Our client connects Australians with their overseas military heritage at historic sites internationally. How would they meet that vision when flights were grounded in a pandemic? This was the challenge for which the Department of Veterans Affairs engaged True North, working in partnership with web agency Oxide Interactive.
We developed a content design and content strategy for a Virtual Remembrance Trail. Our vision was for a world-class, immersive, interactive experience to engage visitors anywhere, anytime. While it began in response to travel restrictions, it now opens accessibility to all. It’s given us a groundbreaking new model to tell complex historical stories online.
The challenge
This project had three distinct challenges that we needed to address:
- Unwieldy information: This greenfield project presented some major challenges around prioritisation of content. We faced a mountain of historical information, and needed to find an authoritative voice.
- Complex information architecture: We knew this story had scenes, locations and events. The challenge was corralling this rich content in a way that stayed true to the history, while facilitating and engaging user experience.
- Bringing together content, structure and storytelling: We didn’t want an abstract recounting of facts. We wanted the user in the scene.
Our approach
We worked on discovery, design and content development in parallel. This compressed timeline meant we could test real content as we went, refining the result all the way through.
The structure for the information architecture unfolded in collaboration with our client’s in-house experts. For example, one early idea was to have the information structured in chapters. The client’s SME advised the story doesn’t really fall into neat chapters, so that approach wasn’t going to work. What we had were ‘building blocks’ of content: primary source quotes, historical narratives, photographs, films, art and other artefacts. We’d assembled a meaningful ‘showcase’ of these for each scene, location or event. So how would we take all of this and tell the story?
When bringing together content, structure and storytelling, the experience needed to evoke what it was like to really be there. That meant foregrounding direct quotes from people and making choices about items that would bring the stories into closer focus.
Our content model allowed us to pivot quickly in response to testing. When an earlier iteration of the design didn’t test well with users, we could reconfigure the building blocks of the story very quickly, without losing any work. Our model gave us the agility to respond to user testing. We could support the client’s research team on questions of content, as well as design and interface. This close relationship was central to our success.
The result
This significant piece of work was trailblazing. We defined an approach for telling stories of war that can now be extended to any other theatre of war in the world.
It was never just about meeting the immediate brief. It was about where the client wants to take this in the future, and giving them solid resources to head there.
When we think of the vastness of the information we were wrangling, we’re really proud of the deceptive ‘simplicity’ of the final design, from a user perspective.
We delivered a sophisticated content model that conveys complex information powerfully and succinctly. It creates meaning, and inspires an emotional and intellectual response in users. It’s an experience that makes sense from wherever people enter it. Wherever they land, there are clear next steps. Whether they are interested in drilling down to an individual moment in a campaign, or navigating an overarching theme, we give them an opportunity to go deeper.
