Real Homes Magazine

Following the acquisition of Real Homes magazine from Hachette Filipacchi in December 2008, Ascent, the special interest publishing arm of Centaur Media, commissioned us to produce a new site to join their existing portfolio of online community titles including Homebuilding & Renovating Magazine and Plotfinder.net.

Challenges

With no existing web presence for the title, Ascent needed a rapid delivery and we were able to use our 12-years of experience as a social media publisher to provide an off-the-shelf solution ideally suited to Real Homes, delivered in a matter of days. At launch, the site will offer a mix of content and social media functionality, starting with our Expert Answers functionality, designed to introduce site visitors to online engagement by offering a compelling reason to register and profile themselves and provide useful information in return. Future development of the site will include blogs, discussion forums and a products and services directory.

Delivering a Solution

In order to meet the tight deadlines, both the creative and technical approaches for the build were to take Ascent's Homebuilding & Renovating Magazine as a baseline, and apply branding changes and a cut-down feature set taking the most valuable functionality forward to the new site and holding other features in reserve for future developments.

An iterative development approach was adopted, with a prototype release to Ascent within a few days of the project kick-off for early feedback. Our developers worked directly with the client to refine the design and functionality through face-to-face discussions and telephone conversations.

The result is a feature-rich site, delivered quickly, whilst providing a solid foundation for further functionality in the future.