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web design portfolio Wave 38
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This classic dotcom-era startup was building on an online directory様ike an online yellow pages葉hat would have housed recommendations and ratings in addition to straight-ahead listings. Their idea was to leverage the trust that friends have in each other's opinions, and to complement an online directory with reviews provided by known friends, colleagues, and family members. The idea was and still might be a good one. After all, how much time have you wasted sending emails out for product tips, accountants, restaurant recommendations, travel ideas, etc?
Our first deliverable in projects that involve an application is usually a blue-sky treatment. This is a document in which we explore the product's possibilities, and it serves us with an opportunity to engage with the client on big picture issues before becoming locked into scope definitions and milestones. Our blue sky brainstorm in this case suggested many possibilities, but one fundamental hurdle.
We all agreed that the challenge was going to be in getting users to participate. Without participation, this online directory would have be like any other. When the benefit to users is "knowledge leveraged and shared within a community built on relationships of trust," how do they actually discover this? Compounding our design challenge was the matter of branding. This was a new company, and it wanted to establish a strong consumer brand. Page design was going to have to handle the heavy load of directory information, do the branding, and provide numerous navigation options. All within serious browser and downloading constraints.
Unfortunately, this like so many others closed as a result of funding difficulties.
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