BRE Buzz
BRE | Brilliant Basics
PROJECT
BRE is one of the leading sustainable building regulation organisations in the world, and certify many public and private buildings with their BREEAM certification.
They were looking at ways to build an interactive social network from amongst their members and beyond, as a first stage in further monetising their information and services.
I worked with them to create BRE Buzz, a platform where users could post and converse around articles in the space of sustainable building.
PROCESS
A key challenge was envisioning how to engender a single community around a wide array of professions and students.
We therefore decided that the key currency would be article extracts (both from the BRE library and from external sources) which people could comment upon, but that the actual network connections would be made outside of the site (e.g. via LinkedIn or Twitter). To this end, users’ social network links would be pulled into the site, while articles would automatically be pushed out to forums on external social media sites.
OUTCOME
The site is live today, although the posting currently appears to be restricted to BRE staff, and some of the social networking aspects have been disabled. In this way, it is being used more as a showcase of their vast library of articles rather than as an interactive social tool.
*The visual design direction was conducted in conjunction with Brilliant Basics
