With publishing solutions for just about every type of web content – RSS feeds, intranet CRMs, document management platforms, and a growing number of content management systems – it’s easy to get lost in the fray. Systems range from open source to enterprise-level, and address a central need facing the internet-savvy organization: how best to assemble, secure, and publish a wide array of marketing content spread across a variety of internal departments. Information comes in the form of printed documents, legacy databases, subscription-based software, streaming video – among others. Such a heterogeneous electronic landscape means it’s almost impossible to find an out-of-the-box panacea, and those that promising seamlessly manage everything often are too complex or costly for an average customer to implement. And while popular web site features like blogs, newsfeeds, media galleries, and wikis address specific needs, they are not a total web strategy. What most companies need is a flexible platform on which to build agile web content delivery.

An Infrastructure Challenge
A recent site launch, Brooklyn Law School (www.brooklaw.edu) faced such a back-end integration challenge. We were selected by the school for our creative approach – in both photography and unique, easy-to-navigate web interfaces – and for our development experience.  The chosen design had to transparently assemble and display data from several different back-ends. First, the law school had invested significantly in a Microsoft Sharepoint intranet serving the campus community - publishing campus announcements, important documents, and a comprehensive faculty database, tightly coupled with the law school’s internal directory. Additionally, the course database lived in separate system called Colleague, and the new online course listing needed to be dynamically linked to faculty biographical data (and vice-versa). Alumni news updates lived in an internal MySQL database, and needed to be displayed online in a class notes directory listed by decade. Streaming videos of symposia and lectures were hosted by a third-party media hosting provider. Finally, a library of media gallery-bound digital photography was catalogued on various file systems and DVDs. Our task for the redesigned web site: assemble this diverse array of information into a single management interface. No easy task – it was time to think out of the box.

A Regimented Technical Approach
Having selected the Sitecore CMS to manage the new site content, Brooklyn Law School (BLS) made a wise choice considering the project scope. As a certified Sitecore technology partner, we have implemented Sitecore on a number of websites. The Sitecore CMS features an intuitive, hierarchical management interface, a straightforward page template editor – and perhaps most importantly – a .NET programming core allowing engineers to easily write code to extract data from external sources.

During the project’s discovery and production phases, we worked with the client’s IT communications teams to develop the optimal solution for our data integration challenges, and tested various approaches. The chosen direction: Create a custom .NET programming interface built on the Microsoft-documented Sharepoint web service and .NET database object APIs. Using these libraries, our developers were able to build a sophisticated object-oriented interface containing business logic and data retrieval classes. High-level functions assimilated external course, and publication information. In turn, those functions called more intricate functions responsible for the scheduled extraction of data from its web service or database source. Since the redesigned faculty pages linked to course information originating in Colleague, we wrote special data retrieval logic to match faculty members with appropriate Colleague course records (using middle-tier SQL views pointing at unique Sharepoint record identifiers). Separating front-end code from such complicated back-end logic allowed for clean management of information delivery, and avoided the all-too-common programming pitfall of “spaghetti code”. The end result was cleverly engineered feat of data integration.

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Dynamic Media Galleries
Thankfully, video and photo media content was easier to take on. Having several media players under their belt, our Flash developers were able to quickly produce a streaming video player consistent with the new design. Having developed a Sitecore template with a field for the video URL, our developers wrote a .NET page to dynamically feed the video link to the player. As for photo galleries, we enabled content editors to upload a variety of image content to the CMS, including titles and captions. We then developed a dynamic XML feed of photo gallery content, and created a Flash-based slideshow which read and displayed the XML in an interactive image gallery. Online class notes comprised a manageable amount of data which lived in a database eventually being phased out, so this content would be managed in Sitecore.

Experience gained from this project gave our interactive team a deeper understanding of the subtleties of a higher-ed site’s complex content landscape. We recognized that such an infrastructure is not unique, and it was implicit from the project contract that the CMS alone would not host the new site’s entire body of content. On a smaller scale, a planned content transition presents a more sensible solution than a planning- and programming-heavy integration effort. However,  business requirements often call for the preservation of certain pre-existing data silos. A customized Sitecore platform allowed our designers to be creative, while enabling our programmers to efficiently triage and display information from a variety of sources. The redesigned Brooklyn Law School web site communicates a clean, tasteful design atop a significant effort of back-end integration. In some cases, excellence in design is not only found above the hood.

