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universal bingo [fun at theme parks]

tom — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 01:24:39 +0000

Universal Studios. I always feel like the attractions are designed with the intention of being perfect…and then it all goes to shit at the last minute. I’m not sure why so many of the attractions fail. Maybe it is the same off-the-shelf effects being used in the same way on multiple attractions, the terrible timing, the illogical stories, or the theming failures.

I’ve actually put so much thought into why many Universal attractions miss the mark and made it into a super fun Bingo Game!

So what do the squares mean you ask? Well random blog reader let me tell you. The magical series of tubes permits me to hide the explanation of each the squares, simply click to find out if we were thinking the same thing.

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

It’s true Disney is guilty of many of these same things. But Universal seems to try to include it all on every attraction. Can you think of anything I missed?

yogurt and digital displays that both need help [cherry on top]

tom — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:03:04 +0000

Frozen yogurt. It seems easy enough. First off, what would you think “natural frozen yogurt” means? One might say that ‘natural’ means free from artificial flavors, colors and preservatives. Well, Cherry On Top believes that natural actually means “mostly all natural ingredients.”

Every single one of their products has artificial flavor in the ingredient list. Click here to see this PDF of their nutrition facts. In July, I went to the website and submitted a comment about how calling an artificial product natural is misleading. The agent from the company apologized and told me that the Orange store was one of the first stores and that is why it still has items with their old catchphrase “Natural Frozen Yogurt.” It is now September and as you can see, the cups still say “natural.” What is worse, they have now switched the name placards in front of the machines so they do not contain the ingredient list any longer (yes, they used to list nutrition and ingredient facts on the placards). Now, if you want to know about the artificial flavor in their yogurt, you’ll have to ask for an ingredient list. Tricky.

But I degrees, the real issue is the displays they have behind the payment area. Last night I ended up going to buy some unnatural frozen yogurt to cleanse my palate of the Haven Gastropub (nice theming, meh food) and noticed that they were not working correctly.

It appears that the displays are actually running from one Windows XP computer that displays flash animation in Internet Explorer windows. Why could I tell this? Take a look:

Oops. This does explain why the animation is jerky and jagged. Annoyingly, the content of the display changes in such a way that the price per ounce of ice cream isn’t constantly displayed. It would be better for Cherry On Top to create content that is synced with all three displays, ensuring that important information (such as the price) is constantly available. Flash and Internet Explorer do not appear to be providing a seamless experience either.

As the displays are currently setup, they function only as a novelty.

Each of the three displays is an off-the-shelf Samsung LCD television. The bezel on this model is not uniformly sized and the samsung logo and model name is printed on the plastic. Cherry On Top has decided to mount the displays in a portrait format which makes the logo seem even more out of place. I feel like they might not be properly aligned but I need to take a picture with a real camera to check.

speaking of displays

tom — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:20:59 +0000

If you are going to use displays [what you might commonly call TVs] for menus or to display other forms of dynamic information in a retail, theme park, public transportation center, theater or other publicly accessible area you need to choose the right type of display. If you don’t, it looks sloppy. Plus you’ll make me grouchy…and that’s never magical.

Here are my rules for using off the shelf displays for information signage:

1. Choose LCD, not Plasma.

This is likely the biggest mistake you can make. While it is true that plasma displays have great contrast ratios, deep blacks and provide a more ‘cinematic’ viewing experience, they are not suited to display static information. Why? The evil screen burn, which is when static or repetitive graphics literally become ‘stuck’ on the display [as seen below]. Thankfully, well manufactured LCD displays are unlikely to experience this issue. Also, LCD displays have the added benefits of using less energy and being lighter than comparable plasma models.

by Ivana Bosnic

2. Choose a display with a uniformly sized bezel. [Preferably without a large brand logo]

This is a personal pet peeve of mine, especially with displays mounted in ‘themed’ areas. Choosing a display with a bezel that is thicker on one side is distracting and detracts from the goal of making the actual device ‘invisible’ to the reader. One shouldn’t be reviewing the brand of the display but instead the content.

You can see in this example from the queue of Test Track at Epcot that the bottom portion of the bezel is thicker than the other three sides. Also, the model and brand of the display are clearly visible at both the upper left corner and bottom center of the display, these should be covered or removed. Visible logos detract from the themed space. In fact, you could buy this television at your local Best Buy and likely format the content better than has been done by these ‘professionals’. [the original source was a 4:3 image and it is incorrectly formatted for this 16:9 display as you can see the text is chopped off at the upper left]

I hate to admit it, but Universal Studios Hollywood picked great displays for the queue of The Simpsons Ride.

As you can see, both of these displays have uniformly sized bezels and minmal branding. [The second NEC display does display the model but the color is not as distracting as the Toshiba at Test Track]

Keep these guidelines in mind and you will be on your way to good show…and making me happy!