Hackers Correspondents
Real stories all around the world.
•Duration: Aug 2008 ~ Oct 2008
•Client: Hackers Education Group ▶︎
•My Role: Service & UI Design, Marketing
•All Project Members (8) ▼
The Platform | Web
The Goal
Build a platform where people share their real stories all around the world and
give helpful information to students preparing to study abroad.
The Outcome
62 people applied for the first Hackers Correspondents, and the service was actively being used by correspondents and viewers.
The service has been actively provided for nine years and had nearly 6,500 posts.
[Hackers Correspondents ▶︎]
The Process & The Timeline
Why We Started the Project
GoHackers.com is a community site for people preparing to go abroad, offering information about English ability tests and studying abroad and providing bulletin boards for international students to socialize with each other.
However, portal sites like Naver made a community space for people studying abroad, the acquisition and activation of goHackers.com went down.
As a scholarship project, we initiated "Hackers Correspondents" which could boost them to share practical information, also spreading the wealth.
Explore & Empathise
The double diamond process was our basic methodology.
We investigated contests which aimed to deliver useful posts by
encouraging prosumers with a prize.
What is useful information for users on goHackers.com?
They wanted certain answers to what they asked like tests or admissions rather than stories about their life in local countries.
Envisage
We fastidiously considered the service policy to improve the retention rate and encourage correspondents to share more information.
Moreover, an existing bulletin board was recycled to use it as a community space for correspondents. This reduced the development duration.
Policy for calculating scores of activities - posts and answers
Policy for copyright
A future plan for business model with content made by correspondents
A policy to activate correspondents to reply to inquiries and post their stories
Marketing
A promotion page was designed to
advertise on SNS and community sites.
Advertising banners were displayed on gohackers.com.
We got viral marketing and publicity.
The Outcome
Over nine years, the service has accumulated 6,500 posts and has offered useful information to many people.
The key to success of the service was brought by three points:
We gave the same opportunity to all 62 applicants, formed warm community culture and provided monthly compensation.
The equal opportunity for all applicants
The warm-hearted community culture
The fast cycle of compensation
We had 62 applicants for the first recruitment.
The service has been actively provided for nine years
and had nearly 6,500 posts.
[The web service ▶︎]
PROJECT MEMBERS
Design
• Service Hyejin Lee
• UI Hyejin Lee
• GUI Sorim Lee
Research and Ideation with Jooyeun Jung
Development Seonsu Park
Quality Assurance Hyejin Lee
Marketing
• Leading Hyejin Lee
• Participating Ehren Lee, Dasom Choi, Hwagyoung Jang & Haewon Joung