Headstand Media

Shands HealthCare Interactive Map Landing Page

As we reported in November of 2009, Shands HealthCare of the University of Florida had contracted with Headstand Media to produce floor plans of  their new cancer hospital, and to then turn those floor plans into an interactive map for their hospital and their visitors to their website.

We are pleased to announce that the project has been completed and the floor plans, maps and interactive application can be viewed online at Shands.org.

Headstand Media thanks Michael Schaffner for his integral work with us on the interactive Flash application.

We combined the use of Adobe Illustrator and then Flash to create all of the map and floor-by-floor designs, including actual Google Maps to outline the existing campus and its buildings. We then created a 3-dimensional model, and combined it all within the Flash framework to finish the interactive map.

In all, this was a fun project to work on and complete, and we enjoyed working with the Shands team to provide a tool that would both look good and make the user experience of the new cancer hospital interesting and interactive.

Shands Healthcare Cancer Hospital

Shands HealthCare is the hospital system connected to the University of Florida. Their web department needs some campus maps and floor plans developed for their new cancer hospital in Gainsville. So, they went to Google and typed in campus map illustration… and who did they find but Randal Birkey! Through links they eventually contacted Headstand Media and shared their needs for the project.

It turned out that they were going to use these maps in print as well as in an interactive Flash web application for hospital guests and patients at www.shands.org, and needed a partner to develop that application as well. Funny thing… Headstand Media can handle both!

So, Headstand Media wrote a proposal and won the project.

We say to our new customer from Florida… “welcome to Chicago!”

One of the fun things about working at Headstand Media is our clients. They are so fun to work with and they come up with all kinds of WILD and CRAZY ideas! Take our first client for instance… Sunshine Gospel Ministries. This non-profit Christian urban ministry decided to try to raise $70,000 toward their yearly ministry budget by NOT HAVING A BANQUET FUND-RAISER! Wow – now that’s risky! Instead, they envisioned a “virtual fund raiser event” where all of the potential banquet invitees and attenders would save time and expense by simply attending an online event at a time more convenient to them. They would get the same high quality ministry update information, and have the same opportunity to give their charitable donations, but cost the ministry a lot less money to actually put on a big event!

Headstand Media heard about the idea from our contacts at Sunshine a few months ago and we said – “Yes, we’re in!” What’s not to like about a Christian ministry that is forward thinking, looking to be good stewards of the money they are entrusted with, and who want to connect with people in ways that people connect – today! We worked with their great leadership team to put together a Flash-driven website at www.dreambenefit.org for this purpose. The Dream Benefit website just went live today and will remain online through September 16th.

The site features plenty of rich graphics, user interactivity, high quality music performances, videos and social networking tools. Headstand Media invites you to check out the site and consider supporting Sunshine Gospel Ministries based upon what you learn about the great work of the organization there! We also encourage you to spread the word about this unique event with your friends using your social networks. The money that you are able to either give, or influence others to give may just transform the life of a young person.

Thank you!

Build-A-Burger Game - Initial Screen

What do you do when you need to get a lot of corporate employees familiar with some new food products being launched? You build a short, fun game that teaches them the key ingredients and names of the products, raising awareness and excitement in the process, and post it up on the company Intranet!

Build-A-Burger Game - Drag and Drop Screen

Headstand Media created an interactive game for this exact purpose using product photos and packaging design elements provided by the customer, combined with our own creativity and interactive Flash programming technology. The game invites employees to learn how to build any one of three new burger products being introduced into the marketplace. The game consists of dragging photos of possible ingredients onto an outlined image of the burger, selecting the correct ones within 20 seconds. If the employee misses one, they are sent back to a “hamburger learning center.” If they get it right, they receive a special code number that is entered into a random drawing that would include a prize and benefit the employee and his/her entire workgroup.

This was a fun project to both conceive and execute. Headstand had the opportunity to provide creativity+technology in a pinch, and we’re very happy with the result!

In a follow-up to our January Nightstand 10 event, Headstand Media would like to let all our friends and clients know that Steve Wilson’s Global Web Communications team at McDonald’s just launched a new McDonald’s corporate website at http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com.

Steve mentioned the soon-to-launch project in his Nightstand presentation on January 22nd, and now you can view it live online since it launched on March 23, 2009.

A number of Nightstand attendees participated in this project. Pay particular attention to the new “web 2.0″ look and feel, the home page “main tout” and the Interactive Timeline features. The interactive elements were developed as Flash files designed to import external image and text assets through editable XML and image libraries. Also note two new sections targeted at some influential “web 2.0″ audiences: Students and the Media Center.

Also, we encourage you to subscribe to the About McDonald’s RSS feed which will alert you to any new stories that are posted to the site.

McDonald's Corporate Website - Before

About McDonald's Home Page - After

Headstand Media congratulates Motions at Home on the launch of their new website. Motions is one of the best-selling multicultural salon hair care brands in North America. As Motions launched their new website, they also launched a new product line called Marula Natural Therapy. The African Marula Oil product line is rich in antioxidants, essential minerals and amino acids and offers a collection of hair and scalp oil, strengthening moisturizers and treatment balms to thoroughly strengthen and moisturize hair.

Headstand Media partnered with Koralik Associates (artist representatives) and SPARK (agency) to create an original Flash movie with extensive animation and ActionScript programming, to be featured on the new Motions home page. The Flash animation was designed to visually enhance the promoted benefits of the Marula Natural Therapy product line, and invite the visitor to explore this product line deeper into the site.

View the Flash movie here.

Contact Headstand Media for your next Flash design and development project!

Flash Design for Web Design

Headstand Media is skilled in the creation and production of Flash animation media files for use in web designs, computer presentations, interactive applications and CD/DVD’s. We also can write ActionScript to connect your Flash files with databases and XML feeds.We also prepare Flash files to be “search engine friendly” so that any used in the file is indexable by Google.

We also produce Flash based slideshows for displaying photo galleries, illustrations, or other visual elements, especially within web designs and web pages. An example of a Flash Slideshow based website can be found at Molly Grace Photography. Another example of an effective use of Flash on a website home page and vendor page is found at J. Marshall Design.