Creature Technology Co. – Taming the Wildest Animatronic Creatures

A typical industrial control system interface is dense with data, statuses and controls – making it complex and overwhelming.

Shadowboxer collaborated with subject matter experts to understand the system’s technical requirements and the unique needs of each user.

We searched the globe (and the internet) for best-in-class web interfaces and hypothesised how their design principles might be applied to an industrial automation tool.

Then, we completely reimagined the C-Tech interface to bring the familiarity and ease associated with web interfaces to it.

The result is C-Tech 2: a flexible, scalable control system where the user experience is expressive, free of visual clutter, and helps less-technical users confidently access basic operations while providing engineers easy access to advanced controls to program and troubleshoot.

The C-Tech 2 animatronic control system has been redesigned from the ground up to drastically improve the user experience.

Visual Design:
C-Tech 2’s intuitive interface communicates complex information effortlessly, ensuring users grasp creature health and critical statuses at a glance. A simplified interface reduces cognitive load, allowing users to feel in control and focus their attention on creating emotion-packed performances. The dark interface, tailored for live shows, reduces eye strain and enhances focus in low-light environments. Safety statuses and alarms are highly visible, immediately alerting users to potential problems allowing quick responses to maintain everyone’s safety.

Usability:
C-Tech 2 exceeds the function it was designed for. C-Tech 2 halves training time, enhances the overall user experience, and advances industry standards. Users often control creatures while on the move – so C-Tech 2 is optimised for touchscreen. The animation tool empowers character animators to craft lifelike motions without expert programming knowledge. Theme park operators navigate creature controls seamlessly, while engineers delve into advanced operations with ease.

Content and Quality:
Elegance and ease underpin every design decision. C-Tech 2’s information architecture is intuitively arranged so users can digest incredibly complex information effortlessly. A design system comprising bespoke components facilitates adaptability to diverse animatronic creatures efficiently and consistently.

Commerciality:
C-Tech was created on time and on budget. Its user-friendly interface and custom animation tools give Creature Technology Co. a competitive edge.

Beyond its design prowess, C-Tech 2 has unlocked significant (and unexpected) commercial opportunities for C-Tech2 as a licensed software product, thus clearly demonstrating the commercial benefits of investing in professional design.

C-Tech 2 revolutionised the design approach for industrial control systems, and in doing so opened up new commercial opportunities for Creature Technology Co.

A game-changing approach to industrial control systems:
Creature Technology Co.’s animatronic creatures are complex machinery – their control system is built using a platform called ‘Ignition’ which is made for use in industrial contexts – like monitoring and controlling manufacturing plant processes, machinery and production. Traditionally, these industrial control systems have exceptionally complex interfaces.

Shadowboxer set out to change that by completely reimagining the design of the control system. C-Tech 2 is unlike any other industrial control system. In fact, it’s one of the first industrial control systems in the world to bring the familiarity and ease associated with common web interfaces to what is essentially an industrial automation tool.

Local design, global impact:
With its highly visual, elegant and meticulously crafted design, C-Tech 2 is both unique in its sector and lifts the standard within its field – paving a bold new way of thinking about user experience and interface design techniques in complex engineering tools.

The C-Tech 2 redesign has helped Creature Technology Co., a local Australian company, pave the way for innovation in industrial control systems, earning them recognition on a global stage. And that means a brighter, more efficient, and more sustainable future across chemical engineering, aerospace engineering, biomedical engineering, environmental engineering, and more.

The C-Tech2 UI has created significant efficiencies for Creature Technology Co. – saving them time and money by allowing tasks to be performed by a bigger, less-qualified, range of people.

C-Tech 2 has slashed the time taken for Creature Tech Co. to train its creature operators. Initial creature setup and configuration time has been cut from months to weeks, freeing up engineers to work on other, higher-value tasks.

The time required to load new animation profiles has been halved, allowing more creative iterations during creature programming – and that means more spectacular performances.

Plus, the accessibility of error messages and feedback to the user means there’s much less opportunity for damage to expensive hardware and animatronics. And less heavy and expensive parts being shipped means more sustainable operations.

But C-Tech 2 has gone further than making a positive impact for Creature Technology Co. alone – it’s forged a revolutionary way of design thinking in the industrial control system space – creating exciting new opportunities across the field.

The potential for exciting new advancements in all types of engineering control systems – from aerospace to biomedical – has huge potential to contribute to a better, safer and more prosperous tomorrow, today. This opportunity is so great that Creature Technology Co. is currently commercialising the product by licencing it out and creating new revenue streams for the business.