Category: Web Development
Introducing Mouthee: A social network for sharing recommendations with friends
April 19th, 2012 in Web Design, Web Development, iPhone/iPad, Clients
It combines the best qualities of Facebook likes, Foursquare check-ins, Twitter shout-outs and Yelp reviews without all the noise and anonymous rants—because sometimes you just want to see what your friends are reading, what restaurants they love or what tunes they have playing on repeat.
Introducing Mouthee, a play off “word of mouth,” and Doejo’s newest iPhone app launch fashioned by founders Chad Silver and David Pritzker.
The concept is simple: Users make recommendations, “Rec it,” of their favorite restaurants, hotels, movies, music and books, all tied into the APIs of Amazon, iTunes, Yelp, Fandango, Last.fm and OpenTable. These platforms in turn aggregate scores of info into Mouthee’s clean user interface so you can read more about that book through Amazon, sample and download a song from iTunes or make a restaurant reservation through OpenTable, for example.
You can also “Get Rec’s” from Mouthee users or ask a specific user for their rave-worthy hotspot reviews. On the run? Well, Mouthee is location-based too, so when you’re looking for popular finds in your neighborhood, just browse what local Mouthee users are raving about—or avoiding. And if you’re the competitive type among your friends, or fancy yourself the tastemaker of the group, you are rewarded with points and higher rankings for your activity.
For Mouthee’s logo and brand identity, Doejo played off the acronym WOMBAT (“Word of Mouth Based Advocacy Technology”) with a toothy-grinned wombat character. Cute, huh?
Check out some of the logo ideations our design team played around with and download Mouthee for your iPhone today, while it’s still FREE!
Map of the Dead goes viral, zombie game coming soon
April 16th, 2012 in Doejo Stuff, Web Design, Web Development
Jeff's Map of the Dead: Zombie Survival Map has been a welcome distraction at the Doejo offices and beyond.
Mentions on Reddit, io9, Gawker, Venture Beat, Neatorama, Geekosystem, Metafilter, Howtogeek, WebProNews and other tech blogs, including our friends at GapersBlock in Chicago, have made Map of the Dead an online sensation. Ok, so maybe not a "sensation" but we did get 380,000 visitors so far and ton of emails from fans. Even the folks at Google took notice and gave us some tips and if that wasn't enough to get us stoked, Jeff just got calls from Mashable and Wired Magazine today!
April 11th Update: Wired Magazine profiles Map of the Dead with the likelihood of surviving in Manhattan, Chicago and San Francisco utilizing the app. We also made the front page of Mashable! They called and interviewed Jeff this afternoon. By 4 p.m. today, we were at 435,000 visits since we launched this April 9th, with more than 2,600 emails from fans, curious about our next steps.
April 16th UPDATE: It’s official, MapoftheDead.com has taken over in office conversation and gossip. "How do we build the game version?" "What zombie-lore brands should we accept partnerships with?" "Should Jeff get his own fortified office?" Etc. But we continue to work humbly on improving the map as we approach our million hit mark, currently at 903,014 visits. MSNBC’s GadgetBox tech blog, Buzzfeed, The Verge, and others have done profiles in the past few days! Meanwhile, we’ve been getting a lot of interesting calls and emails lately.
We’ve got some big plans for Map of the Dead—sign up for an interactive, multiplayer gaming app we currently have in development!
PODCAST FAMOUS: Wired today podcasted about the zombie map as a survival guide (fast forward to 4:00) on the Gadget Lab Podcast. Check it out!
Some reviews from the interwebs:
"This map is a highly creative and innovative use of the Google Places API and Styled Maps. Also invaluable tool for a “zombie apocalypse." ... The site uses HTML5 Geolocation to tell where you are, but if you need enter an address manually the Google Places Autocomplete API ensures that an address can be quickly populated automatically.”
“It's a Google Maps overlay that highlights population-dense "hot zones," cemeteries and other places to avoid, and the best locations to scavenge supplies.”
“Sure, Yelp and Foursquare are great if you want to find a good sushi place nearby, but they aren't too relevant for the unavoidable zombie apocalypse.”
- Buzzfeed
“Good thing Doejo's Map of the Dead includes sporting goods supply stores, along with retail outlets for guns, hardware, liquor and more. The digital developing agency's interactive "zombie survival map" harvests the Google Maps "places" API to pinpoint hospitals, radio towers, military and police locations, along with locations to avoid -– such as cemeteries.”
“Enter the Map of the Dead from Doejo, which overlays zombie danger zones and potential supply locations on a Google Map of your local haunts. …The map uses Google APIs and keyword searches to determine the location types that appear on the maps. The developers at Doejo are looking into adding more location types, such as schools, pawn shops and barricades.”
“…a new digital service aims to help you navigate the zombie-infested streets should such a nightmare scenario occur. … The site mines Google‘s map data to come up with an array of color-coded icons to aid the living.”
