The Objective

Sharing media from a central location is not only fun, it's practical for populating sites and blogs. That's one reason why media-sharing giants like YouTube and Flickr are insanely popular. For Project UGC, the goal was to emulate the best features of those sites—free hosting, easy management, and tagging just to name a few—in a contained platform that could be integrated into our clients' niche sites. Project UGC would essentially serve as a dynamic repository for multiple file types, including pictures, music and video.

The Challenge

Because Project UGC would serve web users of every skill level, usability was key. Sites that had already set the standards of media sharing (e.g. YouTube, Flickr) would have to serve as models for their built-in know-how. The system would have to support quick organization of digital files, as well as posting files to a blog. "Sort" and "view" features would have to be both powerful and simple. To facilitate search and review, users would need the ability to comment, add descriptions and create groups.

The Solution

• In the Usability Lab our team studied and carefully deconstructed several popular media-sharing sites to understand the user's comfort zone.
• The designers in the Interface Lab used the info from our usability studies to reverse-engineer and improve front-end features. Page layouts were structured to be easier on the eyes.
• The Development Lab our programmers built a stream-lined backend system to ensure speedy performance and guaranteed uptime of content through rigorous backup techniques.

Results

As a combination hosting website, content management suite and online community platform, the attractive, user-friendly system supports all of the front-end design capabilities listed below. Users of Project UGC added over twenty thousand files in the first month's Beta test without any marketing draw; all Beta results were viral.

• Users can easily sort content by category, type, reviews and more
• Both the content-owner and the visitor can rate, rank and comment on each file
• Users can see recommendations and search for related content
• Digital content can be shared with anyone instantly
• Privacy settings are at the discretion of the user; he can choose who sees and who doesn't
• Album preview mode helps users quickly find any file
• Full screen mode enhances the fine detail of video and high-res images
• "Drag-and-drop" interface lets users rearrange files visually

See eCommerce to learn about the next level of Project UGC: direct sales of user-generated digital content.