GPM - Xavier University of Louisana Story

www.xulastory.com

It is with the greatest honor that GPM launched the website to celebrate the Xavier story. When we were approached to develop the digital experience for this incredible institution, we were humbled and utterly energized. Here is our story.

Discovery

Our first step in any major touchpoint project is to produce a discovery document. This crucial tool covered: project objectives & definition, target groups, content delivery, technology, features & functionality, font families, color palate, road map, design, UI & UX and budget scenarios.

Development

We believe building websites by a rigid template system is archaic. We build toolkits—a series of components with specific functionality that can be used virtually anywhere within the website. We also believe in mobile first, so we build mobile up. And we are fans of big visuals and taxonomy. Load the media, tag it and share across the environment. The discovery phase locked the resources, the UI & UX, so now time to go develop!

Delivery

01:

Home

Big full-screen video experience. Minimal top-level navigation with a clean black & white contrast UI. Xavier corporate colors to draw users to powerful custom search feature.

02:

Nested Menus

Accessibility is vital to the success of any website, as is understanding the context & content. We developed an intuitive menu system to assist users deliver on both.

03:

The Story

The heart of the project: 6 acts chronologically traversing the history of Xavier University.

04:

Telling the story through video

The film crew conducted a series of interviews on location in New Orleans with the key protagonists. Their story is the real story. Each act includes short videos relating to a pivotal moment in Xavier’s history, and we provided the environment to broadcast those reflections.

05:

Telling the story through imagery

The project directors worked closely with Xavier University archivists to unearth a treasure trove of imagery. We formatted and organized the images into albums to support the video interviews.

06:

Image albums

The story unfolds when albums are exposed with a dedicated CDN server providing rapid delivery and user interaction.

07:

Historic archive

Interactive repositories pull associated document, audio files and link resources to pages, filterable by date and by type.

08:

Interviews - the key characters

The voices of the Xavier Story Project, assembled in one section. Brief profiles lead to groups of media assets associated with each character.

09:

Timeline

An at-a-glance journey through landmark moments in the history of Xavier University. Designed to provide a chronological reference point for the story and a key tool to engage casual or younger website visitors.

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