Austrian dynamic ski map display

How do you communicate the status of an ever-changing environment?

For winter resort property managers, ensuring a positive experience depends on guiding their customers to appropriate outdoor places and managing the crowd and terrain accordingly. A ski slope is a dynamic environment where weather factors and skier use can quickly impact terrain conditions and difficulty. Downhill skiers and snowboarders often find it challenging to know where to find the best slopes in changing surface conditions.

Electronic public map signage for an Austrian ski resort

Luminant Design undertook an investigative study for an Austrian ski resort to look at how dynamic screen displays could improve the skiing and snowboarding customer experience in real time –in other words, ask “what could you do if a resort map could move?” Using atmospheric sensors, user modelling, and data from wireless smart cards and smart watches used for lift access control, the resulting visual display prototype presents real-time slope activity information including weather, ski slope conditions and skier activity. Design and content layout shown are copyrighted.

Client: Austrian Ski resort consortium
Date: March 1999–April 2002