[Success case] Proud2BMe www.proud2bme.org True Innovation in Website Design & Development Through innovative design and sophisticated development, Globant worked with JPMorgan Chase s Technology for Social Good program to create a website for the National Eating Disorder Association called Proud2BMe, which allows teens to live a new experience in navigation, graphic design and connectivity through social media. Proud2BMe is an online community created by and for teens. They cover everything from fashion and beauty to news, culture, and entertainment all with the goal of promoting positive body image and encouraging healthy attitudes about food and weight.. Proud2BMe. The Challenge. Globant's Approach. Why Globant?. Clients Benefits. Team. Tools & Technologies used. Globant Delivered Results. About Globant s Creative and Social Studio. Social Strategy. Social application optimization. Social Tools The site was developed in partnership with Riverduinen and made possible by generous contributions from JPMorgan Chase, Globant, the University of Delaware, and The Hilda & Preston Davis Foundation. Proud2Bme was first launched in the Netherlands by Riverduinen, a mental health organization that has licensed the concept to the National Eating Disorders Association. Unless otherwise noted, all original content on this site is copyright The National Eating Disorders Association. The Proud2Bme brand, logos, and trademarks are property of Rivierduinen. The Challenge Proud2Bme needed a better way to communicate with teens both current and prospective. They needed: A visually appealing website with clear, user-friendly information architeture. A simple way to navigate the site with agile usability.
A new young people oriented website that could be attracted by its innovative style. A simple, customized backend they could use to regularly update the website solution. The website had to be focused in the community objective, to promote a positive body image and to encourage healthy attitudes about food and weight among people between 13 and 18 years old. So, they asked Globant to implement it using Drupal, which is a valuable tool, specially efficient to build and manage internet communities. Its flexibility and adaptability made of it the perfect fit for this project. Globant's Approach Globant's successful approach to the challenge lay in a phase by phase well defined project, in which all the phases occurred one after the other with an excellent management of time and resources deployed. While the website was developed using the best in modern design, other interesting features were introduced, such as the use of cartoons, very appealing to teens and an agile way of navigation, through new menu distribution and relocation, and menus options reduced for a simplifying choice. From a more technical perspective, new indexing was implemented to enhance speed while navigating and usability principles were used to increase engagement with the website; for example, one title with one drop down. On the graphical aspect high qualities images were provided, that had not been used before for the European site and conveying great charm to the new portal. Since social media channels attract so much continual attention from internet users, Globant has added the use of social media to create interest and traffic among the youth., expressed Jorge Atucha, Globant Project Manager for Proud2BMe. Through social media Proud2BMe will continue to expand the network of core supporters, and it is that group of loyal followers that will keep bringing the community voice to more people who will be pleased with what their help. The more traffic the website can continually obtain, it will soon earn a higher ranking among the search engines. Helping the community to achieve a high ranking with the search engines can give the portal much better visibility and online exposure, and keep the new followers coming.
Ultimate trends in terms of aesthetic principles were studied to determine the correct navigation style, graphic appealing and language that could be more attractive to teens, turning the site into a supportive place to go with less informative look and feel., expressed Geraldine Olaechea, Graphic Designer and HTML Programmer. Innovation, great ability for creation and high quality results may be three values that made Globant the right technology partner to work with, concluded Atucha. Proud2BMe project was finished and went live, using Drupal CMS, which allows a non technical user to create content in a very easy way. Plus, Globant s expert developers built an equally user-friendly administrative backend to the website, making updates and maintenance hassle-free. With a few simple clicks, any non technical editor may post articles and keep it updated. Why Globant? We undertook a new technically challenging program of work with Proud2BMe. We made our relationship with the community team personal, we stayed very close to each person in the team and in the company and we provided a personalized answer for any issue", added Atucha. Clients Benefits Quality and speed in new projects development: Globant provided a strong working team and all the necessary resources for the new website development, obtaining an adequate balance between graphic design and navigation speed. Supporting innovation: Globant architected and developed a complete new platform with the best of breed technology. This new portal featured a new user experience through a very simple navigation style, the use of cartoons and high quality images, social media and CMS implementation. 100% of efficiency in project implementation: strong experience in project development, excellent management of time, phases, and resources.
