TechBoise.com by YellowBox Studio

We’re happy to announce the official launch of Boise’s Online Tech Hub: http://TechBoise.com

This was quite a challenge that Holli and TechBoise addressed to the studio for both front-end interface design and back end programming. We were really excited to jump into such a project with FCF – Full Creative Freedom!

In a nutshell, the previous TechBoise.com website needed to be rebuilt and redesigned because it wasn’t the platform that the Tech Community needed in order to grow a larger audience in the Treasure Valley.

The initial complaint was addressed toward CMS “Drupal” previously in use.  Hard to manage… pretty tough to handle for a Content Management System isn’t it?

The second biggest concern was focus on how to make the site lively and highly community based, almost like a Facebook wall for a specific industry.

After a comparative analysis of the different CMS’s available out there we decided that the new TechBoise .com will be rebuilt under the popular CMS blogging system “WordPress”, mainly because of its versatility and its open source base.

We also believed from our experience working with business clients that the interface of WordPress is really handy and will bring the necessary functionality to its users and administrators.

Here is a list of all the Core Functionality Needed (part of the brief)

  • User Registration; Ability for users to sign up.
  • Business Listings; Ability for a company to submit their company profile.
  • Community Based: Ability for registered user to interact (write, post, comment) easily
  • Events Calendar; Ability for admins to schedule events.  Configured via Google Calendar.
  • Socially Fueled; Ability for social networking accounts to feed details. (Twitter, Facebook)
  • TechBoise Blog; Ability for admins to post news and events easily.
  • RSS Feeds; Ability to import RSS from (Girls in Tech, Boise Web Developers, etc)
  • Media; Ability to post uStream videos.
  • Resume Listing; Ability for users to post resumes & links to portfolios.
  • Job Posting; Ability for businesses to post new jobs.

As far as design aspect of the new TechBoise.com website, we’ve chosen to experiment with jQuery Parallax technology for the illustrated header of the website.  The header illustration is  an interactive panorama of the Boise Cityscape including tree foreground, city middle ground, foothills & sky background.  The idea is to “wow” the visitor, inspire other artists, and inform any real techies that Yellow Box Studio has some tricks up their sleeves.

When moving the mouse across parts of the header the visitor will be able to interact with the landscape, moving it left and right, up or down.  The script tracks the mouse cursor and some elements of the Parallax header can be active.  Social networking icons could also slide along with the Parallax, giving the website a feeling of being alive.

The overall development of the new TechBoise.com website took about three weeks, overlapping with other clients Yellow Box Studio web projects.

The main part of this time was adjusting the WordPress PHP codes to the functionality that TechBoise needed. The design part and the Parallax technology have been developed in the meantime by our interactive and design teams and were ready to be implemented when the development was about to be done.

YellowBox Studio Involvement

  • Creative Direction
  • Back end development
  • Front end development
  • Interactive elements
  • Content Implementation
  • Hosting services

Project Details

  • Client: Tech Boise
  • Web Site: http://www.TechBoise.com
  • Platform: WordPress 3.0
  • Country: USA
  • Project Leader: Sean Boone
  • Lead Illustrator: Chris Brown
  • Interactive Coordinator: Kalani Cook
  • Project Management: Oscar French

for more information contact YellowBox Studio http://yellowboxstudio.com