Jerzy Kukuczka Virtual Museum

Client

The Jerzy Kukuczka Foundation — an organization commemorating one of the greatest Himalayan climbers in history, the second person to conquer the Crown of the Himalayas and Karakoram. It runs the Virtual Museum, a memorial room, and a historical archive.

Challenge

The Foundation needed technical support for its existing site and an expansion of it, above all a new "Oral Histories" module — a section of video interviews with people connected to Jerzy Kukuczka. The key requirement: a video player with a transcript synced to the footage (the text follows the recording), plus a CMS panel to add new video material with transcripts on their own.

Solution

We took over technical care of the Foundation's existing site and expanded the Virtual Museum. The centrepiece is the new "Oral Histories" module, which we designed and built as a custom WordPress plugin. Key elements:

1. 01

   A custom video player with a synced transcript — the text scrolls automatically and highlights the passage matching the current playback position;

2. 02

   An admin panel for adding new interviews, with a timestamp editor;

3. 03

   An archive with filtering and sorting. We designed the module with WCAG accessibility in mind (contrast, font size, the transcript as a text alternative to video), and it works in all 3 language versions of the site (PL/EN/ES).

Scope of work