
Sprint-Nextel - New product testing site - Project Purple
Overview
Sprint-Nextel
was in a joint venture with Comcast, Time-Warner and Cox cable companies
to bring a unified package featuring cable, digital voice, Internet and
wireless to consumers. Considering the intense competition with the wireless
market, the new product offering had to be developed, tested and rolled-out
in a matter of months. Dragonfly was brought in to design and develop
an online testing Web site to record and manage alpha/beta testers during
the pre-launch phase.
Challenges
Working for four major telecom companies
at once, all on equal footing, needed exceptional management abilities.
The project needed to fit the individual needs of each company
involved without becoming four separate Web sites. On top of these
demands, the production time got smaller as the project
scope increased in size. Staying on top of these parameters required
constant updating of planning documents as well as the production schedule.
There was no option to extend the final deadline.
Objectives
The site
needed to have a way to register alpha/beta users and collect large
amounts of data on each user. We also needed to develop a user approval
system, a user rating system, user test scenario assignments
with feedback ratings/comments, as well as various automated HTML e-mails.
All of this info fed a large user database that needed restricted access
between the companies involved. Overall, the site needed to share as
much functionality as possible between all four companies, without
sharing any of the collected data.
Along
with the management and production needed for the project, we were also
required to have server security set to the highest possible standards.
Corporate security specifications required extensive
re-development of the server.
The
design objectives required the site to be easy to use with a consumer
look and feel to the new temporary branding. This needed to be consistent
across all e-mail communication, user test pages and support pages.
The site also included a user support site full of documents and a
custom built online user forum. All info was published via an extensive
admin section with separate control for each of the joint-venture partners.
Keeping data and functionality separate without building separate sites
was one of our biggest challenges.
Solutions
Dragonfly worked with the joint venture partners to agree on a set of
specs for data collected and functionality. Specifications were being
updated till the moment of launch as well as negotiating the functionality
across all parties involved. Careful planning and round-the-clock availability
was critical to get the project done on a fixed deadline. All of
the site's functionality was developed from scratch using open source
PHP code, which gave us more flexibility than re-purposing an existing
program.
The
security requirements resulted in a locked down, dedicated server with
limited access. Dragonfly also brought in a server security specialist
to help meet the corporate requirements brought on by internal
Web security within each partner.
Despite the ever-growing requirements, we were able
to keep to the original proposed design concepts throughout the project.
Dragonfly was able to pull together a consistent look that mimicked
a true consumer experience while being flexible enough to implement across
the site's technical parameters. The design was memorable while being
adaptable to the e-mail, user pages, and even the administration screens.
Results
The Project Purple program was able
to register hundreds of users across all of the companies involved with
no technical issues. The users were able to
take part in the testing experience and provide vital feedback for product
development.
Dragonfly was also asked to add even more functions
to the site post-launch. New testing parameters and extensive reporting
functions were developed, tested, and added to the site, while it was
still active with users.
More Case Studies:
Catholic Charities
Web & Print • NEC
Website • Taylor
Photo Brochure
|