Late Easter Egg – Sandra 54

[For a quick guide go here: Quick guide.]

[There's some back story here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and read more recent Daniel episodes maybe this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

Upon opening the app, users are confronted with several options accompanied with a rather jaunty upbeat driving type tune and the sound effects of an approaching vehicle. The noise of a lorry builds and at its height an image of a truck sweeps across the screen leaving the user with the option buttons which appear to be quaking in their sockets as the vibration of the truck recedes. 

The options are:

Spot-a-truck

Living the Dream

What’s my Load?

Colour my Lorry

Hide and Seek

The Spot-a-Truck option is perhaps the most straightforward. Each of Entwhistle’s lorries has a name - well two names - visible on them. One is the name of the cab itself, the other was the driver’s name, which in general is stationed on the dash board, a moveable notice which the drivers take with them. Thus, users can identify both ‘Periwinkle’s Revenge’ and ‘Bob’ and if the back-end technology agrees these two should be together today, the user will be rewarded with a swift horn salute.

Living the Dream is a little more complicated, but designed to promote the idea of lorry driving as a career. Users can select a route, select a cab, personalise their living accommodation in the cab and even mark real-time journeys across the country. For every journey completed – ie. don’t touch the app for the duration of that journey other that just watching the small dot progress across the map  – the user receives points, electronic ‘gifts’ and another horn voluntary.

What’s my Load gives users the chance to guess what the lorry in front of them is carrying. The options suggested include everything from livestock (lambs, chickens, frogs, elephants, other) to food (maize, baked beans, boiled sweets, ice cream, other) to general goods (toys, chairs, furniture, books, pogo sticks, other).

Colour my Lorry really speaks for itself while Hide and Seek is an augmented reality game in which the app ‘hides’ lorries behind items of furniture around the house. Users can’t quite believe what they see as parked up lorries of various sizes start appearing in their rooms, behind the furniture, stuck in boxes unable to drive out, huddling hopefully behind doors. Hit the jackpot and a full sized juggernaut emerges from behind your shower curtain.

“Good job,” said Sandra to Tamsin.

“Thank you,” said Tamsin. “But it’s a bit of a mish-mash and completely trivialises the company.”

“Agreed. And yet it’s exactly what my boss wanted,” said Sandra, “Less transport industry, more theme park. But at least we’ve put in what we needed to.”

What Sandra was referring to was an Easter Egg of epic proportions. Sandra was indeed tiring of the trivial, so she and Tamsin had used their position of design and build to go a little further. Lurking underneath the dashboard of the app, and under the dashboard of one of the trucks featured on Living The Dream was another section of the app which only dedicated users would find. Hit the right combination of controls and colour schemes and they’d open the door on a virtual vat of information relating to the real experience of lorry driving and deliveries today.

They’d find themselves faced with working hours, contracts and interview material from real life drivers. They’d understand the pressure of working for company, the real work/life balance, the health issues and the payment terms. There was also an international section covering recent changes due to Brexit and the paperwork, delays and strains introduced by that and by the ongoing pandemic. Dig deeper and the user could also find a host of links to external organisations who’d give them the training, recognition and registration they needed to get on in the world of transport. 

This was not in anyway designed to work against the company. Sandra didn’t create this in order to put people off the company, the work or anything else for that matter, but she felt there should be a place for reality, even with the virtual word or the more playful world of the app. Lure people in by all means, entertain people, intrigued and stoke their interest, absolutely, but also don’t miss the chance to educate and inform.

That said she suspected David, who’s priority was really to deliver something that would rival the viral dating kittens, would not fully appreciate what she had done. And that’s why the piece was hidden away, possibly even permanently invisible to her boss so he’d never have to worry about it, while she would record exactly how many users wanted the information and how many just wanted fluff.

“Let’s just hope he doesn’t find it,” said Tamsin.