The Problem

Over the past few months, Morning Records has gone through a complete corporate makeover in the hopes of increasing sales in the midst of an industrywide slump. The makeover has included everything from changing the corporate logo to signing a completely different genre of artists to creating all new print material. As you can probably guess, part of this makeover also included a complete overhaul of the Morning Records Web site. In the past, revamping the Web site was more a matter of rebranding and design changes than a change in the back-end technology. This time nothing was left untouched, from server platforms to development tools to the end-user experience everything was affected.

As Web director at Morning Records, I managed the transformation of the Morning Records Web site. The goal of the new site was threefold: (1) supplement the Morning Records brand; (2) create a stable, scalable architecture on the back end; and (3) enhance and provide a unique user experience. Of these three goals, the most important was the third one. Our previous site mainly consisted of boring, passive content with a sparing use of JavaScript for interactivity throughout fairly standard HTML pages. It hadn't evolved much from the first site, which was used primarily as a brochure for Morning Records. The old site provided a good way to get information about the company and a few bands but wasn't seen as a marketing tool and a way to get and retain customers. Although, there were pictures of bands on the old site and a few music samples the site didn't provide a complete integrated experience for the user. In addition, modifications to the site were a tedious process since all of the pages were static.

The new site was to be engaging and interactive for the end user. Using feedback from the old site and the results of our own testing, we decided to use Macromedia Flash MX on the front end. Although the Flash 6 Player is now required to use the new site, we thought it was worth the trade-off for the new features available to users. Flash MX enabled Morning Records to create a site that was engaging and unique for the end user while at the same time reenforcing the Morning Records brand. Flash MX allowed us to create a rich experience for the user which consisted of background music tracks, unique and effective navigation systems, overall reduced load times and far more interactivity than the previous site. Since we're a record company, adding background music to the site was a huge plus for the new site. As users enter the site music begins playing in the background, if the user wants to turn off the music or select a different song from a list of four, the user can use a controller on the page. Using this format, we're able to push songs to the user, whether it's a new song that we want to introduce to users or a special old song that we think could use more airplay. Although we wouldn't initially be using all of the capabilities offered by Flash MX, we knew that sooner or later we would want to have music videos and a new set of rich applications for our ordering and concert scheduling tools available on our site, something that is possible with Flash MX. Additionally by using Flash MX, we'll be able to integrate new features such as community rooms and virtual interviews with musicians using the Flash Communication Server. On the back end, we decided to use Macromedia ColdFusion MX. With the new architecture built on J2EE, we knew that ColdFusion MX would be stable and scalable as the site grew. ColdFusion MX also has tight integration with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX and Flash MX, a definite plus since most of our development work is done in those two applications.

Fortunately, except for a few minor hiccups, the Morning Records site relaunch went off without a hitch a few weeks ago, and we're gearing up for Phase II. The general feedback has for the most part been positive, and users seem to really like the new interactive experience. One of the main criticisms, however, concerns the inability of users to more directly pick and choose the music they want to listen to. With the current setup, users can only select from a list of four songs to play. We've gotten so many comments that our SVP of marketing, Angie, requested that a jukebox be added to the Web site in time for Phase II, a mere two weeks away.

As you can tell from the email, marketing drives many of the projects for my group. The marketing group, led by Angie, generally is closest to the needs and wants of our customers, so we work very closely with them on customer-related projects. After I get a request for a new project, my team meets with the person making the request and goes over requirements and potential problems, and then assigns job duties for the project.