“A very well-executed virtual world that enables us to democratize space research and contextualize its impact in our daily lives. A nice tool to make younger people aware of the importance of research.” —juror Guillaume Braun
“This was love at first question: How does space exploration impact my daily life? From that provocation, I dove into the interactives. It felt like an immersive ride at an online theme park, connecting me to innovations I never realized came from NASA. An enlightening, exciting and inspiring experience!” —juror Hayley Hughes
Overview: If you’ve ever questioned the necessity of the US space program, NASA Home & City has the answer. Created by branding and marketing agency Mission and animation and game design studio Bully! to help engage the public with the benefits of NASA, this website offers an interactive exploration of NASA’s Spinoffs, or everyday products and services that were either derived from space-exploration technology or have been improved through the agency’s partnerships. NASA Home & City demonstrates the wider value of space exploration and how it’s already enriched our lives.
A browser-based 3-D rendering facilitates a seamless ow throughout the site’s Home and City environments.
The response from the public has been extremely positive, with visitors spending more than eight minutes on average on
the site.
The website took nine months and a team of seventeen to complete.
Comments by Carlson Bull, founder/executive creative director, Bully!, and Todd Harvey, principal/executive creative director, Mission:
Describe the purpose of the project and its target audience. “NASA Home & City was conceived and created for the express purpose of engaging the public in the benefits of America’s space program. From K-12 students to space enthusiasts to government representatives, Home & City offers an immersive and informative deep dive into the very tangible ways NASA is responsible for billions of dollars of revenue, tens of thousands of jobs created and improved quality of living across the United States and around the world.”
What was the thinking behind the navigational structure? “The concept for Home & City called for the user to ‘transition’ between
a typical website experience and an immersive 3-D experience. The solution was the creation of three navigation architectures that intuitively engage the user: a standard hamburger navigation for quick, site-wide accessibility; a HUD-like navigation for interface controls and gesture redundancy; and a beacon-based navigation for 3-D environment navigation.”
Did you use any applications that you hadn’t used before? “The marriage between 3-D assets and WebGL tech was new for our team at this level of scale, profile and complexity. For the mobile experience, we leveraged the built-in gyroscope functionality for more-immersive exploration.”
