Corporate CMS

Problem

Onitsuka Tiger Europe needs to manage over 16 different country/language pairs, each with their own product and store databases, and other region-specific contents. To do this effectively they need decentralized control over website contents while maintaining centralized control of branding across all sites. Additionally they require the ability to deliver content in different formats for different devices and tie in easily with other APIs such Google Maps.

Solution

We extended ASICS CMS system to allow Onitsuka Tiger to easily administer the contents of the site across all countries, adding special tools and features for country webmasters to easily manage their product collections and translations.

Technologies

Flash, Ruby, MERB, Passenger, AWS (Amazon Web Services) with EC2, S3, and Cloudfront

Private Photo Sharing Service

Overview

PiqShare is a pet project that we developed to answer a specific problem that one of The Plant’s employees identified: it’s difficult to share private photos with your friends and family. We wanted to make a dead-simple app for sharing photos in completely private groups.

Solution

We built a trilingual RubyOnRails-based application on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to allow us to scale the application if needed without investing heavily in hardware upfront. We designed a simple UX that let’s users easily do this one task: share pictures with their friends. Cool features include multiple-picture uploader with real time previews and image editing features and elegant photo management system.

Note: PiqShare is currently in public beta.

Technologies

Ruby, RubyOnRails, MySQL, Adobe Flex

Corporate CMS

Problem

ASICS Europe needs to manage 26 different country/language pairs, each with their own local contents, product databases, events, articles, store listings, and other region-specific information. To do this effectively they need decentralized control over website contents while maintaining centralized control of branding across all sites. Additionally they require the ability to tie in easily with other APIs including Google Maps, Flickr, Twitter and the flexibility to quickly add new campaigns and features that are identified through real-world usage.

Solution

We built a custom CMS using the MERB framework to allow for rapid development, speed, and flexibility. One of the ideas that we brought to and implemented in the development of the CMS is an inline editing mode to allow non-technical people to easily administer the site by editing the contents in place. Inline editing also extends to translation, allowing translators to be able to see the real context in which text appears to be able to easily localize the site contents.

Result

Within 3 months, ASICS went from concept to production and we continue to maintain and optimize the system and servers.

Technologies

Ruby, MERB, Passenger, AJAX, jQuery, nginx, AWS (Amazon Web Services) with EC2, S3, and Cloudfront

Corporate CMS

Problem

MTV wanted to upgrade their system to manage their video, image, and editorial content both for internal use and external viewing on the MTV Japan website. They needed the system to be customized around their particular needs while being easily extensible and portable.

Solution

Working with the tech lead at MTV Japan, we developed a custom system using the CodeIgnitor framework and Kwartz, the templating system developed by Makoto Kuwata of The Plant. We rolled out the first release within 2 months and were contracted several more times over the year to add additional features.

Technologies

PHP, CodeIgniter, Kwartz, MySQL, jQuery

Affiliate Job Network

Overview

Joblet is a modern job service which aims to shake up Japan’s overpriced job market by delivering qualified applicants at a fraction of what companies are currently paying. Joblet sends out targeted job listings to sites throughout our network. Resumes are approved by the hiring companies, and commissions are paid to the referring sites. Joblet also maintains a full-blown affiliate program, tracking applications and clicks from affiliate sites with real-time accounting and statistics.

Result

Joblet quickly became one of the most successful sites in its segment and now manages the accounts of hundreds of hiring companies and partner sites as well as tens of thousands of candidates, by creating value for each member in the equation.

E-Commerce / CMS

Problem

Giraffe Tie had previously used a flash interface to present their ties and then linked to a white label e-commerce system for sales. The site was difficult to manage so the latest ties did not appear on the site, while products that were no longer in stock did. Sales were anemic and customer satisfaction was low.

Solution

We customized Substruct, an open source Ruby-based e-commerce system. In the process of the customization we built our own payment gateway to support Japan-based credit card payment gateways. We also customized the checkout and admin process to be able to handle gift wrapping, special delivery options, and payment by COD (cash on delivery) within an elegant single-page checkout design.

Result

The new Giraffe tie was launched with 2 months. Sales increased 1000% within 3 months with no additional marketing made to the site. The look and feel of the site is consistent and the site is easily managed by Giraffe Tie sales staff.

Technologies

Ruby, RubyOnRail, Substruct, MySQL, Prototype

Social Networking Service

Problem

Facts was conceived by Tamedia, one of the largest Swiss media houses, to be a full-blown news resource and social network for news junkies. As is often the case, the budget and time were tight and we needed to deliver a site of quite large scope in a short period of time.

Solution

Working with our friends at iA who provided the design, we modified an existing social network platform that we had previously developed to make it more suited for news. Within 3 months we had gone from concept to launch.

Result

Facts.ch is one of the most successful sites in the Swiss German news market.

Technologies

Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Prototype, AJAX, Postgres

Japanese & Chinese Localization

Problem

Diesel needed to localize their Global Warming site for the Japanese and Chinese markets. They needed to coordinate with translators experienced with localizing English contents to the Japanese and Chinese markets and work with a technology provider experienced with the issues surrounding double-byte characters in Flash.

Solution

We coordinated with translators experienced at localizing high-end brand messages for the Japanese and Chinese markets at WiP and altered the Flash source code and Action Script to support the proper rendering of dynamic double-byte encoded text as well as issues related to sending properly encoded email that can be universally read in Japanese and Chinese mail clients.

Technologies

Flash, Action Script, PHP

Social Networking Service for Creators

Overview

Asoboo is a social network that we built on RubyOnRails for the international creative community. Asoboo is internationally minded people to meet, discuss what’s on their minds, and share information about their favorite stuff. Asoboo has English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Spanish interfaces, and also works on Japanese mobile phones in Japanese and English.

Technology

Ruby, RubyOnRails, AJAX, Prototype, Integration with Flickr and Twitter APIs

CMS

Problem

Otto Japan desired a new, more personalized channel to communicate to its readers about its products and receive user feedback in the form of comments. Additionally, they needed a multi-author blog with an easy interface and management system so that multiple authors could easily create articles by themselves with limited technical knowledge.

Solution

We installed and customized a WordPress CMS as we saw that this open source product was a perfect fit for Otto Japan’s needs and would allow the project to get online quickly and economically. The implementation was not particularly complicated: simply installing and configuring WordPress and customizing a few plugins that matched the requirements they had that were beyond the default installation. We also built some custom feeds to link in with Google Reader, Yahoo’s RSS reader, and custom desktop widgets.