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One of the most important Internet and multimedia projects executed in Israel in recent years. A rich content portal, including interactive exhibitions that provide a unique user experience online and locally in physical stations on site.
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Introduction
The Massuah Institute for Holocaust Studies is one of Israel’s main organizations involved in education and commemoration of the Holocaust. The institute supports a unique educational approach that reflects the impacts of the Holocaust on our life in Israel, here and now. This special focus led Massuah to establish a website that is unique in many ways, with one of its objectives being eliciting constant debate around historical and current events related to the content delivered by the institute.
The project involved the creation of a content website. It was managed by Matrix, which helped Massuah in the selection of vendors and monitored the entire process. Matrix and Massuah evaluated the best Internet companies in Israel, and finally decided on cdtech’s content-management system as the best technological platform for their development. The design was by Emara Design.
The Challenge
After an in-depth survey and analysis, during which we learned the diverse needs of Massuah, we were requested to propose a solution with several interactive areas, each with its own objectives and content but all unified under the same web roof. In addition to planning of each area separately, we faced a great challenge to find a design and technological solution that provides a unified and continuous user experience throughout the website.
The development of the CMS, which stores 15,000 data items in different configurations and in two languages, was a complex trial in itself. The management interface had to allow institute personnel to update the various sections of the website daily, using a user friendly interface with a complex authorizations mechanism.
The Solution
cdtech developed a ‘superwebsite’ for Messuah with several separate content areas that share the same look and feel. The website is completely managed by a single CMS. In addition to the content areas, we developed several modules for displaying changing data, which updates automatically in several sections of the website. The solution included:
- Events module with past and future events; it updates automatically with the annual calendar. Future events appear with a summarized agenda. After the event takes place, it appears with more details, including photo gallery, video gallery and files to download. All this does not require refreshing the data.
- Educational programs module that provides total flexibility for uploading new programs and defining target populations, each of which has different needs and characteristics.
- Publications module with bulletins in PDF format and regular updates.
- Module of current events – in the development of this module we put special emphasis on social media to generate continuous debate on topics discussed. Rules of conduct online are maintained through information security and filtering the content that is uploaded.
- Virtual exhibitions – a great deal of work and effort went into this part of the website, which uses Flash technology to create a rich and imposing interactive experience. Virtual exhibitions are implemented with dynamic Flash and can be edited via the content interface, without additional programmer intervention.
The Results
The Messuah website was launched prior to the 2010 Holocaust Memorial Day. It generated a lot of buzz and elicited positive responses from users and visitors alike.In the field of institutes for the study of the Holocaust in Israel, it is the most comprehensive and diverse, and its success lies in its ability to reflect its values and unique world view already upon the first visit to the website. It also interests and attracts users, who can continue their experience with a visit to the museum itself and participate in educational activities there.
In contrast to Messuah’s previous website, a constant improvement is noticed in the number of users that visit the new website, the time they spent in it, and in their participation in its discussions. There is also anincrease in the number of requests for workshops and seminars by the various target populations, thus achieving one of the institute’s main objectives.
Messuah is one of cdtech’s main customers. We continue to develop interactive projects for the institute on a regular basis, among them the website of Aliat Hanoar and interactive information stations at the institute.
Messuah Website
Interactive exhibitions at Massuah website
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