Gadget – Flu-O-Meter
The Problem:
Boredom. If not presented well, statistical data can put even the most interested reader to sleep. Our client, Intellihealth, gave us the mission of making flu statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exciting to the web surfing public. Surveys indicated that people were interested knowing where these insidious bugs were wreaking havoc in order to answer important personal questions: Should I get a flu shot if I plan to stay in my home state this winter? What about my business trip to Texas; will I be exposed to the flu more there than at home? Though interested, web users made it clear that they had little patience for wading through lists of dry numbers to find the information they wanted. We had to find a way to make weekly updated CDC flu statistics exciting, while not spending a lot of time creating and updating the site.
Our Solution:
Challenge. Most web users want to manipulate and "play" with the environment they’re visiting and still find the information they’re looking for in an easily accessible and interesting manner. We also know that the majority of web users like a challenge, and once presented with one, they will pit themselves against it again and again. There were many static ways we could have presented the CDC information, but instead we chose to add a layer of complexity and a dash of difficulty. The Flu-O-Meter was the perfect solution. Visitors can click on a state, then see the name of the state and a light that indicates whether the flu outbreak is non existent, low, medium or high. It was a simple yet elegant solution that produced exceptional results for our client.
The Results:
Incredible. Our Flu-O-Meter was a huge success, with over 400,000 page hits with over 44,000 hits on a single day in the middle of flu season! It was featured on AOL, AltaVista, The Washington Post, NetGuide, Womenconnect, Orange County Register, The Houston Chronicle, and various other newspapers. It was also noted as a site to visit in The New York Times. Our Flu-O-Meter was carefully designed to be "sticky", and sure enough, once people got there, they stayed. The Meter was used as a geography quiz (Is that Iowa or Illinois?), a flu outbreak challenge (Is it still high in New York?), and we found that, as predicted, people returned to the site again and again to get flu information and just have fun. Needless to say, our client is very pleased.
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