What We did
The Challenge
Initially, we were engaged by Nyrstar purely as a development supplier for the project.
However, during the project process, it was established that the proposed interface design would not engage with the audience and lacked the vision both Future Medium and Nyrstar shared.
Enter our graphics team, with a visually striking, highly usable visual interface to showcase Nyrstar Hobart as a world class facility.
We proposed a Word Press solution for its flexibility and blogging capabilities, which suited the projects requirements perfectly.
Design Sensibility
The homepage presents striking features and helps steer users to important sections of information. Clear announcement panels rotate through key alerts and notifications.
Landing pages present truncated information about the underlying sections that can expand and contract.
Navigation elements are obvious and clear, while breadcrumbs indicate browsing location.
Special functionality was designed and implemented to serve some key requirements;
Announcements & Alerts
We created a special platform and colour coding system to explain the occurrence of regular alarms within the plant and a hazard facility to alert the public if a safety hazard is present.
Interactive Process Diagram
Nyrstar wanted to showcase how operations worked at the plant to educate the community about how zinc is made and processed. We workshopped some visual concepts of how this could be achieved.
The result is a great looking, educational and interactive process diagram.
Users can learn about the zinc treatment process by selecting pins on a map of the plant. The user is taken to detailed information on that process.
Custom visual diagrams were created (with help from Nyrstar) to help illustrate the outlined process.
Careers with Nyrstar
Nyrstar is a major employer in Hobart. With nearly 500 staff, it was important that information on careers with Nyrstar were available on the website. We created a dynamic job application platform and a general registration facility for website users to register their interest in employment.
Historic Timeline
We created a custom photo gallery for displaying a photo history of the Nyrstar plant - nearly 100 years of history.
Interaction Design
Special attention was given to interaction design - leveraging animation techniques to lend feedback to key interaction points such as;
- The top level navigation elements
- Search facility
- Alerts & announcements
- Feature panels
- Truncated text areas
- Photo gallery
- Dynamic forms
- File downloads &
- The interactive process diagram
The Result
Overall, this is a beautifully designed and technically impressive platform for Nyrstar's presence in Hobart.
We are confident this will be a fantastic tool in Nyrstar's communications package and a great base to initiate conversations with the Hobart community.
