In ID school they always told us "You're not just designing a product; you're designing an experience." That maxim becomes readily apparent when you're designing a system of products encompassing everything from furniture to lighting to technology and making it all work together, as it's intended to in Hewlett-Packard's Halo teleconferencing system.

It consists of one half of a conference table, placed opposite three huge plasma screens in a specially designed studio. Callers in other studios appear on the screens in life-size, as if they were sitting opposite. All studios are designed with the same furniture and decoration, to aid the illusion. There are no delays: sound and image are perfectly synchronised. Users can make eye contact with one another across the continents. Sound emanates from the right direction, adding to the verisimilitude. It is not quite like being in the same room, but close enough to allow natural conversation, with all the interruptions, gestures and telling facial expressions that entails.

Must have been fun to design, and we'd be quite curious to see the rejected concepts.

As we were looking over press photos like the one above, we couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity with how the faces were presented. Surely, we felt, we had seen something similar before. Then it hit us:

Who knew? The guy who did the opening credits for the Brady Bunch was an interface genius! It totally looks like Mike is looking at Greg!

...and Peter!

...and Bobby! Although frankly, in this shot he doesn't look too pleased with Bobby's performance.

via the economist blogs