Project Experience:
Stagecast Software

Project Experience for Galatia Clients
Academia San José State University Continuing Education Stanford University Venture Capitalists Crescendo Ventures eBusiness Exchanges Neoforma Event Management SOFTBANK				Financial Institutions Irwin Home Equity Mortgage Mart Government-Related StateTrack.com High Technology and Technology Manufacturing Chip Express Corporation Software Development Stagecast Software

Stagecast Software

Client description: Stagecast Software, a supercharged Silicon Valley startup, has developed software for quick and intuitive creation of deeply interactive Living Simulations™, that include models, games, stories, and lessons.

The challenge: Streamline a large, complex web site to improve ease of maintenance and reduce implementation times for additions and changes. Allow staff to morph the site over time so as to increase repeat visitor interest.

The solution: Redesign structure of the web site and create a library of hierarchical templates supporting consistent, but differentiated appearance for each major customer segment.

Stagecast's approach to simulation authoring is based on the use of a proprietary, graphical, point-and-click programming language, which allows users to "program by demonstration." Their target customers in education, business and home are web-savvy, and look to their web-site for information and advice. Over time, supporting constantly increasing demands for additional content, the site had grown in complexity, had lost continuity, and had become difficult for users to navigate.

Galatia created a series of hierarchical templates utilizing a customized dictionary of elements. A tree relationship manager allows each section of the web site to be assigned a template class. Each template within a class defines the look and feel for the website pages directed at a particular market segment. The dictionary helps insure consistent terminology, and look and feel between the divisions. Navigation is enhanced by streamlining site organization and through implementing easily understood popups that provide guidance to the user. In addition, each page has a print-friendly template.

The dictionary and templates allow the staff to insure that changes are made consistently throughout the site; the "enter once — use many ways" design approach materially simplified web site maintenance and freed resources to focus on content, not mechanics of change control. As a result, the company has implemented a plan to slowly morph the site over time, increasing long-term user interest and return visits.

All designs were validated using Internet Explorer and Netscape browsers running on Windows and Mac OS, and Netscape running on Linux.

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