Ireland’s first radio broadcast was transmitted on the 25th of April 1916, in the middle of the most significant week in Irish history – the Easter Rising. Everyone in Ireland knows the story of the Easter Rising, but the story of Ireland’s first radio broadcast was not so well known.
So to mark the 100th anniversary we took over the airwaves, broadcasting the exact same message, for the exact same length, on the exact same date, at the exact same time on every major radio station in Ireland.
But radio could only tell part of the story, so we created a campaign microsite as a way of expanding the story, giving more background context and educating the user through a fully immersive design.
The site told the story in 8 parts. To aid comprehension, the copy in each page was limited to a maximum of 55 words and supported with era-accurate photography.
The key feature in our design was the user interaction. To progress through the site users had to tap the spacebar to mimic tapping out Morse code.
Our progression mechanic wasn’t just random Morse code though – as users advanced through the site they were tapping out the first 2 lines of the actual message transmitted by the rebels 100 years earlier. The user journey culminated with the user’s taps activating the remainder of the original Morse code message, which played out in full, over the translation on-screen.
The design of the site, didn’t just let users learn the story of Ireland’s first radio broadcast, it allowed them to experience it by literally recreating one of the most important moments in Irish broadcasting history.
