Coralrift
Web, Interaction
Coralrift is a simple web app created with Dane Pieri and David Yen. The service allows you to host static websites instantly for free. The project began at a Hackathon hosted by Facebook at Carnegie Mellon University.
The problem
Every spring at the design school is portfolio season. As people are starting to apply for jobs and internships, a lot of designers are looking into hosting solutions for their beautifully designed websites. Most of the full service solutions out there need complicated instructions for setting up and cost a good amount of money monthly, which is overkill for people with very simple (static) websites. We wanted to make it easy for people to get their work online. Using Coralrift, you're able to create a subdomain and see your page online in just a few seconds.
Our solution
We started the process by designing the Admin page, where registered users could manage their subdomains and edit the files uploaded. We felt that this was the core interaction of the app, and would inform the design of other pages.
We kept the page very simple and straightforward, minimizing the learning curve. On the admin page, the users are able to add more subdomains, edit the entire folder of an existing subdomain or any particular file by drag and dropping a new file, and see a live preview of their sites.
We carried the simple language to the rest of the pages, and tried to make it as easy as possible for people to start using the site. On the homepage, users are able to try out the service without signing in. They simply need to choose a subdomain and upload a zipped file of their site, then it's done! They can choose to sign up to claim the domain right away or at any point before midnight of the next day, when the unclaimed site will be erased.
My Responsibilities
After we came together and discussed the product direction and general IA of the site, I worked with David on the visual design of the site and the front-end implementation.