So is the new iPad just for innovative media companies like the New York Times and innovative booksellers like HarperCollins, or can you use it for your business?  I am thinking primarily of business communication content than business utilization. There are some obvious business communication contenders:

•High-end corporate and institutional magazines.  Several of our larger institutional and corporate clients still publish high production value specialty magazines – well-researched, well-written, well-designed, well-illustrated.  Great content.  You do want to read these. The iPad seems a natural place to enhance and enliven this content, enabling the use of video, interaction, and high-quality, print-like design. And there are precedents developing quickly in the consumer space.  The New York Times reports that Conde Nast is planning iPad versions of GQ, Wired, Vanity Fair, Glamour and The New Yorker. Interview magazine has demonstrated its iPad version and there is a story and video about this on the Huffington Post.  Several iPad magazine prototypes are on YouTube. For niche business magazines, particularly in the IT or health care space, an iPad option may prove valuable.  

•Corporate Technical E-books. There is a new iBooks app that will be part of the iPad launch, and mass market publishers are signed up to provide content for that app.  It seems to be a natural for any “books” that a company produces for customers – technical manuals, application guides, research protocols.  The rationale for e-books holds here, but on top of that is the apparently high “book-like” interactive feel of the iPad. And, there is also the possibility of embedding training videos and interactive testing functions. Again, assuming the iPad takes off, company books are low-hanging fruit.

•Annual Reports, Corporate Social Responsibility Reports, Research Reports. I was thinking of these type of documents for the iPad before it came out, primarily of the potential for having high quality print-like design combined with video and interactive capabilities. You could turn things, shuffle things, play with things, resize things. Expand that CEO video. Flip through the financials like a set of album covers.  Connect by touching rather than pointing and clicking to deeper stories, third-party references, competitors. In one sense, ARs. CSRs and “RRs” are the yearly “magazines” for a company or institution, and the rationale for magazines on an iPad holds here.

Okay, okay. It does depend on who buys and who has the iPad and how fast it grows in volume! And the iPad certainly won’t replace high quality print or high quality web sites. And there is an entire ecosystem of content management and flow to be considered, as well as the risk of being “first.”  And the innovative device is missing flash-playing capabilities.  But there is real potential here to have high quality design and interactive in a new way. You escape the point-and-click metaphor. Not to go McLuhan on you, but if you change the process of interacting, you change the message. I do think this device can make a difference, and could help innovative companies tell their story better on several levels.  The New York Times speaker at the Apple announcement event, Martin Nisenholtz, noted when talking about their iPad application: “(We are) creating something that joins the best of print and best of digital, all rolled up into one.”  Think of what it may mean for your business communications 12 months or 24 months from now.

Around this time every year we get a well-produced hardcover book that highlights the top 100 annual reports of the past year.  It’s great to thumb through - see how our work compares to the top talent, see some really smart design and writing, see the value of well-done print work, both the work celebrated and the Graphis book itself.   It’s inspirational.  It’s newly printed, and smells good.

We had two winners in the book - a Platinum award for a Courier Annual Report, and a Silver award for a Harvard Business School annual report, and we’re grateful for that recognition.  There were interviews for the Platinum award winners that went below the surface - the client’s directive, the approach, the process, the metrics.  Anyone designing, writing or project managing annual reports would find these useful.

This year Graphis also addressed the “AR2.0″ concept, the idea of a robust online annual report with immersive, updatable content and video. They asked Mike Weymouth, our Mike, for a positioning article, and he provided one: “The Online & Print Annual Report: Carpe Diem or Carpe Diem Cras?”  Mike puts the AR 2.0 concept in the context of advances in technology, IR strategy, and real-world case studies from Life Technologies and General Electric.  He also created the photographs to accomany the article.  You can get a copy of his article here.  PDF: “The Online & Print Annual Report: Carpe Diem or Carpe Diem Cras”  Thanks to Graphis for permission to post this PDF.

And you can see excerpts from the Graphis book online.  Of course, you won’t get that new high quality print smell!  You can order the book on the Graphis site as well.

We’re pretty excited about Mike Weymouth’s new book How Photography Can Make You a Better Painter,  just published by Graphis, Inc.   It’s educational and provocative for the painter – as well as a painter-appreciator.  It is a visual delight in the way it is designed and with its photographs and original Mike Weymouth paintings.  It’s also a verbal delight with unexpected turns of phrase and points of view.  We have permission from the publisher to include a sample flipbook. Take a look.

