearbook