Rich user experience and engagement.
Artefact and InfoSpace collaborated to design and develop a brand new toolbar to attract new users and retain their current users of Nation.com. By extending the experience from your typical webpage, the Nation Toolbar engages users with “packages” of wallpapers and recipes (more to come) generated by Nation.com search results. The results are based on an aggregation of the best results from other web search engines including Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft. Using Microsoft® Silverlight™ technology, Artefact was able to design and test through the Rapid Iterative Test and Evaluation (RITE) methodology a new class of rich internet applications (RIA) both visually and functionally. Gavin Kelly, Principal and co-founder of Artefact wrote: “We’ve been quick to adopt Expression Blend because it helps us close the gap between design and implementation. Instead of spending three weeks on specifications or ‘wireframes,’ we can spend that time delivering a working prototype. Just as important, the designer’s vision remains intact throughout the development process.”
Microsoft Case: InfoSpace
InfoSpace Selects Silverlight to Power Toolbars (via Sam Chenaur, Moving the Needle)
Silverlight Extends The Toolbar Experience (via Artefact blog)