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University of Oregon

Connecting Generations

The University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communications wanted a visually stunning, interactive experience that celebrates the outstanding success of its many notable alumni while inspiring students with possibility. As part of a recent remodel and reimagining of the SOJC building, the school wanted to create an engaging visual anchor for the Hall of Achievement that would honor alumni, inspire students, and connect generations.

Numerous SOJC graduates have gone on to become award-winning, industry-leading journalists, authors, filmmakers, and communication strategists over the past 100 years—including luminaries such as Ann Curry, Frank Shaw, and Dan Wieden. The Hall of Achievement connects today’s students with this legacy of success. It also serves as a recruitment tool and is where every school tour starts. Inspired by the creative possibilities, Serenity took on the challenge of designing something truly awesome that exceeded client expectations and was worthy of the school’s famous alumni while also enticing today’s students to actually stop and engage with it.

Hall of Achievement interface showcasing Ann Curry

We love thinking big and doing things that are often beyond what our clients imagine is even possible. When we saw the potential of what this project could be, we set a much higher bar for ourselves than what UO originally requested and we delivered it on budget.

Lauren Wang
Lauren Wang
Motion Designer, Serenity Studios

Putting this level of “awe” in awesome meant assigning an experienced design team who understands how to use modern touchscreen technology like Intuiface for maximum effect. We explored important questions about different user perspectives and developed multiple design iterations to create an experience that is visually enticing from any angle and fun to use. This required careful planning and strategic development that considered two different viewing perspectives—marveling at it from a distance or interacting with it up close—and both experiences need to coexist simultaneously.

Serenity did an amazing job creating something that captures you from the minute you’re outside the doors coming into the building to the moment you’re standing in front of it and interacting with it.

Shan Anderson
Shan Anderson
Instructor and Faculty Liaison, SOJC

Instead of just conceptualizing wireframes on a computer, we engaged in an extensive mock-up and testing process using a projector system that allowed us to simulate the full-scale viewing experience inside our studio. Our team also curated and organized hundreds of photos, videos, and quotes to create the stories of each inductee. Bio modules were then populated using a custom-built database that adapts to each person’s story based on their available content. Users can filter inductee stories by the year of induction, graduation, or academic track—whether it’s advertising, TV production, or publishing.

Over the shoulder photo of Lauren testing Hall of Achievement

The 14-foot videowall tells visual stories about the inductees at full-screen size through rotating images, videos, and accolades. Module dashboards allow more than one person to interact with the installation at a time. Viewers can easily navigate through bios and drill down into content with familiar swipe and tap mobile gestures. To ensure equal accessibility, individual dashboard modules can be dragged up and down on the wall so it’s always at eye-level regardless of the user’s height.  Serenity developed a customized back-end system so that it would be easy for the client to add new inductees and additional content moving forward. Since we understand the many technical considerations of touchscreen design and implementation, we also ensured the right hardware and software were combined to make it all work seamlessly.

Screenshot of Hall of Achievement interface

Working with Serenity, I felt like we had a partner who really understood our needs and was open to discovering creative solutions.

Shan Anderson
Shan Anderson
Instructor and Faculty Liaison, SOJC

Brand

Content Strategy

Brand Development

Visual Identity

Digital

User Interface/Experience Design

Digital Signage Development

Software/Hardware IT

Programming

Front End

Back End

Information Architecture

Content

Motion Graphics

Storytelling

Curation

Image Retouching