The Hive

At a loose end? The Hive is the first place to come to find out about the latest events and attractions anywhere in New Zealand.

The Project:

Eventfinder and APN had a grand vision - to create a new brand and website to showcase every event, attraction, and venue in New Zealand, and build a strong and active community around it. Terabyte was approached to design both the brand and the website, and to do the front-end build of the site - all to what we thought was an impossible deadline.

The new compact logo was the basis for a functionally rich website. It was presented to create a community feel around the events but with clean design to allow the events to be the stars of the show. The UI had to be very intuitive to allow easy browsing among thousands of events, attractions, and venues. Each event has extensive and detailed supporting information - including photo galleries, user comments, location data using the Google Maps API, a ratings system, and the ability to add it to "My Hive" as a favourite.

The My Hive section adds a huge amount of functionality to the user experience, allowing you to bookmark and track events, write blog entries, review shows and track your comments across the site. The Hive seamlessly integrates social networking features, allowing the user to find and add friends, pass on information about events you think your friends will like, and share your experiences afterwards.

Listing an event is a free and easy process, stepping the user through adding their event with dates, locations, and imagery.

In addition, the site is the premier place to visit for pre-release gig announcements, entertainment news, reviews, giveaways and prizes.

Lovingly coded to adhere to web-standards, the site makes extensive use of front-end technologies such as javascript and flash to enhance the user experience. Microformats are used on the detail pages to allow users to export events directly to their calendar, and clever XHTML & CSS ensure the user's ride is as smooth as possible.