Team Our Globers An experienced team of 8 people made this project possible: Creative UI Designers, Creative Designers, Cartoons Artists, Drupal Developers, Quality Control Engineers, and Global Project Manager. I would like to specially thank our team for an outstanding job, added Jorge Atucha, Global Project Manager. Creative UI Designers Federico Del Fallo Geraldine Olaechea Creative Designer / Cartoons Artist Adrián Rosales Drupal Developers Matías Figueroa Why Lautaro Globant? Eduardo Rosales Javier Solís Quality Control Sharif El Shobkshy Tools & Technologies used HTML, CSS, PHP, Drupal (Open Source Content Management System), MySQL, Clients Adobe Illustrator. Benefits Globant Delivered Results Globant delivered a bright, uncomplicated design for Proud2BMe that allows for simple teens interaction and even simpler administrative updates. Its work on this website achieved the power of communication the community needed for the US version of Netherlands portal. In this way the community could provide quality support with respect and excellence to its followers.
About Globant s Creative and Social Studio The goal of Creative & Social studio is to work on the User Interface Design since it is one of the key factors for any product success. The Design also affects the experience of users when interacting with a system having a direct consequence in the amount of effort users expend to understand and learn how to use it. A well-designed user interface makes the process of using a system effectively, efficiently and satisfyingly, which results in an enjoyable experience. Globant has a broad experience in navigability, usability and meeting accessibility standards. This experience, combined with its creative skills and knowledge of the most updated technologies in design development and creation, enables us to develop websites, web applications and software developments that meet clients and users needs. Why Social Globant? Strategy At the Creative and Social Studio our mission is to provide the best in class consulting services to empower clients business through the use of social tools. Experienced experts can provide wise advice and solutions that allow clients business to leverage the current trends in social networking, helping to integrate existing marketing strategies into the social world. We specialize in viralization techniques, social metrics and digital strategy. Social application optimization When an application becomes popular its growth is exponential. This means that it needs to scale easily to support millions of users and performance is a must. Globant has specialists to tune up applications allowing them to grow at the necessary speed to support the more traffic and user load. This includes architecture reengineering, DB optimization, cache implementation, and code tuning. Clients Benefits
Social Tools OpenSocial: Globant is deeply committed to develop applications that increase the adoption of OpenSocial among different social networks. We have been involved with Google in the evolution of OpenSocial since it was a confidential Beta back in September 2007, and we continue working with them developing Shindig, the OpenSocial OpenSource implementation, integrating it in social networks and developing applications on top of it. Facebook: Globant aims to always master the latest and greatest in Social Network integration; so we can provide our clients with the best Facebook applications, integration with OpenGraph and FacebookConnect. Social Intranetworking: Globant has proven to its clients the value of incorporating social features to their internal networks. We provide tools such as activity feeds, social profiles, social groups, gadgets integration, etc. These tools allow clients internal users to collaborate better and it becomes easier to surface the mavens that drive organizations creativity. For a detailed description of available Globant s Services and value proposition, including Web User Experience / Usability / Information Architecture (GM) you can visit: www.globant.com/content/studios/creative_social/index.html Globant US 34 Hayden Rowe Street Suite 122 01748, Hopkinton, MA 1-877-798-8104 Fax: +1 (774) 759 3019 Globant Argentina Ingeniero Butty 240 6th floor Laminar Plaza Tower C1001AFB - Capital Federal +54 11 4109 17 00 Fax: +54 11 4109 18 00 Globant UK Sistemas UK LTD Central Point 45 Beech Street London EC2Y 8AD +44 20 70 43 82 69 Fax: +44 20 79 45 61 26 For more information visit www.globant.com