RDNS Reflections
Lava, in close consultation with RDNS (Royal District Nursing Service), developed a highly customised, entirely online virtual museum called Reflections. This museum showcases an extensive archive of nurses' stories, interviews, photos and artifacts spanning thirteen decades.
The Brief
Lava Web Creations developed a highly customised, entirely online virtual museum for RDNS (Royal District Nursing Service) to mark a significant milestone for the organisation.
RDNS is the largest and oldest provider of home nursing and healthcare services in Australia, and this year celebrates its 125th Anniversary. Throughout this period, an extensive archive of material has been collected, such as; printed materials (Annual Reports & Matrons Reports), classic uniforms, and photos.
Further to this, recently a major exercise was undertaken to capture stories from significant RDNS personalities. RDNS engaged a professional historian who’s role was to conduct extensive research to identify and learn about each interviewee, then document these extensively. The process resulted in an extensive audio-visual video archive. An extensive written (text) history was also authored.
RDNS wanted to fully utilise these resources in a way that truly reflects its outstanding legacy in the Australian community. Rather than make a static book, the goal was to create an online interactive virtual museum called Reflections.
Lava’s Solution
Reflections was designed as a modern museum. The visual style and animations give the impression of sifting through an old history book. Distinct colours are associated with each decade and theme. The timeline begins with subdued browns and mauve to represent the early eras. As the decades progress, these colours brighten up to a more modern palette. We have also created a unique illustration for each Decade/ Theme, such as a warplane for the 1940’s.
Lava’s team, in very close collaboration with RNDS, put a huge emphasis on providing a simple, logical and seamless user experience. Essentially, the user can navigate Reflections by either decade or theme, with the ability to cross-filter (e.g. by Decade, then the Theme within this decade). Once the user has done their search, we wanted to present the media content in a simple and quite fluid way.
The default content allows the user to see the RDNS historian’s written outline of the Decade/ Theme. The user can then move through the associated media content via a beautiful, fluid left to right scrolling mechanism (with the speed of movement based on where the user places their mouse). The media content includes scanned images (such as photos or journal extracts), audio and video. Lava worked closely with RDNS to organise this media, and optimise it for presentation on the Reflections site. For example, we did a custom photo shoot onsite at RDNS, capturing images of uniforms on mannequins, old lamps, etc.
To really push the solution, Lava engaged our professional musician, Nick Thayer, to compose an entirely custom soundtrack. We created a base ‘Reflections’ theme track then significantly remixed this track for each Decade and Theme. This music gives Reflections a truly immersive and distinct feel.
Another crucial aspect of the build was to provide a human face to represent Reflections. RDNS selected a representative from their organisation, with a focus on authenticity. Scripts were authored, followed by a Green screen video shoot. Two videos were created, the first providing an introduction to Reflections when a user first enters the museum (with the video of the character talking). Audio voice-overs were also created to introduce each Decade and Theme, and these act like a virtual tour guide as the user navigates throughout Reflections.
A printed hard copy booklet was also created, to act as an accompaniment to the online museum. This booklet includes highlights of each Decade and Theme.
Lava thanks RDNS greatly for it’s trust, collaboration, and general determination to make Reflections possible. The project draws great inspiration from seeing other highly custom historical online showcases, such as the ABC Innovations Black Saturday and Gallipoli websites. Lava thanks RDNS for having such an ambitious and broad vision, and we absolutely loved working on it with them!
“Lava’s mastery of web construction and sense of design brought to life RDNS’ rich, colourful and often deeply moving 125 year history in an online museum that looks professional, friendly and easy to navigate. I appreciated their skill and ability to understand and support the brief and create something that looks as good as it works.”
Evan Gordon | General Manager - Marketing and Planning, RDNS
