boston.io

Go to http://boston.io/.

My first major project at thoughtbot was to design a site for Boston.io, an annual conference for design and development students interested in working at startups.

This was the conference’s second year. Previously, it had been known as D8, but thoughtbot had acquired a new domain for it and wanted to call it Boston.io from now on. This left me with a pretty blank slate to work with.

With feedback from thoughtbot’s design team I eventually settled on an approach that would call out the city as a main design element, and would use the idea of social proof to persuade students to sign up. By presenting them with a view of some of the students who had already signed up on the home page we hoped to persuade other students that they wanted to attend as well.