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Technology
Expertise
Brokering a deal
When Jasper Socia, a real estate broker by trade, needed to carve out a place of his own on the web, he came to ATTCK.
Mr. Socia, the founder and president of Independent Properties, specializes in selling, renting, managing, and marketing luxury spaces throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. Recently, with business growing, he decided it was time for him to establish a digital presence.
His request: an easy-to-manage site with ample photography and a straightforward authoring experience. Updating property listings over time would be a necessity.
He handed us the keys, and we went to work.
Plan of ATTCK
The website we designed for Independent Properties isn’t loud or trendy. It’s subtle and free of flair. Minimal but highly effective. The understated design allows nuanced features like animations to come to the fore, while an unassuming sidebar allows visitors to focus on the thing they’ve really come for: oversize images of drool-worthy properties.
The interface may be simple and straightforward, but things get a bit more complicated under the hood.
Determining how best to manage Squarespace’s RESTful JSON API with BackboneJS, a single-page application framework, proved a novel challenge. Namely because, to our knowledge, no one had done it before.
First, we used the RESTful API to design our own custom interface using Squarespace’s back-end authoring platform. We then built a single-page application on top of that using Backbone.
The result? A simple authoring interface with “click heres” and “upload heres” and no heavy lifting. Text boxes allow for easy edits. Updates appear with no more effort than a click.
This type of architecture—known as model-view-controller, or MVC—is already familiar to users of sites like Squarespace itself. We effectively leveraged Squarespace’s own RESTful API and Backbone to build an MVC-based single-page application tailored to our client’s needs. And it does its job beautifully.
Large image carousel
Specializing in luxury rentals and sales, both residential and commercial, Independent Properties boasts stately properties throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. We knew their website would need plenty of big, beautiful photos. We had no shortage to draw upon.
We think of ourselves as craftsmen. We care for the details that you don’t necessarily see. That’s our underlying principle when we design and build at ATTCK.
Dennis Plucinik
Founder, ATTCK
Design in the details
Will visitors to Independent Properties’ website realize the work that went into it? No. Which is how we like it.
Our goal at ATTCK is not to show off. It’s to create the most seamless user experience that we can—and then step out of the way.
Under the hood stays under the hood.
The care we put into the details—including the ones you can’t see—are what elevate our work and keep our clients coming back. Jasper Socia was so happy with his site that he’s already asked us for another.
Credits
Designer
Dennis Plucinik
Developers
Dennis Plucinik