The new Maropeng Visitor Centre website
One of Flow’s oldest clients, the Maropeng Visitor Centre to the Cradle of Humankind, recently received a makeover implemented by talented programmers and designers at Flow Communications.
The new redesign features improved visual navigation with three tabs at the top of the home page, directing visitors to different sections of the website. In addition to the visitors’ section, which features the main Maropeng content, new tabs have been added for the online shop, where visitors can book online for special events, as well as a media page, which has the latest press releases for downloading.
Flow web developer Tumelo Mphafe says that the project had its ups and downs. “Working on the Maropeng re-design was challenging but also fun!”
The home page has also been updated with a featured news slideshow, which allows for news stories to be given more prominence. Lorraine Gumede, Flow graphic designer on the project says: “It was a lot of hard work, but I was very happy with the outcome. We also decided to use Harry the Hominid a lot more as he is the official tour guide to Maropeng.” He now appears on the bottom left of the home page next to his Twitter feed.
An exciting development for Maropeng’s web presence is the development of a mobi-site, which Richard Frank, Flow programming studio manager says was the next logical step. “With a near 100% mobile penetration rate in South Africa, it’s a no-brainer that the mobile Internet is the future, especially in Africa with limited fixed-line Internet access. Flow is rapidly moving into this space as the demand for mobile services is growing significantly.”
Flow web developer Stephen Frank adds that the rapid changes in mobile technology make it more complex to develop mobi-sites. “But new phone operating systems like iOS 4 (for iPhones) and Android are allowing us to create websites that look and operate in the same way as native mobile applications.
“The greatest challenge in terms of development was creating a mobile experience that, while being graphically rich and interactive for the high-end iPhone, Android and BlackBerry markets, degraded gracefully for older mobile phones.”
Visit www.maropeng.co.za on your mobile phone to experience the new developments.