Featured Online Community Web Design
In 2009 a small energetic group in Hinesburg, Vermont were awarded a grant to develop a carpool matching website for the local area. After viewing proposals from dozens of web professionals, James Foreman was chosen to design and develop the Hinesburg Rides website.
The site was created using the Joomla! content management system and went live in January 2010. As an Open Source CMS, Joomla was a perfect fit for the project and had many components for developing the social media (Facebook like) aspect of the website.
The project objectives included the following:
- The most important aspect was to create a site where people in the local area could sign-up, setup their profile with pertinent information and find others on the website looking for a carpool partner.
- Messages could be sent on the site in real time, the website information would be fully secure and members could create their own groups on the site.
- Community volunteers could login, update the website and manage all aspects of the Hinesburg Rides network.
The objectives above and many others were all achieved for the website using Joomla! components called JomSocial and Kunena Forum. The site is unique among carpool matching website designs because it has a social networking focus where people can get to know each other online before they meet in person.
In addition to the carpool matching system, James was asked to write most of the content, design the look and feel, choose tag lines and be the project manager for the team assigned to assist with the website decision making.
Each project needs to be well managed for success and James sets up an account for each using Basecamp from 37 Signals. This system has been incredible for efficiency, ease of use and organizing every aspect of a project from start to finish. If it is a long or complex project each correspondence is on the site for reference at any time by each person given access.
View Hinesburg Rides Website »
