Case Study

Brief

Clubbing.co.uk had a very open brief with the objective of forming an innovative and engaging social networking site for Clubbers. The aim is to make ‘clubbing.co.uk’ the definitive guide to Clubbing in the UK.

The philosophy of the site is to engage with its audience, listen to feedback and act on what the visitor wants to see and hear – Your Voice – Your Music – Your Club.

The site had to compete with a number of other music and clubbing related sites, so it had to be top end and very slick in its visual design, with a punchy easy to use interface. A key element was to utilise sounds and video to its best advantage and bring engagement with new technologies on all levels. The site is fast paced and has to accommodate for changing content, so a scalable approach was very important.

Strategy

Our approach was to first develop a series of wire-frames to illustrate the intended content to be included on the site. From these we developed an open architecture for the site, with various visual and interactive design ideas in mind. The next stage was to create various design concepts for the Home Page, which would set the tone for the site and address the continually evolving site content.

Execution

This was achieved by using a simple structure and a modular approach to the interface elements. Close attention was paid to the interface itself and a colour palette was developed to maintain a strong design identity that would hold the design throughout the different page layouts.

To address the use of new technologies we employed our multimedia skills to include video, which was shot and edited by BOCC for YouTube publication and site placement. Music was included by the use of 'TrackIt Down', which allows users to both listen to tracks and purchase them online. The site is kept up-to-date using the underlying YouDu CMS content management system. This enables the Clubbing web manager to update the content of the site, both quickly and easily, using nothing more than an Internet accessible web browser.

The philosophy of the site is to engage with its audience, listen to feedback and include what the user wants to see. This will be an ongoing process and will enable us to bring new technologies centre stage.

Results

The site is already attracting top promoters, who are regularly publishing their own events and news. ‘clubbing.co.uk’ is continually evolving and together with the feedback that’s already been received, phase two is about to launch.

This new phase will bring on board a host of new features alongside the existing discussion forums, news and events. Areas such as a new ‘Shout Box’ where a ‘shout’ is limited to 140 characters and clubbers can tell us what they’re up to; a new focus on the Clubbing Directory to include a fuller schedule of events, venue ratings and reviews, and an update to the current registration form to encourage both clubbers and more industry leaders to participate. It’s going to be an exciting time to see how far we can go.