Mobelux Provided:
Immersive & Authentic Experiences
In early 2018, Mobelux began their iterative design and build process with a new partner, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. In its physical presence, Colonial Williamsburg is the largest outdoor living museum in the country, boasting over 300 acres of a thriving community dedicated to replicating life in the 18th century. Onsite guests are offered what may be described as an ‘immersive and authentic’ experience through the dozens of hands-on experiences featured daily throughout the community, including a wool spinning class, the firing of muskets, and a Spies & Lies escape room.
Interpreters communicate CW's well-known and not-so-well-known stories to with CW guests. Here, "Aggie" tells her story of trials, family, and freedom.
Resource for Education & Research
In support of the trademark experiences offered by Colonial Williamsburg for its onsite guests, this historic foundation is deeply rooted in research and education in a quest to offer teachers, students, and learners of all ages access to its historical knowledge and artifacts, as featured in the John D. Rockefeller Library. Additionally, onsite guests of Colonial Williamsburg have access to an impressive collection of creatively curated Folk Art at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum as well as historic furniture, ceramics, and artwork at The Dewitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum.
Understanding the Guest Experience
With this diverse offering of cultural experiences, arts, education, and research, Mobelux began its process by identifying the key activities Colonial Williamsburg guests have in mind when coming to the Colonial Williamsburg website: Explore, Visit, Learn, and Give. Focusing on these key activities as the main motivators for site activity, Mobelux collaborated with key partners at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation through brand exploration, design, and content development as highlights of key milestones in the overall website design and build process.
By focusing on Explore, Visit, Learn, and Give, we were able to elegantly simplify CW's navigation.
Our experience with Mobelux allowed us to take a good look at our internal business practices, and really break down and think through some of our customer pain points. Working with the Mobelux team afforded us the ability to improve on some of our most used website features, and provide a better overall experience for our customers.
Carol Gillam, Sr. Digital Marketing Manager
The sheer number and high frequency of Colonial Williamsburg’s onsite activities present a sizable challenge for their users and technology. To surface this information in a more digestible and mobile-friendly way, our team established a design system grounded in human-centered design.
We used CW inspired colors and organic "wax seal" shapes to make these Nation Builders feel more one-of-a-kind. This accented the human-focus the site was lacking.
Creating an Interactive Engagement
Another central aspect of Colonial Williamsburg is the breadth and depth of their content in the form of articles, research papers, historic documents, and narrative content. This rich and robust content brings to life the details and facts surrounding the actual events in history as well as the individuals who experienced these events firsthand. Mobelux wanted to enhance the storytelling nature of this dynamic content through an interactive storytelling experience. Featuring the events surrounding a pivotal moment of rebellion in America’s history, Mobelux designed and built an interactive timeline that showcases key events, dates, and artifacts surrounding the Stamp Act. As a continually growing opportunity and trend within the museum industry, the interactive digital experience designed and built by Mobelux can provide site visitors with an interaction that replicates the multi-sensory experience of an on site visit.
Working with Mobelux, our organization was able to give careful, thoughtful consideration to the customer experience and how we want to tell our stories.
Carol Gillam, Sr. Digital Marketing Manager
Our new, interactive stories—in the style of 18th century periodicals—bring history to life for online visitors.
Selecting a Content Management System
To provide the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation with an easy to use platform that would enable its supportive teams to highlight, feature, and manage these varied forms of content, Mobelux selected a Content Management System built using Python Web framework Django with an Azure architecture. By establishing a content design system which was built within the CMS, Mobelux was able to utilize individual components within the design system to specific features and functions throughout the site.
With a growing emphasis on interactive digital experiences, Mobelux worked with our team to create an engaging tool that is more cost-effective and easier to use for our organization. Not only that, but the thoughtful design that went into the visual elements really blew us away. They were able to perfectly capture our brand essence visually.
Carol Gillam, Sr. Digital Marketing Manager
We condensed thousands of CW's events, times, and activities into one, easy-to-use event calendar.
Over the course of the multi-year collaboration with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Mobelux kept careful consideration to the overall organizational goals with respect to the well-crafted content featured on the site while ultimately championing the User’s experience, needs, and motivations.
Partnership & Collaboration
Mobelux partnered with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation on multi-year collaboration with services for this project including: Web Design and Build, Brand Exploration, User Experience, and Strategy. Contact Mobelux to see what may be the best approach for your business opportunity.