Most clients have seen Mike’s photography, videography and breakthrough design over the years.  Only a few have seen his paintings, which are remarkable. You can get the book on Mike’s site.

We were asked this question by a potential client several weeks ago, who was commissioning a website redesign. Of course we gave the precise answer, 24 months, based on plugging into a redesign algorithm the site traffic, the online sales, the relatively modest size of the site, the brand index, the competitive site metrics, the x-factor of new web technologies and best practices, and the loudness of the moon-howling by disgruntled employees and distraught executives.  There were other variables, of course, but they were lost in the howling, and we did answer 24 months.

In 1994, things were different. Simpler algorithms, for one. My first company website (first in its industry), was redesigned every 6 months. We tried everything. We were learning new things. We latched onto some usability geniuses who developed a “search frustration factor” and we were off to the races: Let’s change this and that. Let’s try this navigation scheme. Let’s add a remote control. We were in the experimental mode of “fire for effect.” Later, when e-commerce was added, and ERP systems linked, and ASP sites for HR and IR, and international sites, and a catalog with thousands of products, rapid change was of course more difficult.

Fast forward to 2010, and now on the agency side of the creative process.  We have just completed one robust site redesign and are in the midst of another.  Both are time and labor-intensive, both have a new information architecture and content management system, both have thousands (thousands) of “pages,” both have significant system integration tasks, both have new images, video and written content. The process for both is in the year-long range. The size and complexity of a site does matter here: it complicates redesign. For large sites, a total revamping after 24 months would not provide a good ROI, and a 36 or 48-month cycle may be more appropriate. But - it depends!

So when should you consider a site redesign?  What’s the tipping point for change?

1.    The World Has Tilted On Its Axis.  If the market has changed dramatically - with a disruptive technology, a new competitor, new demographics, or a major industry-wide downturn - a business or institution has to respond, and the website has to reflect, drive and lead that response. Three or two-year-old thinking may have to change on taxonomy, information architecture, content, function, and design. If an enterprise site has had the foresight to build a robust and flexible content management system, change will be simplified, but still significant.

2.    You Want to Tilt the World a New Way.  New branding, new strategic direction, radically new technology – you need to redesign your website. Again, your back-end systems and architecture so well thought out two or three years ago may save you time in redesign - but it is still a significant project, with new upfront work required on target users and their needs.

3.    You Need to Significantly Tilt Sales Up and Costs Down.  Let’s say your direct higher education competitor has a significantly higher admissions yield, or your direct life science tools competitor has a significantly higher percentage of online sales, or faster sales growth. They announce at their annual meeting that their online sales are 80% of their total and yours are just breaking 8%. A site redesign can help remedy that and provide a significant ROI, assuming it is based on customer intelligence - including focus groups and usability testing.

4.     Your House Is Tilting.  Drive out into the far suburbs of Boston and you will see these colonial houses with endless additions that go on and on. A room here and a room there, a building that extends deep into the woods. If you have made a lot of additions to your website over a two-year period - entirely new areas of content, new types of tools - it may start to look like one of those colonial houses. At some point it may make sense to tear the house down and start over with a stronger foundation, including a stronger information architecture. But - of course - beware the Historical Society.

5.    You Tilt on Auto Pilot.  Well-run websites are constantly in flux - changing imagery and content, optimizing their nomenclature, tweaking their integrations and linkages, adding new interactive applications.  The changes are based on user input, on traffic, on analytics, on periodic direct research. But if a site is fairly static for two to three years, chances are it needs an overhaul - both of product and process.

So, “How often should I redesign my company or institution’s website?” It really does depend on a number of variables, but typically not less than two years, and not more than five. For a major enterprise, change can be “built-in” and simplified with a robust back-end CMS system. The more work you do to get it right the first time, with a deep understanding of your user and what they want to achieve, and with a well-founded information architecture scheme and taxonomy, with a continuous mining of analytics and end-user intelligence, the easier it will be the next time.

For six years we have been tracking annual report trends of the 15 “most admired companies” as rated by Fortune Magazine. The annual study looks at print and online formats. The majority of the sample have demonstrated continuity in printed presentation over time while while online formats have evolved significantly.

In terms of print formats, the majority of the sample demonstrated continuity in reporting, creating high production value, traditional annual reports. We categorize print formats into traditional annual report, 10-K wrap, summary annual report, no-frills traditional annual reports, and10-Ks.

