Key Learnings
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Balance simplicity with creative control
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Prioritize rapid content creation
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Design for cross-platform compatibility
Role & Contribution
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Defined product vision
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Created publishing interface
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Consulted with creative teams to help translate complex design into reusable templates
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Developed template system
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Managed client relationships
Design process
Research & discovery
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Analyzed newsroom workflows
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Studied breaking news requirements
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Evaluated technical skill gaps
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Mapped publishing bottlenecks
Solution development
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Media organizations like Discovery.com and National Geographic needed to scale their complex multimedia storytelling
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Drag-and-drop interface
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Visual publishing workflow
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Template System
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Customizable interactive templates
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Development Kit
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Template customization tools
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Publishing best practices
Gallery: Slideshow template wireframes
Discovery Channel's Emmy award winning microsite published news, slideshows, puzzles and more using customized rich media temaplates powered by StoryMaker.
Challenge & Impact
The challenge
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Complex technical barriers to interactive content
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Need for rapid response to breaking news
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Brand consistency across digital experiences
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Non-technical staff enablement
The impact
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Launched Gates Foundation website
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Enabled Discovery's, National Geographic and MSN Flash website production
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Streamlined major publishers' workflows
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Successful Brightcove acquisition
Overview
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First interactive media platform for professional publishing
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Adopted by MSN, Yahoo, Discovery, National Geographic
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Acquired by Brightcove
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Timeline: 2001-2006
Pioneering rich media publishing
StoryMaker was a rich-media platform designed to help content creators, publishers, and broadcasters templatize and easily publish highly-complex Macromedia Flash experiences. Soon after launching the StoryMaker platform, top-tier media, technology, and publishing companies such as MSN, Discovery, Yahoo, National Geographic, and USAToday were using StoryMaker to publish video, slideshows, interactive maps, polls, and interactive games.
