HELLO DESIGN
The web companion for a prime-time weekly science and technology series on PBS, this site combines WIRED magazine’s award-winning jour­nalism with PBS’ educational perspective and high-quality production. The TV series and the website serve to illuminate some of the most impressive innovations and research defining our culture at present time. Through feature articles, video, blogs and interviews, the site invites users to not only learn about the latest science discoveries but also join in the conversation with scientists, show hosts and WIRED writers.

“Aesthetically, we worked with WIRED to integrate the magazine’s visual language into the site,” says Hello Design creative director David Lai. The fact that WIRED Science is a TV show also played a big part in the design, which was set up to leverage meaningful imagery and video from the show. A number of objectives came into play when designing the WIRED Science website. It needed to reflect WIRED magazine’s visual language while establishing a distinct look and feel for the web. Video content had to be easy to find and watch. Web 2.0 features for syndicating and sharing site content had to be integrated and a network created wherein educators, scientists and technology writers could interact. Another objective was to integrate existing social-media tools in order to maximize the site’s exposure.

“We wanted the focus of the site to be on the fascinating science and technology topics themselves,” Lai says, “whether it’s rewiring the brain through the tongue, meteorite hunting, lab grown human organs or any number of fascinating stories. Each main section is designed to attract users to the content.” Because science is such a universal area of interest, the site really was designed for everybody … and the main idea behind it was to present a broad range of interesting science and technology topics that could pique anyone’s curiosity.

Users have responded very well to the whole thing, spurring dialogue through commenting and feedback tools. Many teachers have commented on what a great tool the site is for the classroom. “Leveraging free, popular social-media tools like Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, and integrating it with WIRED.com , we were able to get the word out and connect people to the site,” says Lai. Embeddable video and easy-to-share tools also made it easy for users to let others know about the site and all there is to find there. Dana Rouse

HELLO DESIGN | CREATIVE DIRECTORS: DAVID LAI, HIRO NIWA | ART DIRECTOR: ADHEMAS BATISTA | DESIGNER: DHANAI HOLTZCLAW PROGRAMMERS: HUGO ZHU, JESSICA SHAO, BRIAN JOHNSON | PRODUCER: SZU ANN CHEN | CLIENT: KCET | WWW.HELLODESIGN.COM