Over the last few months, we've been busy on several very exciting projects--and recently we launched one of them, the BGCC's The World According to Us.
Alongside design, the development of The World According to Us faced a unique set of challenges: as a completely custom solution, The World According to Us platform had to be created specifically to satisfy the BGCC's needs. This involved the creation of several key, unique functionalities that would allow the platform to become a natural extension of their programs.
Hit the jump below for a quick look inside the development process of five cool features that went into the making of The World According to Us.
The BGCC's vision of The World According to Us was that the platform would become not only an extension of their programs, but a way for communities and clubs nationwide to better interact and share their voices. Moreover, the platform needed to be very quick for users to submit and have content approved, with minimial learning curve, so that it would be extremely easy for the youth and administrators alike to use and adopt. We set out to harness an open-source web platform with technologies such as WordPress, mySQL and jQuery to create this new web platform that would do just that.
1. Secure, custom sign-up process and user verification
From a development standpoint, creating an approval process for new users was a complex undertaking, especially because it needed to fit seamlessly with the BGCC's workflow. Because each user of the site is verified personally by an authorized administrator, verification is handled differently by age group. With the number of potential users in the thousands, this meant that the system would need to support categoried users and user types from the moment they are entered in the system, along with a way to allocate the verification responsibilities to specific local clubs. This allowed verification to be done either at the head office or to be passed down to a local club, making for a quicker process. Similarly, the custom sign-up process involved the creation of a security layer to protect the different user types.
2. Detailed filtering for easy searches
The filtering system allows users of the platform to specify their desired content--not just by common categories such as "Topics," "Content Types," "Latest," "Featured," and "Most Recognized, Viewed and Commented"--but by age group, region, club and program. This made it easier for users to find content created and shared by their individual club and program, and ultimately, to increae user interaction.
3. Responsive design
The World According to Us needed to travel wherever its users went--so we developed the platform to be fully responsive to all the most common mobile devices without compromising the end user experience.
4. Integration with YouTube, Vimeo and the major social media platforms
Integrating The World According to Us with social media allowed the users to share content easier between platforms, making the sharing to the site more efficient and the resulting audience larger.
5. Simple login via Facebook and Twitter
By using oAuth in the login development, users are able to sign into the platform using their Facebook and Twitter accounts. As a key goal was to make sure the platform was as easy to use as possible, this simple login process helped to minimize the time it takes to get started on the site.
If you have yet to check it out, The World According to Us is live and waiting for you! Be sure to drop by and check out these features for yourself!
