Southwestern University

Brand and digital experience work for Texas's oldest and most progressive liberal arts college.

An Immersive Campus Experience

After redesigning their brand and website, Southwestern challenged Handsome to create an immersive campus map experience for faculty, students, and prospective applicants. Our team defied expectations by designing a custom built 3D environment that replicates the campus atmosphere online.

The Problem:
Colleges and universities should be at the forefront of innovation, but their digital experiences are often stuck in the past. Southwestern University needed to take a massive leap forward to help their constituents learn about their relationship between academics and environment.

Services
  • 3D Art
  • Copywriting
  • Development
  • Experience Strategy
  • Motion Design
  • Technology Strategy
  • Website Design

Where We’re Going,
We Don’t Need 2D

The future of everything involves 3D design and education is no exception. Rather than building an utterly predictable 2D clickable map, our team created an immersive 3D campus experience that marries technical capability with emotional resonance.

Design and Technical Expertise

Building reactive web-based 3D experiences is no small feat, especially considering the technical complexity required in the wayfinding layer. After assessing several options, our team used a Javascript library to allow navigation over a 3D map that is professionally-rendered into a 2D image. This minimized computational lift in-browser and allowed us to more easily overlay information.

Outcome

The new Southwestern Campus Map is the envy of universities everywhere. Students appreciate its ease of use and prospective students understand the campus atmosphere in a way that sets them apart. Online campus experiences have only become more important in the light of global pandemics and limited student resources to visit campus.