UBC Library Chung Collection
Strategy, Interactive
WHERE
In 1999, the Chung family made an exceptional gift to the University of British Columbia Library, with their donation of The Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection, comprised of over 25,000 rare and unique items documenting Chinese immigration in Canada. Along with development partner Bayleaf Software, we were selected by UBC Library to redesign the website and collection interfaces.
IDEAS
The Chung Collection is housed in UBC’s Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, where selected pieces are on display in the Chung Room. Though the exhibit is open to the public, only a small fraction of the impressive collection is on display. The original website was created to support the physical exhibit, but did not intrigue users or adequately support online research, an important aspect of the collection.
The new site was rebuilt with a Drupal content management system. The design is based on the collection content and aesthetics, presenting multiple areas of interest, quick search functionality and thematic exploration on the homepage, bringing items that would otherwise remain unseen to the fore. We dramatically reconfigured searching and the presentation of results, both for a better user experience and to lead users deeper into related and popular content.
WORK
A particular challenge of the new site design was integrating it into the framework of the then new UBC “Common Look and Feel” design template while retaining Chung’s unique identity. The site was successfully launched in March 2010.
Launch website: chung.library.ubc.ca
Drupal and database development by Bayleaf Software
