"Engineering excitement: a full-scale F1 racing simulator interface that turned Siemens brand values into an immersive competitive experience."
The Brief
Siemens needed an experiential activation that would resonate with a technical, high-achieving audience, turning brand engagement into a memorable, shareable physical moment.
Designed a complete F1 racing game UI: car selection, character choice, track customisation, real-time racing overlays, leaderboards, and a finish-line celebration screen, all branded to communicate Siemens precision and performance values.
Car & Character Selection
An intuitive multi-step selection flow, choose your character, pick your car, select the track. Each screen reinforced Siemens brand aesthetics through precision UI.
Racing Interface & HMI
The core racing UI delivered real-time telemetry overlays, clean typography, and responsive controls, directly parallel to Siemens industrial HMI philosophy.
Leaderboard & Celebration
A dynamic leaderboard drove competitive engagement. The Finish Line screen delivered a satisfying reward moment, creating shareable brand memories.
The Trade-offs
F1 racing theme over industrial simulation
F1 racing is universally understood as a proxy for precision engineering, while an industrial simulator would have been more on-brand, it would have attracted a narrower audience and created higher barrier to participation.
Gamified leaderboard over collaborative experience
Competition drove repeat participation and extended dwell time significantly. A collaborative model would have been less intense, but more inclusive for group participants.
14-screen UI system over simplified kiosk
The comprehensive UI demonstrated Siemens HMI capabilities directly, it was as much a product demo as an entertainment experience, justifying the design investment.
"The interface felt like it was designed for a Formula 1 paddock, exactly what we needed to communicate Siemens Engineering."
— Siemens, Event Lead
What I Learned
Gaming UI is industrial UI. The precision required for a racing interface directly mirrors what Siemens does in industrial control systems. This was a perfect brand-experience fit.
Leaderboards do the marketing. By the end of the day, participants were checking the board every 20 minutes. Competition drives dwell time more than any screen ever could.
