This is a platform and community online that allows you to share games
Car sharing, bike sharing, co-working, crowdfunding, raise your hand if you’ve never heard of it. They are not just simple social phenomena but pieces of a new economic model that for some years has been quietly affirming, even in our country. We are talking about the “sharing economy”, or “peer-to-peer economy”: to us, however, we like to call it the “sharing economy”. Thanks to the economic crisis, but also thanks to technologies, the network and above all a change in the philosophy of the young generations – which increasingly show an attention to sustainable growth models centered on re-use and on a better allocation of resources, goods and knowledge – the sharing economy is spreading more and more.
For the creation of the logo I decided to start from a circle that represents the community, as a union circle, four points that represent the users and the second circle that represents the union between them.
The final image obtained from the alignment of the three elements and their union symbolically represents also the typical buttons present on a joystick.
The name I chose for the project is Share, which indicates sharing and refers to the concept of communication and interaction between users. Already at the first visual impact, the imagination links the graphic form to the videogame experience and the word “Share” to sharing. So the combination of the two elements leads us to the primary form of the project, uniting a group of people to share a game experience.
As for the colors, I decided to use a chromatic shade of warm tones, which are linked to the young, positive and cheerful idea of the game and of the target to which the elaboration refers.
To begin with, I decided to create a website that would show at a glance the idea of sharing and to clarify the use that the user could make within the community of the exchange of video games with other users.
To make it happen I used the WordPress CRM with the The7 theme which gave me the opportunity to work more quickly and professionally. The internship I attended during the school year gave me the opportunity to strengthen my skills through the daily use of WordPress, allowing me to quickly develop the site.
There are four main pages: the home page, the community page (connected to the social network), the about page and the contact page.
The image of the site is coordinated with regards to colors and graphics, I tried to make it appealing and modern by giving movement, using curved shapes and flat elements.
In my idea the website represents the showcase of the social network giving the welcome and presenting all its aspects. Those who enter the social network must go through the site in order to log in.
This is the heart of the project, it is where people meet, present themselves, offer games they want to share and find what they are looking for through the user map, friendships and “follow”. Within this platform it is possible to request an exchange of games from near and far users, or to receive requests from those interested in your games. Entering the community, after logging in or registering, the visitor is in front of the home page where you can view a general map of all users.
Browsing the map you can decide to display a profile, indicated by a personal icon, that once clicked will take you to the fundamental personal information and to the list of games that the registered person has decided to share. If the visitor is interested in one of the games in the profile he visits, all he has to do is request the exchange through the appropriate button.
The person who receives the request will find a notification both in the mailbox and in the notifications section, and only then can he decide whether to accept the proposed exchange.
For the realization of this community, I had to develop the site from scratch, using different types of language: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MySql.
For example I used MySql and PHP to be able to connect the site with an external database and JavaScript in order to make the site interactive and animate. Initially I encountered difficulties, but also thanks to the use of specific online courses and advice during the internship, I managed to complete the project as I had planned. My primary goal was to give the visitor a simple and direct experience in a young, cheerful and dynamic environment.
After developing the social network I decided to create an application (graphic only) for mobile devices that could make the social network available for all devices even on the move.
To do this, I used Adobe XD, one of the applications of the Adobe suite that allows, besides the creation of single graphic screens, also the animated connection for a simulation of the use.
Wanting to develop a video of the final presentation of the project, I also decided to create an animation for the logo, to do this I used the After Effects program, also from the Adobe suite. To do this I used different types of transformation on the three fundamental elements, scale, rotation and position, also using the mask on the text element to make it appear from the logo. At the end, I decided to invert all the transitions for a closing effect.
After developing the logo animation, I used mockups to create a complete presentation movie on the project’s social application, which can be displayed both on social media and on the website. In order to create this movie I inserted the graphics created with XD of the application in the mockup on After Effects, and I finally inserted all the exported clips on a Final Cut project to complete the video with the addition of the initial animation and the music in the background.
I also tried to maintain the coordinated image that I initially established and to recreate the effect of freshness and dynamism also through the use of clips.
To give more completeness to my project, I created an Instagram profile with the name “share.connected” in which to publish updates about the community, upcoming events and users’ experiences. I find it important to continue to publish content to increase the visibility of the application and the site, and to attract advertising investments.
A fundamental aspect that I decided to develop is the fund-raising (crowdfunding) through the Kickstarter platform, which allows me to raise enough money to complete the project in a professional manner. The funds raised will be used to create the application using the work of experts in the sector, take care of the administrative and legal aspects and study a marketing campaign that will allow me to reach the maximum number of users. I chose this platform because it respects the target criteria that define the application and is well known and used by the young public.
In conclusion, I would like to underline an aspect that I consider extremely important and which I consider the founding idea of the Share project. Sharing is re-used, and in a historic moment in which it is necessary to focus on safeguarding the environment, I think it is central that young people find new ways of using existing assets, avoiding waste and minimizing products waste. Share is therefore an ancient and at the same time modern idea, born from a principle that belongs to the past, but finds a new modern, current and ecologist position.
With the donations I will receive for this project, I intend to complete the application with experts, and get help from a legislative point of view.
In addition to this, an ADV campaign will also be needed to make the platform known so that you can have more exchanges to carry out.