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Improving Access to a National Memorial

Roles
  • Lead Developer
Company/Client
  • National Park Service,
  • Bluecadet
Activities
  • Experience Design,
  • Interaction Design,
  • Development,
  • Information Architecture

Bluecadet created an interactive website for the Lincoln Memorial, commissioned by the National Park Service. The project aimed to offer a virtual yet deeply engaging experience of the memorial, emphasizing accessibility and historical reverence.

Webby Awards: Cultural Institutions American Association of Museums: Muse Silver Award Communication Arts: WebPick of the Week

The Lesson

The Bluecadet project for the Lincoln Memorial stands as a testament to how thoughtful design and technology can be leveraged to create meaningful virtual experiences of historical landmarks, making them accessible and engaging to a broader audience.

Landing View

The landing view introduced the central concept of the design strategy: The story of the Lincoln Memorial is greater than just the building. The story also includes the lives and experiences of the people who care for it: the National Park rangers.

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The Client

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., is a monumental tribute to the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Designed by architect Henry Bacon and dedicated in 1922, the memorial features a grand neoclassical temple with 36 Doric columns, symbolizing the states in the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death. Inside, a majestic 19-foot marble statue of Lincoln, created by sculptor Daniel Chester French, sits in contemplation. The walls are inscribed with Lincoln’s famous speeches, including the Gettysburg Address. The Lincoln Memorial is a symbol of unity and freedom, attracting millions of visitors annually.

Immersive & Engaging

The design strategy centered on delivering a seamless, uninterrupted experience as visitors moved through and explored the monument, its murals, its history, and the stories of the National Park rangers who care for it.

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Moving Through the Building

Fifteen different panoramic views of the memorial were available, all navigable through an interactive map that placed the views within the context of the building while encouraging unguided exploration.

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Interactive and Self-Directed Tour

Bluecadet developed an interactive tour allowing visitors to explore the Lincoln Memorial in detail. The tour integrated high-quality videos, still photography, and immersive panoramas to create a comprehensive virtual experience.

Windowed

The site's panoramic photography placed visitors within the memorial itself, letting them move and explore the entire building as if they were there in person.

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Full Screen

Full-screen views of panoramas maintained the immersive nature of the visitor's experience.

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Interaction Design

A core component of the design strategy was that multiple avenues existed to access content. Visitors never had to step back - there was always a way to move forward.

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Immersive Panoramic Photography

Spherical panoramic photography was utilized to capture every inch of the memorial. This approach enabled virtual visitors to “walk” around and explore 21 different vantage points, offering a sensation of being physically present at the site.

Immersion

The panoramas included an interactive layer with paths to detailed views and information on key elements of the memorial.

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Explore & Learn

The same mapping technology repurposed for the Getty exhibition was used to present detailed views of key elements in the memorial. As a result, visitors were effectively able to get within arm's reach, a level of access greater than if they visited in person.

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Interactive Elements and Detailed Exploration

The panoramas included interactive triggers that revealed detailed still photographs of significant elements of the memorial, which could be explored using an interactive zoom feature.

Reflections

The Reflecting Pool located at the base of the Lincoln Memorial's steps encourages visitors to contemplate our nation's complex history. Similarly, the site's interviews with park rangers provided a human perspective of the memorial's central role in key historical events of the last one hundred years, from Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, to the anti-war protests of the 1960s, the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

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Voices

Each interview focused on a single ranger's perspective of what it means to care for and protect a monument to freedom.

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Seamless Movement

The design strategy used the content itself as the interactive layer, keeping visitors immersed in the experience as they moved through and among the material.

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Integration of Park Ranger Narratives

A key highlight was the inclusion of video interviews with park rangers. Their personal narratives, combined with still photography, on-location video, archival footage, and music, created a powerful and emotive connection to the memorial’s history.

History

The design did not ignore the history of the monument. The story of its conception and construction framed the human experience within a historical context.

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High Accessibility Standards

Ensuring that the experience was universally accessible, the website offered various ways to engage with the content. This included captioned videos, downloadable audio, and an HTML-only version of the site with transcriptions and detailed image descriptions.

Design Philosophy

The design’s success was attributed to its approach of letting the content speak for itself, rather than relying heavily on technological gimmicks. This approach facilitated a more profound connection between the virtual visitors and the memorial, making historical events and figures more relatable and tangible.

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