Uber Stream Lobby Experience

Experience
Background
Uber wanted to utilize their new global campus as a high-value setting to galvanize the company’s mission and culture, and help employees connect their contributions to positive, real-world impact.
Project Overview
Merl worked with HUSH Studios in Brooklyn, NY to create an interactive lobby experience in Uber’s new headquarters in Mission Bay, San Francisco. They wanted to put visitors through a journey into the scale and scope of Uber's story.
Uber's new Mission Bay Headquarters features a large lobby space that was perfect for an experiential intervention. Uber wanted visitors and employees to be inspired by the brand's story and vision for the present and future of transit.
The first idea that we floated to Uber involved a proximal experience. Visitors would be enticed to move deeper into the experiential space since their movement directly affected the visual content within the activation.

Uber’s mission statement is stated: to bring transportation — for everyone, everywhere. We looked to break down the story into three distinct parts in order to illustrate the vast and varying verticals, interactions, and opportunities that Uber facilitates.
Zoom: Proximity Based Storytelling
Experiential Concept 1
Our process began with sketching out a wide range of monogram styles. As a luxury architecture studio, we wanted to evoke a timeless elegance.

We took inspiration from classic serif and script-based typefaces, authoratative slab serif monograms, all the way to vintage humanist san-serif typefaces
The three zones are sketched over architectural renders of the Uber HQ lobby space.

Visitors are prompted to traverse between the three stages of the Uber narrative. As they moved closer, the story would transform from a global perspective to a regional view, all the way down to a personal driver partner story.
Zone 1: Passive moments
The overall gesture within the space is taken in upon first entering the lobby. Content exists in the abstract - but a clear connection between architecture, technology, and storytelling is made evident
Zone 2: Reactive moments
Proximity based reaction creates a constant sense of motion through the space as individuals pass by areas of content that content is pushed continuously throughout the space.
Zone 3: Approach
Moving forward in the space begins to push content further out into the installations, revealing the next story available to be seen. This reactive mode can only be seen when the space is empty and users enter for the first time.
The second idea we had involved creating an experience which utilised fluidity as a visual metaphor to convey the complex network of movement, journeys, and pathways that Uber facilitates.
Stream: A Coursing River
Experiential Concept 2
Visitors would walk towards the experience, trigger the interactive LED panels, and activate Uber’s content. Depending on where they are relative to the experience guests would access driver partner stories, learn about Uber’s latest mobility projects, or view the constant stream of Uber’s many data points spanning across the globe.
The team felt this idea carried the most potential since water, fluidity, and liquid could be conveyed in such varied ways. That and the fact that the concept evoked the most amount of movement meant that Stream was the idea that Uber decided to go ahead with.

Using Uber's wealth of content, we excitingly began to experiment with the various materials and digital manifestations that could be communicated within the lobby space.
Following reviews with Uber, the decision was to combine the best of both Zoom and Stream concepts to create a dynamic and fluid interactive experience.

Our architectural designers decided we should cover the lobby space with LED powered tubes. The tubes allowed for text and image content to flow freely through the space in varying fidelities.
Combining Concepts
Execution Phase
Though the LED tubes were rigid, we wanted the content within to behave like a fluid. Content would come in from one end of the lobby to the other – beginning as loose particles that then coalesce.

This composition created a compelling effect that translated well for both abstract moving patterns and higher fidelity video.
The Stream’s physical hardware and front-end visualization systems were designed for productization, modularity, and scalability. Following the deployment of The Stream in San Francisco, we scaled the work to Uber talent hubs in Dallas, Amsterdam, Chicago, and Mexico City.

This system allows operations teams in Uber’s headquarters to distribute and evolve core storytelling across offices in real-time, encouraging a deep connection between global employees and the universal brand mission.
Final Outcome

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For other inquries contact: julien@merl.studio