 |
WM Unveils Fun New Mobile AppBy WY Daily Staff Wednesday, February 16, 2011
A rendering of the garbed Colonial Griffin.
The college’s Office of Creative Services has just released a “Dress the Griffin” mobile application which allows users to dress an image of the year-old mascot in a variety of outfits, including a shirt featuring President Taylor Reveley and a top hat and tails. “We all agreed we wanted to do something fun, something for the whole College community,” Mark Windley, project manager, said in a press release. The free app, available for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Android devices, can be downloaded from the Android Market or the App Store and has been loaded on devices at the Tribe Computer Store. It allows users to dress the Griffin in a selection of 100 individual clothing items or 25 themed ensembles which include backgrounds and sound effects. Users can post their creations on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media. The college isn’t planning on dressing the Griffin beyond the app, but Director of Creative Services Susan Evans said she hopes it will generate some new ideas. Planning for the project started last year with a staff brainstorming session on what kind of app to create. Typically colleges have a mobile version of their website as their app, but William and Mary already has a mobile website so was looking for something different. People often use their smartphones, iPods and iPads as gaming devices, according to Joel Pattison, associate director of creative services. So, the team decided to do something that would be lighthearted and could be enjoyed by everyone. After developing some initial clothing ideas in meetings, team members placed large poster boards around their offices so that colleagues could leave additional ideas for outfits and accessories. “It allowed people to be more free and open (about their ideas), and it was also a lot of fun,” said Windley. The task of drawing each outfit was given to intern Rachel Follis, a senior art major who wants to be a graphic designer. She created the items in Photoshop, and included items relevant to William and Mary such as a Green Leafe mug and the shirt with a photo of Reveley. Pattison put the images into files that could be used by multiple devices and created a set of backgrounds, some of which are based on campus locations. Tiffany Broadbent, Web programmer, spent two months writing the code for the Apple and the Android versions of the app, and Justin Schoonmaker, Web and multimedia designer, put together the sound effects. One of the sound effects even features Reveley, in his trademark voice, saying “Marvelous.” After lots of work, the team sent the app to Apple for approval and then applied to Android in January. This is the first app produced by creative services, and the team learned a lot in the process, according to Windley. “Now we know what to expect,” he said. “It’s certainly not the last application we’ll ever build.” Pattison said he hopes the app will show that the College “has a sense of humor and doesn’t take itself too seriously.”
|
|
Copyright © 2010-2011 WY Daily. Davis Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Website by Web-tactics
Website by Web-tactics
Comments
Years ago, the School of Business helped our company create our 1st business plan.
Quoting WastedStateMonies!: