Pfizer Avatar Installation
Interactive Medical Conference Experience
This was an interactive installation created for Pfizer to be shown at medical conferences around the world.
The experience allowed visitors to create their own personalised cartoon avatar using a touchscreen interface. Users could choose from different body parts and visual options, including hair, skin tone, clothing and accessories, before sending their finished character into a shared community of avatars.
Once the avatar had been created, the user was presented with a QR code that allowed them to download their avatar image online. This gave the experience a simple takeaway and helped extend the installation beyond the conference stand itself.
My Role
Sole Unity Developer
I was the sole Unity developer on the project, responsible for building the interactive experience and supporting the technical delivery for live event use.
My role covered the avatar creation system, touchscreen interface, multi-screen setup, shared avatar display, localisation support, QR code flow and overall application stability.
I also created editor tools to help preview and validate avatar combinations during development. With so many possible choices across hair, skin colour, clothing, accessories and other body parts, it was important to check that the avatars worked no matter what combination a user selected.
Technical Challenges
The main technical challenge was creating a multi-screen experience inside Unity.
The installation used two independent touchscreens where visitors could create avatars at the same time. These both fed into a larger shared display, which showed the community of avatars that had already been created.
This meant the system had to handle multiple users at once, keep each avatar creation flow separate, and then bring the final characters together into one shared visual experience.
Another important challenge was the avatar system itself. Each character was built from a range of interchangeable parts, so the system needed to support lots of possible combinations without visual issues. To help with this, I built Unity editor tools that allowed the team to preview every combination and catch problems before the experience reached the live environment.
Reliability was also a major requirement. The installation was designed for medical conferences, where it needed to run smoothly for long periods without constant technical support. This meant focusing on stability, clean state management and making sure the application could handle repeated use throughout the day.
Because the experience was shown internationally, localisation was also a key part of the project. The interface needed to support different languages and be flexible enough for use across multiple event locations.
Key Contributions
Sole Unity developer on the project.
Built the touchscreen avatar creation experience.
Developed the avatar customisation system using selectable body parts, clothing and accessories.
Created Unity editor tools to preview and validate avatar combinations.
Supported two independent touchscreen flows running at the same time.
Created the shared community display showing submitted avatars.
Implemented QR code generation so users could download their avatar image online.
Worked on multi-screen behaviour inside Unity.
Added localisation support for international conference use.
Focused on reliability and stability for all-day live event deployment.
Technologies
Unity, C#, touchscreen interaction, multi-display setup, avatar customisation, QR code generation, localisation, Unity editor tooling, event installation development, runtime stability, live deployment.
Outcome
The installation gave conference visitors a quick and engaging way to interact with the Pfizer stand, create something personal, and take it away with them afterwards.
For me, the project was a good example of Unity being used outside of games to create a polished, reliable interactive experience. The technical work was less about flashy effects and more about building a robust system that could support multiple users, multiple screens, localisation, a large number of avatar combinations and long-running event use.
