The Fun of Learning
I recently had the pleasure of working with the team over at Science World (@ Telus World of Science). On this project I was in charge of taking their static mockups and creating fully interactive learning modules.
The first was called Green City Smackdown. The basis is that the user gets to choose 2 cities from a list of major cities in Canada. They then learn a little information about the city, and compare it to the other one they chose. The comparisons are based on 7 different categories, and in the end, one of the cities will come out as the victor. Check it out for a little incite into what I am trying to describe. Green City Smackdown.
The second module is called Shifting Skyline, and is all about the changes that have happened over the past 100 years in Vancouver. Included is a really cool panorama that shows you how much downtown has changed since 1897. Other information included is the murder rates since 1912, the population growth (as well as where they are living, city vs suburbs) since 1921, and how much the cost of housing has increased over the last 30 years. There are pictographs as well as line graphs for all the information, so choose the one that makes the most sense. Check out Shifting Skyline.
The Third module is a great interactive timelapse video player. Included are 2 locations, downtown Vancouver, as well as False Creek Vancouver. Each location has 4 video options, which let you choose how much video to see, one day, one week, one month, or even from the start of filming (which commenced mid June 07). Its quite interesting to watch the construction of the new Olympic Village in False Creek. Both cameras are mounted on top of Science World, and republish new videos to the modules almost daily. Check out Timelapse Video.
Not only were the 3 modules created in English, there were also French counterparts, so everyone can enjoy them.



- Comment by Aaron
- Thu, Aug 9th, 2007
- @ 08:03 pm
01Sweet Ryan. I love historical photos so the shifting skyline was the neatest for me. Wish your client could inject a few more photos, or even just overlay parts of more recent photos in the right spots
- Comment by Ryan
- Mon, Aug 13th, 2007
- @ 11:43 am
02Yeah I totally agree. I think the biggest problem would be sourcing all the photos taking from the same location. I remember the client mentioning what a problem it was. Maybe in another hundred years we will have all the shots!