We had a nice story today about one of the most recognizable and beautiful parts of the university: The ever-changing gardens planted on the North and South Ovals. In print, we had a good shot looking down the South Oval at how things had been spruced up for the recent homecoming week. Online, also just that one static image.
It got me to thinking: What else could we have done with it?
Here’s one quick alternative we could try that took about five minutes of time between Google Earth and a GIF generator. Students could do it with more and better pictures (ours, maybe images the main source in the story would provide himself or ones available via Creative Commons) from better vantage points and probably make something that would really pop online — think of the social potential of the visual — and in turn draw more readers back to Justine’s original story.
We could also potentially use the photo slider tool — Juxtapose — from the Knight Lab to play with something like this.
Beyond that, however, how could we take it a step further to not just show readers how it has changed through the years, but also to invite them into sketching — whether online or in print — what it could look like in future arrangements?
Seth Prince 