Making the real world accessible

ThingLink and ConsultATSA announce Strategic Partnership

ThingLink has partnered with ConsultATSA expanding ThingLink’s reach to organizations across the Pacific. Through this partnership ThingLink will draw on the expertise of ConsultATSA to bind together visual learning experiences with leading edge digital transformation solutions.

Schools and workplaces in several countries are facing a new situation as organizations take preventive measures amid the growing number of coronavirus cases around the world. Visual learning materials; infographics, posters, screenshots, video lessons and virtual tours with recorded audio notes and instructions can support daily communication between teachers and students. Below are some examples from our community as well as collections of other great resources and solutions for remote learning.

ThingLink user:  FashionUnited (click to explore live page) - Virtual tours are most commonly associated with 360/VR images, videos or still images of a physical space.   FashionUnited shows how ThingLink's tour creator layout expands this notion by combining any image into one unified experience.  Their editorial team published an interactive map featuring highlights from the biggest European fashion trade shows in 2020.  Clicking on the various icons will give viewers a deeper dive into each specific region. 

ThingLink user:  Pool Corp (click to explore live page) - Oftentimes complex products are best presented visually and this is how Pool Corp uses ThingLink in February's spotlight.  Visitors of the site can view this interactive illustration to get ideas on various renovation projects that will give new life to their pools and learn all the reasons why updating your pool is a good idea and an economically smart choice in the long run.  Since pools have many parts, Pool Corp deconstructs each element with a unique hotspot including a tip and link to relevant product lines.

ThingLink and Tablet Academy announce Professional Development Partnership

ThingLink and Tablet Academy are delighted to announce their partnership which will be officially launched at the forthcoming Tablet Academy's Transform, Innovate and Inspire Convention on the 5th March at RAF Cosford, Telford, UK. 

Stewart’s Melville College is part of ESMS, a unique family of Independent Schools in Edinburgh, Scotland and has been providing education to boys for over 150 years. Stewart's Melville College has a large school community stemming back many generations. Head of eLearning, Mr Luxford-Moore and the pupils wanted to be able to develop the ways they connect with the ESMS families, enabling all to experience the school whether they are young, old, near or far away, or physically unable to tour the school.

ThingLink user:  JLL California (click to explore live page) - Making maps and aerial views actionable with interactive hotspots is one of the top use cases amongst all ThingLink user segments.  Maps are especially conducive to interactive elements because they require you to label or explain specific geographical locations with information that would be challenging to implement into the map design. Using icons and ThingLink hotspots, JLL California elegantly provides an interactive tour of their office campus and surrounding area without disrupting the visual nature of the map.   Using interactive content provides a more visual and engaging experience on landing pages that will keep your viewers spending time on the page longer. 

ThingLink user:  Arsenal Soccer (click to explore live page) - Arsenal uses cleverly designed interactive illustrations to create an immersive experience for their fans to meet each player. While navigating from the team news section of Arsenal's website, unique landing pages include an image for fans to learn more about important career dates, goal video clips, birthday, height/weight and a link to Twitter profiles. Using interactive images is an engaging way to educate your audience on any person or place.  Project idea: simplify your team introduction landing page with an interactive image or 360° image featuring your staff.

ThingLink user:  Schneider Electric - Blog posts can quickly become very text-heavy, which causes readers to engage less with your content.  As the web shifts to more visual media like images and videos, we recommend incorporating as many as possible into your blog posts to capture the attention of today's readers.  Using interactive hotspots within visual media allows authors to continue telling their story without having to increase article length with many lines of text.  The examples below show how Schneider Electric has continuously leveraged interactive infographics within blog posts to generate stunning communication experiences.  

Photo credit: State of Maine

Kristen Muszynski is the director of communications at the Department of the Secretary of State in Maine. Some time ago her colleague Tammy Marks, director of the Maine State Archives, started advocating for investing time and money in new technologies to showcase the archives’ holdings.