- March 15, 2012
- Posted by: admin
- Category: Success Stories
When a Scavenger Hunt organizer company in New York approached Ephlux with its online business expansion plan, Ephlux leveraged the business to unearth its full potential and refine its scope to a Global Travel Planner company by equipping it with advanced Social Networking, E-Commerce and Social Media features.
Challenge
The challenge of this project was to achieve the WoW effect from the Web 2.0 application, where its mem
The challenge further grew when the scope of the project expanded to providing a global community for travelers which should have accurate data available for the travelers including maps, pictures and other social media content.bers can socialize and find ultimate features that a traveler could need to share, plan and enjoy the travel experience.
These were not the only challenges as Ephlux was developing two web applications, the interactive social network for travelers and the primary idea which was to provide an online service for scavenger hunting fans in New York. Both the systems had to be built for different business needs but desired to entail elegant design and ease of usability signifying a single brand.
Solution
Ephlux proposed the client a LAMP based solution using Cake PHP as it had capabilities and backbone of strong application architecture, MVC (Model View Control). The team consisted of two high end developers, a team lead and a Social Networking specialist design team. The design team started analyzing the particulars of a Travel Social Networking applications paradigm. The team produced several design mock ups each highlighting and reflecting a unique Web 2.0 user experience. The designs were then discussed and altered to achieve exactness.
In parallel the development team studied and mapped down the business layer and database architecture of the web-application.
To meet the challenge of an accurate and multi-layered database, integration and data import was the precise choice. The database contained entities such as regions, countries, cities, tourist attractions, hotels and destinations etc. One of the most essential integration of this solution was with 3rd party data sources, however others were equally necessary.
Now the solution required two key components from a traveler’s perspective defining the travel experience, Pictures of locations and the ultimate tool of a traveler, the Map!
To thrive in the Open Source universe and accomplish its true cost benefits, the ability to utilize web-services is crucial. Both the areas, pictures and maps were integrated with their home grounds. Google Maps for maps and Flickr for pictures. As the customized integration of Google Maps and Flickr was being performed other mandatory modules of the web application were being developed such as User Management, User Profile, Messaging System, Back Office, User Registration, CMS and E-Commerce. Each module had to be more than competitive when compared to existing first and second degree competitors (such as drag and drop and other advance Ajax features supported by JQuery for achieving simplicity, system efficiency and ease for the user).
Business analysis and documentation was carried out at each level of design and development in true spirit of the Agile Framework, along with regular communication sprints with the client to fill each gap and level every bump that could occur.
Results
The project was effectively and successfully executed with business objectives met, user requirements realized and an innovative Travel 2.0 application for the vigorous Travelers!!