Portfolio: Creative/Interactive.
Tropical Savannas CRC/Charles Darwin University and partners
Burning Issues.
After the success of the Tropical Savannas educational module for Tropical Savannas CRC/Charles Darwin University and partners, it wasn’t long before the client came to Universal Head to design and produce a new project: Burning Issues. Rather than repeat ourselves, we came up with a whole new framework for this module that increases the immersion of the student, and makes them feel as if they are actually a part of the decision-making process in a national park dealing with fire management issues.
This immersion starts right away as a video drops the user by helicopter into their new role—that of park manager in Northern Australia. As soon as you’ve landed your special PDA—which can be accessed from anywhere in the module—rings to introduce you to a series of characters who will be advising you on various aspects of fire managment. from the PDA you can access emails from your staff, travel to various sections of the module, and access supplementary PDF documents.
There are design innovations throughout the Burning Issues module that make it a unique educational tool. It utilizes video, audio, questionnaires, scrolling panoramas, and a host of interesting characters to bring the fascinating complexity of fire management in the Top End to life for students of all ages. Most effectively, the complexity of the information is hidden behind an easily accessible and intuitive interface that goes beyond the usual linear experience of such tools.
The finished piece is available for use on the web and has also been sent to numerous schools on CD, and is another success for this innovative client. Universal Head is already hard at work on a third project for them.
Experience the entire Burning Issues educational module (Flash 8+ required).