United States Postal Service (USPS)

Merging Physical and Digital Worlds Through Virtual Reality

While the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) maintains an extensive network, the service cannot exist on reach alone. USPS must apply innovative practices to optimize its network and address the political, commercial and business challenges of a rapidly changing landscape. In 2017, USPS formally launched Informed Delivery® (a program that provides a digital preview of a household's incoming mail) and needed to excite innovation leaders at the National Postal Forum (NPF) to ensure widespread adoption in the industry and among the greater public.

Intent

USPS relies on a vast ecosystem of partners, service providers and suppliers. NPF is the leading mechanism for USPS to directly interface with these organizations and update them on USPS strategy, technology, policy and opportunities within the organization. The annual conference thus presents an ideal opportunity for USPS to interact with key mailing industry partners and business customers and to engage and excite them about how they can leverage Informed Delivery and other innovative Postal Service offerings.

Throughline worked with multiple leaders across the organization to deliver keynote presentations related to the future of mail and created a multi-pronged approach to bring Informed Delivery to life. Leveraging our storytelling and advanced visualization capabilities, we created a Virtual Reality experience where anyone on the trade floor could explore the world of Informed Delivery through a vivid aquarium experience.

Additionally, we designed a physical mail piece for attendees to take with them that matched the VR aquatic theme and directed them to a microsite to continue their experience post-NPF. In essence, the virtual reality experience had an augmented reality experience in it to help explain the impact of Informed Delivery for companies selling directly to consumers.

IMPACT

Thousands of people were eager to try out the VR experience, which was unique and exciting among the hundreds of booths at the conference. Not only did this raise awareness about Informed Delivery, but it also facilitated thousands registering for the service, bringing USPS closer to its target sign-up goal. The experience was then used at subsequent industry events, accompanied by a complementary video on mail innovations.

DISCIPLINES

Culture & Change
Culture & Change
Customer Experience
Customer Experience
Innovation
Innovation
Visual Design
Visual Design
UI/UX Design
UI/UX Design

Throughline CAREERS

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