St. Lawrence University
Question:
What is the best way to attract prospective students to your campus? How can multimedia communicate the diverse image of a university? How can a siteís success be quantified?
Technology Used:
- Flash
- PHP
- DHTML
- Streaming Media
- AJAX
- Client Managed System
Back Story:
St. Lawrence University needed a polished multimedia presentation incorporated into their website that would present what their campus had to offer to prospective students.
Three main focuses: the people of the campus, the curricular programs available there, and the campus itself were to be presented. Additionally, the entire project needed to be dynamic, to keep the info current and the faces fresh.
A final requirement was feedback. St Lawrence needed quantifiable information on how people were using this virtual tour.
St. Lawrence University needed a polished multimedia presentation incorporated into their website that would present what their campus had to offer to prospective students.
Three main focuses: the people of the campus, the curricular programs available there, and the campus itself were to be presented. Additionally, the entire project needed to be dynamic, to keep the info current and the faces fresh.
A final requirement was feedback. St Lawrence needed quantifiable information on how people were using this virtual tour.
Answer:
Blend Studios worked closely with St. Lawrence to create a product that met the expectations and level of quality expected by the university. A combination of intuitive usability, enticing graphics and transitions, and pleasing music created a final product that was far more than the sum of its parts.
The client managed system was extensive; the largest Blend Studios has built to date, and controlled every aspect of the final product.
Blend Studios worked closely with St. Lawrence to create a product that met the expectations and level of quality expected by the university. A combination of intuitive usability, enticing graphics and transitions, and pleasing music created a final product that was far more than the sum of its parts.
The client managed system was extensive; the largest Blend Studios has built to date, and controlled every aspect of the final product.
Execution:
With a well planned PHP foundation keeping all the work on the server, a flash movie of very small file size was created. This makes the project easily viewable in all browsers on all Internet connections.
Every bit of text and imagery is controlled by the client and may be modified, added to or removed completely. This allowed St. Lawrence a tremendous amount of control over the project, keeping it fresh and interesting for their visitors. Student testimonials may be added, changed, and moved to focus on different aspects of campus.
Completing the mood was the complimentary, acoustic music, composed here at Blend Studios, giving each section its own theme and, along with color and structure, its own unique identity.
The content managment system (CMS) was built from scratch with two things in mind: functionality and usability. Skinned to match the brand of St. Lawrence, the CMS itself was fully dynamic.
Using cutting edge, intuitive edit-in-place functionality, all the text was easily modified. Each individual ëscreení of the tour was directly mirrored in the CMS allowing a perfect preview of how changes would look in the actual flash movie.
Image editing was also important. A drag-and-drop technique was implemented allowing simple ordering of pictures for the place section.
Full control was paramount to the project. Not only does the CMS handle all content but features dynamic timing controls allowing the mood and pace of the project to be altered according to St. Lawrenceís needs.
Lastly, each time a visitor navigates through the presentation, each section is tracked independently, creating a detailed report which shows statistics on which sections receive the most traffic. This allows SLU to pinpoint the best location for their important content.
With a well planned PHP foundation keeping all the work on the server, a flash movie of very small file size was created. This makes the project easily viewable in all browsers on all Internet connections.
Every bit of text and imagery is controlled by the client and may be modified, added to or removed completely. This allowed St. Lawrence a tremendous amount of control over the project, keeping it fresh and interesting for their visitors. Student testimonials may be added, changed, and moved to focus on different aspects of campus.
Completing the mood was the complimentary, acoustic music, composed here at Blend Studios, giving each section its own theme and, along with color and structure, its own unique identity.
The content managment system (CMS) was built from scratch with two things in mind: functionality and usability. Skinned to match the brand of St. Lawrence, the CMS itself was fully dynamic.
Using cutting edge, intuitive edit-in-place functionality, all the text was easily modified. Each individual ëscreení of the tour was directly mirrored in the CMS allowing a perfect preview of how changes would look in the actual flash movie.
Image editing was also important. A drag-and-drop technique was implemented allowing simple ordering of pictures for the place section.
Full control was paramount to the project. Not only does the CMS handle all content but features dynamic timing controls allowing the mood and pace of the project to be altered according to St. Lawrenceís needs.
Lastly, each time a visitor navigates through the presentation, each section is tracked independently, creating a detailed report which shows statistics on which sections receive the most traffic. This allows SLU to pinpoint the best location for their important content.
Result:
St Lawrence launched this project in the beginning of September and has received much positive feedback from both prospective & current students as well as faculty and staff.
The project is just getting started and the next few months will surely show a steady rise in interest for the university, ultimately raising application rates and helping St Lawrence continue their tradition of a diverse and exciting education.
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St Lawrence launched this project in the beginning of September and has received much positive feedback from both prospective & current students as well as faculty and staff.
The project is just getting started and the next few months will surely show a steady rise in interest for the university, ultimately raising application rates and helping St Lawrence continue their tradition of a diverse and exciting education.
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