The interactive annual report paradigm has undergone a major shift over the past six years. More than half of the companies in the sample now leverage a custom interactive format built with HTML or Flash. Two of the 15 interactive annual reports have added video content since 2008. “With video, we can compliment the annual report by bringing stories to life in multiple dimensions” stated one client side director. Only 3 companies in the 2008 sample posted just a pdf for the online report.

If you or your team have been tasked with managing the annual report and evaluating different goals and formats you may find this research helpful. Our research provides an overview of the different print and interactive formats as well as real life examples of leading edge approaches with insights into how and why companies have made format decisions.

If you are interested in the research please contact us: http://www.weymouthdesign.com/contactus.aspx

One of my favorite writers, Italo Calvino, published a book of essays about fiction in 1985 called Six Memos for the Next Millennium, that describes the characteristics of what fiction can and should be. The titles of his essays can serve as a useful construct for many creative endeavors, including websites. Asked to speak about trends in web design at Boston College earlier this year, I used Calvino’s construct to talk about those trends. Please note that I took and am taking considerable liberties in using Calvino’s thoughts selectively — and in a different order! I am doing what Calvino himself described in another context when he stated, “everyone mines every book for the things that are useful to him.”

Memo #1 Exactitude

The first memo for the next website: Exactitude. There is a lot of design before design for the best websites: business goals are set and prioritized; users are understood for who they are and what they want to achieve on the website; existing analytics and search frustration terms are mined for information; peer group and competitive sites and strategies are studied. It always helps to talk directly to end users in online focus groups. And it may help to collect quick quantitative pop-up survey information from every x visitor to the current site. Under exactitude I’d include pre-design work on nomenclature, taxonomy, and information architecture, all of which roots and structures the best creative design. Assuming a site already exists, usability studies on that site conducted by third-party usability laboratories can be used to inform smart design. These studies can also be used for testing design concepts during the design process.

After the creative work of business analysis and architecture, exactitude applies to the creative design itself. Do the images and words reflect the brand and speak directly — exactly — to the user or sets of users? Images offer an immediate emotive appeal, but, as noted by others, “words matter.” In this case, exactitude applies to all the work that needs to be done before mouse goes to design pixel, and later to the choice of images, colors, and words that resonate with the website user.

Memo #2: Lightness

So, what resonates? “Lightness” is an apt description of better-designed websites. It is the design axiom of less is more — a higher use of aesthetics with white space or negative space and imagery that is larger and more emotive. I’ve included a series of home pages below, all of which have white space or negative space. Take a look at the sites below for Brooklyn Law School, Viropharma, Life Technologies, Sappi Ideas That Matter, Dodge & Cox Funds, and Michael Weymouth Art. White space abounds. User paths are clear and simple. The type is legible and layers of navigation are simply presented and invite engagement.

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The memo to the next website: use all the space you can; use the space wisely, and leave room for the eye to move. Provide information in layers. Offer the user simple, intuitive controls to get that information. Surprise and delight with copy and images that offer a visual and verbal acuity, unexpected but at the same time on target.

Memo #3 Quickness

Quickness is key. Convey the brand image quickly, convey the information quickly, let the user get in and out with what he or she needs, if it takes thirty seconds or (if necessary) thirty minutes or more of accurate, useful information. Quickness is a mix of form and function. Take a look at the home page redesigned for Activeion.com, a firm changing the way people think about cleaning. There are clear action paths with buttons for learning more, watching a demonstration, or ordering the product. Interactive rollover marks on the product image quickly summarize the features. Videos pop up in a light box, quickly and easily, without leaving the home page. Background imagery puts the product in context and helps build the visual brand of this innovative start-up.

A great example of quickness in design and function is the interactive Financial Snapshot created for Invitrogen — one of the first AR 2.0 projects in 2008. There is a matrix of numbers. Users click on their metric of interest and a voiceover from the CFO puts the number in context. Analytics indicated this was the part of the annual report where users spent the most time. It’s simple, intuitive, visual, and verbal.

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Quickness entails more than design and more than function; it means having the infrastructure to quickly display information. The idea of a spokesperson on a screen is not new, but making it work effectively and smoothly is critical. That means optimizing the video for the web and working with the IT team and the infrastructure so that the quick message isn’t subverted. My kingdom for bandwidth. My kingdom for server capacity.

