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Tinnitus Talk is a community of 40k+ users where awareness can be raised about tinnitus, those with tinnitus can get support, and patients can be connected with researchers. Started in 2011, over 600k+ messages have been shared on the site between users and experts about experiences, research, and how to support the cause.
Project goals
- Update their software to the newest stable version: They previously were on XenForo 1 and we successfully upgraded them to XenForo 2
- Maintaining functionality: Much of the functionality built for their previous site didn’t perfectly port over to the new site.
- Auditing and documenting
- Add-ons that would easily port over to the new software
- Add-ons that became part of the standard software and were no longer needed
- Add-ons that we no longer used and could remove
- Add-ons that didn’t have a XenForo 2 equivalent and needed to be custom built
- Add-ons that had a XenForo 2 equivalent from another developer and needed a custom importer to be built to move that data
By identifying these needs early in the process, we were able to get a clear picture of the steps in the process of this project and what needed to be done to go live.
Design phase
Beyond the technical, part of the project was also modernizing the site experience and giving the forum an updated look. This process included:
- Typography updates
- Logo and color scheme updates
- Overall updates to component locations
The result was a theme that still felt true to the original experience, but offered a fresh experience that user’s could easily get used to and more closely matches a modern website experience.
Development phase
Once the design was approved, we moved to the development phase. Before beginning the theme development, we tested the software upgrade to ensure nothing would go wrong during the upgrade process and with the custom importers we built. We do this to make sure we have an accurate estimate for how long the live upgrade will take and to put an extra layer of protection on the site to make sure no data is lost during the process.
After completing the upgrade, we moved to the theme development phase and created a custom theme. The result was a pixel-perfect theme based on the design we created during the previous step of the project and included custom functionality for:
- Display option menu live toggles
- Grid/standard forum list toggles
- Forum list filter drop down menu
- Edits to line height and padding to account for the typeface they used
- Custom widgets for donations and volunteering
Day of go live
The day of the official upgrade, the client began by running a backup of the site to ensure that all of the data was captured incase we needed to revert to the previous version of the site. We then uninstalled any add-ons that we no longer needed and did the official software upgrade. After completing the upgrade, we installed the new XenForo 2 add-ons and imported any systems that we had built custom scripts for. We also configured the custom theme and did a thorough round of QA before passing the site to the client for review. After the site was once again made public for users, we remained available for post-live bugs in case any issues arose.
Overall, this was a successful project and the outcome was a happy site with upgraded software and a highly performant theme. If you need upgraded software or a new theme for your site, check out our services here.
