The Lowdown

The Lowdown is a New Zealand website developed by the New Zealand Ministry of Health's National Depression Initiative (NDI). The website launched on 3 December 2007.

Mission
The Lowdown aims to help young New Zealanders understand and recover from depression. It does this through online support services and testimonials from New Zealand celebrities.

Navigators
The user can choose from one of four celebrity navigators who tell users how to use the website. There is also a "go alone" option.

Information and Help
The website has depression-related fact sheets and contact lists, as well as online self-tests.

Stories
The Lowdown has video of New Zealand celebrities and musicians talking about how they or someone they know made it through depression. Users can also add their own stories by submitting video or text.

Chat
Users can chat together in a style similar to a bulletin board.

Multimedia
Users can listen to streaming songs from contributing musicians.

Interface
The website uses flash built on ActionScript 3. It uses the Sandy 3D engine.