A memo to the next website on quickness: shorter is better — shorter video, shorter audio, shorter copy. New web technologies can make things quick. Make it easier to interact, to layer, to light up (or light box) on demand. And infrastructure matters.

Memo #4 Visibility (or Videobility)

Another memo for the next website: make the invisible visible. Expose, put in motion, explain. Add animations. Incorporate video. I am thinking of the mechanisms of action of new drug therapies and the animations of how instruments work. I am thinking of the rapid increase in the number and type of videos we are creating and incorporating into websites for clients across all industries. Mechanisms of action are extremely effective for explaining new therapies to investors, doctors, and patients. Any complex concept can be simplified with visualization, and MOAs are good example of that.

Video on websites is not new, but it has exploded in the past two years. Different filming and editing techniques are required (a topic for another blog post), but videos help tell a story, make the invisible visible, and if done well, add to the richness of site experience for the user.

A recent site launch is all videos — videos created for sinus surgeons and their patients. This series of videos really does make the invisible visible. (Don’t look if you are queasy!). The surgeon is adding a continuous stream of videos.

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For another client, VBrick, a “video wall” on the home page created a dynamic means of showing (and flipping) a number of different types of video snippets.

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The axiom for visibility (and videobility): show, don’t tell. Use animation. Use video. Use illustration. Create applications and widgets that make the invisible visible.

Memo #5: Multiplicity

The website is only one spoke in the digital wheel. There is mobile, of course. There is Facebook and Twitter and YouTube. There are widgets and podcasts and RSS feeds and e-marketing programs. In a memo to your anthropomorphized website: think beyond yourself; you are only one part of the digital storytelling.

Multiplicity is evident with Activeion, one of our clients. You can see all the different channels where information is presented. Note the page on YouTube with the same video used on the home page.

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Mobile. Every year seems the year for mobile. But with increases in bandwidth and the advent of smart phones, mobile has to be considered in digital marketing strategies. Cross-channel applications are possible here as well. We have prototyped using new Microsoft capabilities to integrate print and mobile, i.e., take a photo of a mark on a print ad with your iPhone or other smart phone and you’re connected to a video you can see on that iPhone or smart phone.

Memo #6 Consistency

This may be the most obvious memo for the next website: be consistent externally and internally. Consistency strengthens the brand, leverages digital assets, and communicates more effectively. In the course of performing competitive reviews we have seen sites with a revised top level, but chaotic second and third tiers. Consistency has to go beyond look and feel to consistent navigation metaphors. Confusion often takes users away from sites immediately.

External consistency is equally as important.  Note the consistency, below, of the web and Twitter sites of the Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center (aka Harvard Catalyst), which reinforces the brand and the community it is creating.

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One final note on consistency: avoid peer consistency! We have been struck, in competitive peer reviews, by how similar sites in the same area can be. For example, many pharmaceutical sites have “happy patients” and the sites are interchangeable, save for logos. Also, in another competitive study, we saw very similar stock photography used on two direct competitors. The imagery on a site is one of the brand elements that can, and should, set a site apart.

Six Memos

Exactitude, Lightness, Quickness, Visibility, Multiplicity, Consistency: a useful construct to talk about a number of creative endeavors, and useful for talking about new websites. We do see more vibrant, intuitive, and adaptive interfaces coming. We do see higher aesthetics in terms of typography, space, and imagery. There is a much higher use of video online and an obvious increase in social media. Under the hood there are advances in technology that are making new creative approaches possible. And — pre-hood — there are advances in technology that are making online focus groups and usability testing easier than in the past.

A final note: for more on Italo Calvino, go here.

Given the opportunity to design a presentation, most of us might respond with a polite, “Thanks, but no thanks.” This is understandable knowing what typically comes to mind are bulleted talking points, crude diagrams, org charts…and PowerPoint. We all love to hate it, especially designers. A PowerPoint presentation done right, however, can capture the audience and be memorable –- it’s just that you have to leverage its strengths, have deep content, a good script, and a presenter who is comfortable in front of a large audience and able to engage the audience.

Now let’s say you have all of the ingredients for a successful presentation. Wouldn’t it be nice to design it with the same level of creativity, cutting–edge technology, and attention to detail that goes into other online and print communications? Meet Keynote, the Mac-based presentation software. Keynote enables presentations to be designed and produced with a level of slickness and sophistication that most will find difficult to achieve with PowerPoint. 

