DairyNZ has come up with the answer – 3D Dairy, which got its first public outing at the industry-good body’s annual meeting in mid-October.
Brand marketing manager Andrew Fraser, who looks after its education programmes, said he was searching for a way to tell the dairy industry story in a meaningful and interesting way.
He reasoned that computer-based learning was the best bet to get across information about how dairying affects every New Zealander’s standard of living, especially urban dwellers whose only connection might be the price of the bottle of milk they buy.
“If you could make it a bit gamey that would be good,” he said.
Armed with data showing which dairy products NZ sells to overseas countries and in what quantities, he worked with a developer to present the information in an eye-catching way.
“I can’t find anything like this anywhere,” he said, showing off just what 3D Dairy can do. Click on a dairy exports screen and a spinning globe challenges the viewer to select one country. This brings up a table showing exactly how much dairy product NZ sends there, what they’re worth and what categories the products fall into. Another click and these can be shown in both table and pie graph form.
A second screen shows a 3D map of NZ on which any region can be selected. Not only do the area’s milk production statistics come up but so does the number of people employed in dairying locally. A button at the bottom of the screen converts the numbers to stick figures, showing each as an individual.
Andrew Fraser
“It gives a sense of scale,” Fraser said.
“And it also makes it more like a gaming experience.”
More context is provided by going into a screen which shows details of exports of primary products from ports around the country. Dairying’s position is compared with that of lamb, beef, seafood and horticultural products, with the figures going back five years to show how dairying’s share of business has grown.
“That’s the power of doing it online,” he said.
“It tells the export story of what dairying means to NZ.”
Fraser is keen to introduce 3D Dairy as a teaching resource at secondary schools, and not just in dairying areas.
“For subjects such as economics and maths it would be much better than just giving students a spreadsheet,” he said.
“It gives the idea that this is a big deal for NZ. It’s not just milking cows, it’s a whole industry.”
3D Dairy is now on the DairyNZ website under the Dairy at Work section and will be developed into a teaching resource next year. Because the program is a large download it can also be run offline.
