Western Union World
It’s been 160 years since Western Union was founded in 1851 as the ‘New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company’ and to celebrate their rich history Western Union decided to build an online experience, Western Union World.
Western Union teamed up with leading PR agency Blue Rubicon and development agency ideas.org to develop the brief. As Project Manager I worked with ideas.org founder Simon Grice and the talented team of designers and developers.
The initial concept contained many great ideas which resulted in 3 fundamental elements for the site including stories of Western Union’s history, an interactive representation of world economic data, and a Facebook Application which shows how globally networked you are.
Western Union World
Flat designs of the initial concept were developed in house at ideas.org and were met with keen approval by Western Union. It was then time to prepare for the build phase, the site was developed using Flash, embedded in HTML, and using XML, PHP, Javascript and a MySQL database to present requested information and data. We worked hard conceptually to engage users by promoting interaction and allowing data to be manipulated by site users.
The landing page embodies the three key elements of Western Union World, Western Union’s geography, history, and their diverse base of customers, the social element.
Western Union’s Historcal Timeline
Prior to working at Western Union we had no idea just how rich their history was. It’s a history which boasts some of the most progressive technological innovations of our time, from the first transcontinental telegraph, to the inventions of telegram, desktop fax, the credit card, microwave communications and launching the first commercial satellite in the US. With employees such as Thomas Edison, it’s no wonder Western Union maintained their status in leaders of technological innovations.
We worked closely with Western Union’s Communications team in the US to gather content and stories in order to depict their history on an animated timeline. The results are great and successfully tell the Western Union story, from 1851 right up to their latest innovation, the ability to transfer money over mobile and iPhone applications.
Western Union World – Economic Data
“Our World” is aptly titled, it’s the element of the site presenting economic data for the world we live in, fundamentally in relation to Western Union’s operations. Our focus and key challenge in this exercise was to create methods of visualising a wide range of data in a compelling and engaging manner. The landing screen here enables users to control data sets on a world view. Each country has a 3 dimensional elevation depicting values for a chosen data set such as population, gdp, or value of imports and exports. The elevations on the world view allow users to compare and contrast between countries across the world at a glance, it’s interesting to see features such as the surge in GDP in the US in recent decades.
From the world view, users can click through to specific country views by clicking on the outline of a chosen country. This then presents a page containing a wide range of data pertaining to that particular country. There are several data sets which are of specific relevance to Western Union, one of which is the corridors, or routes that money travels in from one location to another, as depicted below.
Another interesting data set is shown in country 3D elevation, GDP Vs Remittances (as % of GDP). This shows the percentage of a countries total GDP that is made up from transfers (or remittances) made by Western Union customers. An interesting fact that depicts Western Union’s role in the economic growth of developing countries.
Your World – Western Union Facebook Application
How globally networked are you?
The third section of the Western Union World is the Facebook application. We built this to build Western Union’s online engagement with their customers across the globe. An interesting and compelling interactive app which we built using Facebook’s API, and presenting user network data in a stimulating way. The concept is relevant as it let’s users think globally and it’s often interesting to see how unexpectedly diverse your network can be.
The app was launched with a viral affect, experiencing 180,000 logins in the first week. Celebrities were chosen from a variety of countries to promote the app and at the same time allow us to see what a widely networked individuals visualisation would look like.
Again we included the option to select a particular country so that users can have a closer look and see what their network looks like in that country, identifying friends they have in each location.
The creative concept to visualise user networks as planets within an appearance of a galaxy was the input of the talented team at Blue Rubicon. Creating their vision combined with Western Union’s requirements was a real challenge, but it was thoroughly enjoyed by the team at ideas.org, resulting in a combined effort which everyone is proud of.
Visit Western Union World.