Here’s a good example: We recently designed a keynote presentation titled “Molecular Medicine and Beyond,” for Greg Lucier, Chairman and CEO of Life Technologies. Greg was one of several speakers at the TEDMED conference in San Diego, which is an annual gathering of some of the most brilliant minds in the medical and healthcare fields.

In wide screen format, the presentation served as a visual backdrop while Greg talked about the potential of molecular medicine and ways in which Life Technologies is helping to improve the human condition. The presentation begins with two short videos: The first represents the current limitations of cancer treatment, and the second represents a paradigm shift, where cancer is understood at the molecular level.

Other graphic elements including several 3D animations produced by Boston-based Digizyme, Inc., as well as a variety of high-impact image builds, supported Greg’s discussion in areas such as DNA sequencing, regenerative science, molecular diagnostics, and bio-engineering. In Keynote, the graphic elements were integrated seamlessly allowing for a natural flow throughout sections of the presentation.

Call me crazy, but designing a presentation can actually be enjoyable. And this is coming from a designer. The end result was a hit, and recognized by several conference attendees as one of the best presentations at TEDMED.

Needham Bikes, an organization dedicated to the safe and widespread use of bicycles for transportation and recreation in Needham, Massachusetts, recently contacted Weymouth Design. The organization’s needs were twofold: a logo and a design for use on signs. Needham Bikes came to the right firm for the job. We’ve done pro bono work for Cycle Kids for five years, and we have many avid cyclists on our staff.

The logo needed to be a compact way to brand Needham Bikes. The sign needed to indicate to motorists and bicyclists that the road was recommended for bicycles, remind motorists to be attentive to bicyclists, create awareness of Needham Bikes, and develop the sense of Needham as a bike-friendly community.

Creative Director Robert Krivicich and designers Gary Pikovsky and Aaron Scott jumped at the challenge. The team created several versions of a logo and sign, three or four of which were presented at a Needham town meeting, where Aaron’s design was selected. Robert thinks Aaron’s design stood out in part because “it was not just a generic share the road sign. It’s something that belongs and would only work with a name like Needham.”

Aaron, our resident tri-athlete, and Gary cycle to and from work almost daily. Robert is also a dedicated cyclist who participates in races. Our team’s familiarity with the sport of biking, including the challenges faced by cyclists sharing the road with motorists, gave them an edge on this project. They knew what would stand out on the road.

Bill Pryor of Needham Bikes told us he was “thrilled with the result”. Here’s what else he had to say about Weymouth Design’s work:    

The logo was chosen for a few reasons. First, it seemed flexible in its potential usage. We could use the icon with or without the word Needham, and there seemed to be multiple treatments that looked good. The cyclist icon itself was simple, elegant, and clever…Because we wanted to use the phrase “Needham Bikes” as a verb it was important to have something usable with those words. This logo fit that need nicely. Finally, it seemed like something that would be the most visible, memorable, and striking on the road.

The logo has already been used in marking a monthly Family Fun Ride for Needham, as well as in the monthly e-newsletter and on the Needham Bikes website. The organization plans to use variations of the logo on brochures, stickers, banners, lawn signs, at various events, and ultimately on tee shirts, clothing, and other items.

For more information about Needham Bikes, please visit their website.

We’re pleased to announce that our Contexticon site for the New Testament Language Project has been selected as a finalist in the Education and Learning category for the 14th Annual MITX Interactive Awards. Held annually by the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange, the MITX Awards recognize excellence in the creation of web innovations designed, produced, or developed in New England.

“The MITX Awards celebrates the union of the big idea and innovation. Every year the synergy between creative ideas and technology becomes more transparent. Our finalists are some of the world’s most forward thinking marketing and creative experts who help national and local brands connect with their audiences through the use of technology” said Kiki Mills, president of MITX. “MITX is proud to be the foundation for our region’s vibrant digital community, and to recognize and keep our creative minds, marketing strategists, technology developers and consumers at the forefront of evolution.”

The Contexticon is an online learning environment that enables modern readers to better understand biblical writings in their original contexts. The target audience for the project includes students and scholars of religious studies, clergy, and bible study groups. A highly intuitive and immersive front-end interface was developed in Flash. A customized back-end system was developed to faciliate updating by bible scholars from around the United States. A subscription-based e-commerce system was also part of this project.

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Click here for the complete press release.

Click here for the portfolio story.

Click here to go to the website.