- Mashable
“Presenting your one-way ticket to staying alive when the dead take over the world. … Luckily, a forward-thinking fellow named Jeff at doejo.com has got you covered…”
“You were foolish and didn’t make any preparations until it was too late. Now there are zombies everywhere and you need supplies. Go directly to the interactive Map of the Dead.”
“Fortunately … [here’s a] handy Map of the Dead, which allows you to plot out the hospitals, gun stores, and grocery stores in your neighborhood.”
- io9.com
“So it's the Zombie Apocalypse … If you absolutely must survive, Map of the Dead is the site for you. Simply plug in the coordinates … and the Zombie Survival Map will direct you away from danger zones and toward all the necessary gear you'll need to ride out the end of the world.”
“Drawing information from Google Maps, the Map of the Dead indexes all manner of important landmarks including where you might be able to find valuable to supplies to where you might be able to find fortifications, military presence, or even the residences of individuals who might have handy skills. On top of that, it also handily plots out danger zones that appear to be based on the population density of a given area, helping you decide ahead of time whether or not it’s wise to run and where it might be wise to run to.”
Jeff Merrick, Head of Zombie Related Development
Front Stage Posse
March 15th, 2012 in Web Design, Web Development, Clients, Startups We Love
Roy Jumbo is trying to change the way music fans enjoy live shows at crowded festivals, like Lollapalooza, Coachella, and Bonnaroo.
So how did Mr. Jumbo go about broadcasting his message to the world? By hiring Doejo, of course!
We are proud to present to you frontstagepass.com.
We knocked out this puppy in less than a week, making us proud and Roy quite happy. Not only did we help him out with that badass landing page, but we designed and coded custom Twitter skin and Facebook pages to boot.
Go check out Front Stage Pass, and join the movement (literally, we developed this neat-o roster---it's like a petition for cooler festivals!)
So, please sign up and be first in line.
Check out the Academy for Global Citizenship’s inspiring redesign
March 12th, 2012 in Web Design, Web Development, Clients
We just launched the new (and strikingly improved) Academy for Global Citizenship site last week for an ambitious public school here in Chicago.
First off, what is the AGC ? Good question—we love telling people about it! AGC is a small, internationally minded school with big dreams and unlike any public school in Illinois. At AGC, you can expect to see a green house, solar panels and chicken coops surrounding the playground—and the kids learning yoga in between classes.
At the intersection of environmental sustainability, nutritional literacy and global engagement, AGC’s goal is to enrich students in a holistic approach tied into their curriculum. In addition, AGC has a much larger plan to create a sustainable, net positive energy charter school that it’s been trying to drum up support for.
Last year, Doejo built the net positive brochure site as a colorful one-page-scrolling graphic. Founder Sarah Elizabeth Ippel loved the site, e-mail marketing and print collateral we did so much, she tasked us to do their main site, AGCChicago.org.
Ippel wanted a site unlike any academic site out there—not institutional or dull like their former site, but lively—representing the school and students’ enthusiasm. We helped tell their story in photo- and graphic-heavy visual narratives, worthy of the unique and inspiring public school.
We designed the AGC site to show how engaged students are at school, while explaining its mission, from academics to environmental stewardship. Check it out, we’re really proud of Doejoer Elizabeth’s photos of the kids turned out!
Read more about our work with AGC in our case studies.
Meet Doejo Russia
March 9th, 2012 in Doejo Stuff, Web Design, Web Development, Phil Tadros
For those familiar with our humble web agency, or have worked with our team, you know we take pride in our Russian roots. While our staff originated with UX specialists and developers, Timur, Roman, Dan, Rinat and others; about 30 percent of Doejo’s staff identify as Russian American.
As a matter of fact, founder Phil Tadros was featured last year in Russian Chicago for Doejo's Russian influence.
Harnessing the perfect blend of talent—a well-connected and dependable team—has always been the impetus of Doejo’s success. And when we’re not immersed in an existential Dostoyevsky novel, being regaled by soprano singer, Galina Vishnevskaya’s arias, or choosing M. Bison for his scissor kicks on Street Fighter II, we’re building a great team.
When we brought on project manager, Igor Golubchik—who moonlights as a popular Russian-American radio show host and publisher of Russian Chicago magazine—he brought with him a team of software engineers and developers he’s been working with for over six years, located in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Yekaterinburg, the fourth largest city in Russia is about 1,000 miles east of Moscow—and along with San Francisco to the west, is now Doejo’s second home in the far east.
Doejo Russia helps us expand on our international offerings and global talent. Boris, Misha, Dima, Daniel, Andrey, Masha and Vitya have been working alongside our Chicago team for the past four months, with clients from Busy Beaver Button Co. to Consequence of Sound, among others. The enthusiastic team recently sent us a snapshot into our Russian office. Наслаждайся! (Enjoy!)
Doejo Russia from Doejo on Vimeo.