a closer look: Simpson Experience
Home page
Programs of Study page; Living page
Location detail page; Student Profile videos page
Multimedia slideshow controls; Custom map illustrations
Video playback contols; Accessible transcript
We were looking for an admissions site that would provide a creative and unique look at the Simpson Experience. cdeVision gave us an excellent design built on a cutting-edge technical foundation. They were easy to work with and we are very pleased with the results.
— Missy DeYoung
Web Architect, Simpson College
Client:
Simpson College
Indianola, IA
Project:
Virtual Experience Website
Technology / Deliverables:
Interface design, Flash programming, custom illustration, video editing, custom CMS.
Project Overview:
The Simpson Experience website is Flash-based and includes photos, video, audio, and an interactive map. A custom Content Management System (CMS) is integrated which allows the college to easily add and update content. The approach is a "viewbook" of clips and soundbites, appealing to today's youth market accustomed to information via short bursts of media, but without sacrificing the mission and identity of the institution. The site enables prospective students (and other visitors) to experience life inside and outside the classroom, and learn about the people and surroundings (on- and off-campus) that are a part of the Simpson College experience.
The Simpson Experience interface design utilizes the college colors, and ties-in gracefully with existing collatral and identity materials, to ensure visual unity between the site and the College's existing website and print materials.
The site is coded in valid XHTML and CSS, and programmed with Flash and PHP. The custom CMS is programmed in PHP, and site content is contained in a MySQL database. All content, including text, images, audio clips, and video, is managed via the CMS, so information is always fresh and up-to-date.
Flash was chosen for the front-end interface for a number of reasons. It allows for smooth animation and transition effects. It can interact directly with PHP and MySQL. It displays video and audio without the need for additional browser plug-ins (e.g. Quicktime). It has excellent video and audio compression, so the file sizes are smaller, and loading time is faster. Flash also has familiar appeal to the youth market, and allows for an engaging and interactive user experience.
A special feature of the tour is its companion text-only transcript, which is accessible to text-only browsers, screen readers, low-bandwidth visitors, and visitors with disabilities who are unable to view or interact with the Flash version of the tour. Rather than creating a separate transcript with separate content, the same data is pulled into an accessible format (text-only), and additional fields in the CMS allow for image, video, and audio descriptions, so when adding or updating content, descriptive accessiblility information can be added at the same time. It not only streamlines the site management process, but ensures that the information is the same in the Flash site and the transcript site.