Disney.com may be targeted at families and kids, but the new site, debuting on January 29, uses some serious technology to deliver an impressive experience for its visitors, featuring video, chat, highly customizable content, and themed areas.
The new home page (see screenshot below) will feature a navigation bar on top that lets users travel the site via major content categories, from movies to TV to music, travel, shopping, characters (like Winnie the Pooh, Jack Sparrow, and Peter Pan), games and more. Click on one of those categories, and you'll be taken to a page that focuses on that type of content. Each category home page features a dynamic and eye-catching mix of video, promos for category-specific offers, a what's new section, and further information.
Disney also lets visitors sort themselves by type, and directs them to tailored home pages for preschoolers, boys, girls, families, kids and teens, and "Disney fans." The pages all have some of the same elements: a video window, promos, games, and "worlds" that may be of interest. For example, the boys page has the "Cars" world as one of the prominent links, while the girls page has the Tinkerbell-based Fairies world (both genders get Jack Sparrow and the Pirates of the Caribbean).
Since games are a hot area for kids (and possibly their parents), Disney is also beefing up its online gaming options with dozens of offerings. Users will be able to go directly to the games page, or use the Game Finder to search all games by character, age, or type--such as puzzles or multiplayer games.
Disney's new XD Platform (Extreme Digital) makes much of this possible, especially the most customizable content. Via the Disney XD section (see screen below), users can add videos to their own playlists, change the look and feel of their pages, store elements they see on other pages into their own backpack, chat with their friends, leave "stickers" with comments on other users' custom pages, and collect rewards or badges as they play games and otherwise participate in the site's content.
Users will also be able to use the XD platform in other parts of the site. For example, at launch, girls in the Faeries world will be able to create their own faery, name her, get her clothes.
But eventually, they also will be able to take that character they've created into other situations, like out on an adventure with other faeries, both preset by Disney or created by their friends.
Essentially, Disney users will be able to create avatars and bring them into rich online worlds, and use them to interact with others on the site. They will have multiple windows of multimedia content tailored to their tastes, with content from all Disney TV channels, movie studios, parks, and more.
According to Steve Parkis, Disney Online's VP of Premium Content, the technology could also be ported to other Disney properties, like ESPN and ABC, and may eventually go mobile.
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