Project Launch: Tapology
We’re happy to announce the launch this week of Tapology, the web’s first state of the art network for mixed martial arts.
Tapology is unique among MMA fan sites in how it pulls together a great deal of detailed information from the competitive MMA world, but relies mostly on the user’s input with bout predictions, community and individual rankings, and forum discussion to create a richly-detailed network of information for MMA fans. Tapology is concerned with mixed martial arts, but it’s all about the members who use the site. A site member’s activity and ongoing skill at bout prediction work to build a member’s rank on Tapology. This ranking system works to inform other members in the same way a reputation score might; only this ranking system is set up to be a far more accurate indication of the user’s MMA acumen.
Our client already had a very good idea of what they needed to accomplish and how when they first came to us. As the site requires a great deal of user interaction, we worked with the Tapology team at crafting intuitive and inviting interactive mechanisms to ensure user satisfaction and delight. The prediction mechanism, especially, is head and shoulders above other similar features on other MMA fan sites.
The design was crafted to highlight the content to its best advantage and ensure order and clarity. It was based on the visual brand guidelines that the Tapology team already had in mind. Technically, our approach was to exercise simple HTML and CSS to its best advantage to accomplish much of the interactive behavior, keeping the pages comparatively lightweight and quick-loading. There was liberal use of JavaScript for certain interactions, but simplicity and efficiency were the overriding guidelines for our front-end development. The Tapology team did the rest, implementing a powerful and elegant back-end to drive the website. The result is something of which we’re all proud and we’re very happy to have taken part.
Tapology: the web’s first state of the art network for mixed martial arts.
Other posts in "launch"
- Project Launch: Peeper’s Eyewear Redesign
- Project Launch: Because Furman Matters Redesign
- Project Launch: IOMA’s Institute of Finance & Management
- Project Launch: Xomba Redesign
- Project Launch: Ringstats
- New Product from Unit: Curations
- The New Unify Community
- Launch: Elisa Zied.com
- Sewanee Environmental Institute
- New on Labs: UniTweets and Unit.licio.us
- Recent Project Launches
- Our First Product Launch: Unify
- Project Launch: Brickyard Partners
- Project Launch: Vector Media Group
- Project Launch: y|Factorial
- Partner Project Launch: The North Face
- New Project Launch: Publish2
- New Site Launch: Settlement Perspectives
- Labs is Launched!
Other posts in "feature"
- Meet the Staff: Ryan Rushing
- Meet the Staff: R.A. Ray
- Students Visit Unit Interactive
- Meet the Staff: Nathan Ford
- Art on Our Walls II: 28 Bicycles
- Art on Our Walls 1: Little Robots
- Meet the Staff: Angela Conlon
- Published: Interference
- Project Launch: Ringstats
- New Product from Unit: Curations
- White Labeling Unify
- Working with Multiple Agencies
- Useful Regular Expressions
- The Analog Notepads of Unit Interactive
- Nathan’s Anniversary
- Developing for Unify – pt. II
- Makin’ Days
- Our 2009 Annual Report
- Sewanee Environmental Institute
- Projects to Kick Off 2010
- The Sum of All Choices
- SnowCraft Fun!
- Risky Wallpapers
- TSTC Web Curriculum Committee
- Designing vs. Making Stuff Up
- Recent Project Launches
- Developing For Unify – pt. I
- Our First Product Launch: Unify
- Nearly 100 More Leads per Day
- Unify™ Private Beta
- Big Brand 1080px Design
- We Refuse
- Redesigning Unit Interactive
- Define Design
- The Consummate Web Designer
- Hey Unitards! Are Graphic Mock Ups Even Applicable?
- The Future of Web Browsing
- Beyond Comp Review: Two designs enter. One leaves.
- Hey Unitards! Creative Brief?
- Paid Search Follies
- Better CSS Font Stacks
- No Compromise Required
- Too Many Cooks Spoil the Dish
Comments (2)
I’ll just share one part of our working with Unit Interactive that I think reflects the experience as a whole:
Early on in the process we held a detailed strategy session with the Unit team, where they peppered us with all sorts of questions about our goals for our website, our branding, our design aesthetics, the emotions we wanted our site to convey, and more. Intensive stuff. They spent a long time trying to get in our heads and understand our goals.
Shortly after, we were delivered our first design mockups. 99% of what was in those mockups is still alive and intact in our site today. Unit absolutely nailed it on the first try. Very impressive. Thrilled with the results.
- Greg Saks, co-founder of Tapology
As another Tapology co-founder I would just like to second these comments. Unit Interactive was a well-oiled machine from day one. They knew what information they needed from us, and they delivered a design that was gorgeous, streamlined, lightweight and functional on the first try. Best of all, every deadline Unit set along the way was met, without fail. We couldn’t be happier with the process, and the results speak for themselves.
Your Comment