Multimedia journalism

Ohio University launches Soul of Athens 2009

The third installment of Ohio University’s “Soul of Athens” Website launched June 1st, featuring 41 new projects from more than 50 photographers, designers, Web developers and writers. With another unique interface and innovative easter eggs throughout, I might argue that this is the best version yet.

2007’s site created a ripple in the multimedia world as Zach Wise, Bob Sacha and Chad Stevens helped OU students launch a colorful and animated site, complete with user-submission tools and social media components.

One of the stories, Love in the First Person, was even picked up by MediaStorm, who added their own touch for a heart-wrenching second version.

The 2008 site explored the health and wellness of Athens county residents. I particularly enjoyed the interactive map, which served as a second interface for navigating through the stories.

This year’s site used an entirely different approach with a window panel interface, revealing the different stories. The only negative component is that this heavy interface forced me to wait 45 seconds as it loaded, which is never a good sign. They used Vimeo to host their videos for the first time, which I think is a great way to cross-promote the videos.

I was intrigued to see stories from Maisie Crow, a talented journalist and producer of “Hungry,” the intimate multimedia presentation about Prader-Willi syndrome that I blogged about last June. One of her projects that I particularly enjoyed was “Courtship to Courthouse,” a look at those who forgo a traditional ceremony for a courthouse wedding.

It was a little frustrating to wait for the navigation bar to load while I was watching each video though, as the progress bar was distracting. I’m not sure why it was so heavy, unless they didn’t dynamically load each photo and just embedded 41 images into the Flash file.

I also would have liked to see more navigational cues in the Flash presentations, such as in “Lost in Plain Sight.” This was an innovative interface to display a story, but I wanted to know how long I would need to scroll. A small legend at the bottom could have moved along with the panel, continuously telling me where I was in the presentation.

Overall though, I was highly impressed with this year’s site. As much as I would like to watch all 41 stories, I will have to spread them out over time so I can get some other work done. If you particularly enjoyed one story, please let me know so I can make sure to check it out!

Other posts that might interest you:

• University of Miami students promo projects on VisualJournalism blog
• A critique of Columbia’s 2008 masters projects
• Still Hoping showcases inspirational multimedia

© 2 June 2009 Innovative Interactivity (II).