Responses by Active Theory.

Background: Active Theory v5 is our company’s portfolio site, showcasing our websites, installations, VR/AR work, apps, platforms and experiments. While the primary target of the site is industry professionals and potential clients, we also try to engage and inspire the web development community. Having these two different audiences, one business and one creative, is a challenging task, as we need to showcase cutting-edge development techniques alongside core business messaging.

Design core: A core feature of the site is real-time changing environments that users can toggle through as they explore the site. Given we had a lot of positive feedback from the intro alley sequence of our previous portfolio site, Active Theory v4, we wanted to extend that effect to different scenes. These scenes involve environments relevant to the company itself, such as Abbot Kinney and Venice Beach (near our Los Angeles office) and the Canals of Amsterdam (near our Amsterdam office.)

Another key design element was using a big screen as the central piece of each environment. While the previous iteration of our site was visually captivating, we felt it struggled to effectively showcase the work we do. By using a screen as a central element in this new site, we were able to show a range of video content that enables users to easily see different projects we have in our portfolio.

Navigation structure: The navigation ties into the site’s target audiences. For potential clients who quickly navigate towards the work section, we made sure to include clear filters that highlight the different types of work we do. This enables them to quickly understand our range of expertise and find pieces relevant to them. For creatives and developers, we focused on the landing experience, enabling users to transition through the environments and watch our reel on the big screen.

Easter eggs: We love to include Easter eggs on our sites. By pressing the spacebar, users can toggle between different environments.

Technology: The site was created in WebGL using our internal JavaScript framework. The site is also supported by a custom CMS that we will update over time to ensure our portfolio showcases our latest and most exciting work.