National Geographic
National Geographic Australia had a large footprint in print media and a digital footprint with their website, but no mobile application. They reached out to Originate to develop a mobile application for Android and iOS.
A small design studio had contacted Originate to help with development of a mobile application for National Geographic. They had been tasked with the design and project management of the new app, but needed another group to develop and execute their design. They reached out to Originate to help fulfill their design vision. Originate was tasked with developing the complete frontend and backend to the new National Geographic Australia mobile app, given the guidelines of the design team.
Context
Process
Base to Peak
Without a base application to work off of, this was a true ground up build. Originate assisted from zero to launch, laying the base foundation and infrastructure for the app all the way through the finishing touches and features. With this holistic view of development, Originate was able to help realize every aspect of the design team’s vision.
Expert Guidance
Since Originate was working in lock step with an external design team, it was their job to coordinate and integrate efforts and expertise. Originate offered guidance as to the development consequences of design decisions, providing technical feedback and expertise to the design vision and putting developmental timeframes around proposed features.
Focus on the Details
Seeing that this project was being led by design, and that the business model relied on imagery and aesthetics, Originate focused the build on the crispness of the animations and the execution of the design vision. The final product featured an infinite scroll feed, with users able access both the full magazine as well as individual articles. Originate also implemented a dynamic layout format, with the layout for each article adapting to the content being presented, to allow for the best presentation as well as preventing scroll fatigue.
Results
Global Expansion
The app was received by the National Geographic team extremely well. They loved the crisp design and smooth execution, and so did their users. Shortly after its release, Originate was contacted again for multiple expansions of the project, including multilingual language expansions, regional adjustments and features, and a global rollout to other countries for worldwide expansion.
4.4★
on the Apple App Store
4.3★
on Google Play
