There were quite a few components of the project that needed to come together in very short period of time: the overall look/feel of the applications (including functionality), RSS news feeds and events, the video media, subscription section, and analytics.

Design and Functionality
Using an outside company to develop an application can sometimes limit design somewhat. We went through various iterations of the splash screen and over-all look/feel. The icons and brand recognition were particularly important — especially since there are numerous applications associated with the KCRW brand. An important aspect of the main navigation was the ease in which listeners can join the station.

News and Event Feeds
Our primary website developer created a custom RSS feed in Plone specifically for the iPhone. Users can now stay up to date with Good Food and music related KCRW events and the RSS feeds can be used for other projects.

Video Format
Media is encoded in H.264 and uploaded to our CDN at 640×480 then auto-transcoded into high and low versions. The application detects bandwidth and serves appropriate versions.

Analytics
Pinch Media provides the (almost) real-time analytics on usage and uptake.

Subscribe to KCRW
A feature that was later removed was a “join” section. All KCRW applications were to include a section for member support but it was later found out that Apple doesn’t allow this functionality built into the application. The original plan was to host this section on the KCRW servers for easy updates. I used iWebKit_4.5.3 to make the website — which would’ve eventually been integrated with a secure mobile Ecommerce solution for the iPhone. Magento was an obvious option (with an iPhone skin already available) but found the integration with non-profit CRM systems lacking.

COMING SOON: A KCRW Fringe Benifits application for members, and a tricked out media player…

NEW FEATURES
User Experience: A significantly improved user experience through better design and functionality.

Search: Unlike our previous playlists these pages are fully searchable with data going back to 2006. Want so search by artist, song, label, channel, host, date you can do it.

Sharing: Track lists for specific shows and custom searches can now be bookmarked on your browser or shared with friends on Facebook, MySpace, etc.

MP3 Ecom: Auto search Amazon and iTunes with “buy now” links

Also: DJ Comments, Band members (when there is a live performance), and advertisement support (two banner sizes that mirror the KCRW media player for consistency)

I created the design in-house and outsourced the html/css production. The application was programmed by two independent developers. Project managed in Basecamp.

Check it out at http://newmedia.kcrw.com/tracklists

UPDATE: It seems even with pinging Feedburner their RSS feed is still only updated at 30min intervals. Looking into a locally hosted/cached way of offering a feed. I’m also working on updating the usablility based on the feedback the KCRW interactive team has been getting.