KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Popstar Networks Inc. and Digital Evolution Group, a full-service e-consultancy firm, recently partnered to develop and install interactive event and wayfinding kiosks at Crown Center. Crown Center, located in the heart of downtown Kansas City and owned by Hallmark Cards, Inc., is a multi-use 40-acre complex including a retail shopping mall, two luxury hotels, an exhibit hall and other office and residential buildings.
The kiosk project was commissioned to enhance the visitor experience in navigating and obtaining detailed information on retailers, dining establishments, and entertainment venues located within the complex. The state-of-the-art kiosks allow visitors to locate stores based upon the category or name of the store and provide a description of the retailer, store hours and any current sales or promotions.
Additionally, they offer guided direction to the store through Digital Evolution Group's interactive property map solution. These advanced interactive kiosks also provide information on the Crown Center campus and surrounding attractions, display restaurant menus, play video clips of currently running theater productions and promote other upcoming events at the Center.
Digital Evolution Group, which designed and developed Crown Center's Web site, partnered with Popstar to provide Popstar's Frontstage interactive digital signage solution because of its ability to integrate directly with its powerful Site Management System. The integration with Digital Evolution Group's Site Management System provides Crown Center the ability to centrally control the updating of content, event listings, store and digital map information, and video and graphic files on both the website and the four installed kiosks via the Frontstage Server.
As part of Popstar's BackStage strategic consulting process, the parties collaborated to identify all project goals and content requirements before developing wireframes and prototypes for Crown Center to review. A field and user interaction study conducted early in the process resulted in the solution being clearly defined to meet Crown Center's unique requirements and allowed for efficient interactive development within Popstar's FrontStage Digital Signage Network software. The project was completed in 90 days, just prior to the holiday season – one of Crown Center's most highly trafficked periods.
"The field and user studies were a very important part to the success of the project, allowing us to confirm assumptions and verify requirements before the application development began. Utilizing the Popstar BackStage process and clearly defining goals and further refining them gave us a clear roadmap for development and final deployment," said Maria Scarpello, sales solutions manager at Popstar, "This resulted in a solution that ideally suited the needs of Crown Center" she added.
"Empowering our client partners to command and control digital content from a centralized web-based interface and push it to any platform, screen or device has been the cornerstone of our success for past nine years," said Jeff Eden, principal at Digital Evolution Group. "Popstar's FrontStage software now allows us to efficiently deploy cost effective and centrally managed digital signage solutions for our national and global client base."
