Custom map application designed for social good
The Northeastern University School of Law brought in our team to build the sites and online projects for its innovation laboratory—the NuLawLab. The site includes complex maps designed to showcase legal events all over the world as well as across different time periods. We built these maps to be informative and easy to use on any device, which resulted in the site being nominated for the Webby Awards.
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Education
SITUATION
Building a Site That Reflects the Northeastern University School of Law’s Pioneering Spirit
The Northeastern University School of Law’s NuLawLab brought in our team to build a project beyond a basic legal site. NU wanted to display their knowledge and work through a highly interactive, custom experience centered around robust maps. Our client had a large amount of data they wanted to include on the site and they were unsure of the most effective way to present it to their viewers. They wanted the maps to include information about a wide range of topics from across long spans of time. We successfully tackled the challenge of figuring out the best way to display the extensive data in a clear, engaging, and unique way while keeping the browser experience quick.
ACTION
Creating an Interactive and Engaging Website Complete with Custom-Built Maps
Our team developed a two-part plan for the site— creating the NuLawMaps feature along with an effective homepage. The team worked diligently to ensure the maps would scale and display correctly at every screen size. The information the maps contain is stored in client-provided .csv files, so our team wrote a custom data processor that queries the .csv and integrates the necessary information into the CMS. After navigating the customization, we initially launched the site with three complete maps and provided our clients with the tools to launch future maps on their own using a custom designed, user-friendly back-end.
The NuLawMaps feature allows users from anywhere to discover the legal work Northeastern University School of Law is doing and then allows them to advocate for causes directly from the website. Each map includes hundreds of historic location pinpoints and a custom-correlated sliding timeline of events which include everything from crime rates to historic events to regional data. By moving through a timeline, users can see map points change instantaneously. The maps allow users to slide the timeline, select a pinpoint, discover the details of the event, and then add comments or share it on social media or by email. This complemented the seamless sharing experience on the informational pages, which were enhanced by the addition of features such as a live feed of @nulawlab social posts, displaying of related content via backend taxonomy, and a commenting feature.
RESULT
A Highly Successful Site with a Continued Client Relationship
Our team was able to successfully tackle transforming complex data into a simple, easy-to-use, and informative UX. The NuLawLab site was such a success that our team has plans to add two more interactive features to the site—NuLawHub and NuLawReview. The site also received the honor of being nominated for a Webby Award from amongst nearly 13,000 entries. We look forward to our continued future work with our client and are proud of the site’s success!
(And thanks to Cantilever, our design partner on this project!)
