Responses by Eddie Benson, strategist, Active Theory; and Amy Knowles, senior account director, George P. Johnson.

Background: Targeting a developer audience, The Harmonic State is an interactive web experience that translates the breadth of IBM Watson’s capabilities into a fun, engaging experience while also educating users on Watson’s key business benefits. The intent was to show how Watson can empower organizations to easily find the insights they need to take action. Ultimately, the objective was to encourage our audience to take the next step and connect with IBM to learn more.

Design core: The site is a gaming experience. Users can navigate through three different levels that evolve from a visual, audio and game-mechanic perspective as you progress. Core to the concept was having the user engaged in uncovering an audio track that begins in dissonance and evolves into harmony. This is a nod to how Watson can be implemented across a range of businesses and use cases, and provide insights to shift organizations towards harmonious solutions.

Navigation structure: The experience consists of three different levels that each represent a different case-study application of IBM Watson: a voice agent to assist with customer service for Humana, a chatbot to support The Weather Channel and fantasy football insights for ESPN. While each level tells a different story, the user is free to explore them in any order and can easily select one from the outset.

Challenges: Similar to the many gaming experiences we build, it’s key to balance the gameplay to make it challenging, rewarding and fun. And given this is a marketing activation—as opposed to a larger game title—production happens on a rather tight schedule that doesn’t allow for hours and hours of difficulty testing. Another challenge specific to this concept was ensuring the audio interacted smoothly with the gameplay—and that users could understand the harmony concept as they played through.

Technology: The experience was developed using web technology—specifically WebGL—making it easily accessible across devices and browsers. Users could easily load up and play on desktop, mobile or tablet devices, as well as social browsers like Facebook and Instagram to support social campaigns.