What do you do with a subject that can have an impact on everyone's lives, such as stem cell research, but has such layers of complexity that it's difficult for the general public to comprehend?
You re-tell the story of the science with different tools and with terminology that translates it into concepts that enable others to connect and share.
We worked with more than a dozen writers, editors, doctors, researchers and administrators from a cross-section of Children's Hospital Boston to build a rich site with more than 90 pages, a 100-term glossary and more than 30 videos that go into detail about the research, the diseases researchers are hoping to cure and the lives this research is already having an impact on.
But we also know you're busy, so the site features a few
Stem Cell 101 videos on the home page that review the basics of stem cell research, explain the importance of induced pluripotent stem cells (coming soon!), discuss how stem cells can treat certain diseases and talk about the future of stem cell research with esteemed researchers Dr. George Q. Daley and Dr. Leonard Zon. These videos (totaling eight minutes) are an experience, with animated 3D graphics to help tell the story. Between each video is an opportunity to share each video through Facebook and Twitter. We frequently employ a "microscope effect" in the videos and the flash to fully integrate these videos into the site.
But my favorite part of the site is something that most people can't see, because that has to do with how it's built. With some creative programming of WordPress, our development team built a site that feeds multiple flash-based features, including the home page, the
About Stem Cells section and the
Research on Diseases section. All with a simple-to-use interface that our client can easily use to update, add pages to and maintain images, text, video and XML-powered Flash.
The power and flexibility of Stem Cells is a story worth telling. Building the site with a CMS that has its own impressive power and flexibility seemed like a natural fit.