Case StudyA media empire, modernized & scaled
How BAC integrated with Chive Media Group to overhaul their UX, migrate architecture, and become an ongoing product partner across their entire brand portfolio.
A family of websites, apps & OTT channels
Founded in 2008, Chive Media Group consists of a family of websites, applications and OTT channels, including its flagship brands theCHIVE and theBERRY. The brand extends into eCommerce sites, specifically The Chivery, Buy Me Brunch and William Murray Golf.
In 2010, Chive Media Group established Chive Charities, a non-profit organization that inspires theCHIVE's online community to champion orphaned causes in need of public awareness and financial assistance. Finally, Chive Media Group owns a streaming entertainment channel, CHIVE TV, an in-house production company, Chive Studios, and a sales and media operation division with offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City and San Francisco.
Chive Media Group set out to improve the user experience across all their portfolio products, offer improved features, remove technical debt in their key products, and embark on new product development. The need was specific — taking the existing architecture to the next level by optimizing the efficiency and quality of the technologies already in place.
Their focus was to onboard experienced engineers for a predefined period of time to assist with the needs of these specific projects. They found that partner in Bay Area Coders.
UX Overhaul & Architecture Migration
Integrated BAC team, rebuilt UX, migrated from SSR to SPA/REST
Ongoing Partnership
Continued design and engineering support across all CMG products
Brand Portfolio
theCHIVE
Flagship entertainment site
theBERRY
Lifestyle & culture
The Chivery
eCommerce
Buy Me Brunch
eCommerce
William Murray Golf
eCommerce
Chive Charities
Non-profit
UX Overhaul & Architecture Migration
A team of three BAC developers were integrated into the Chive Media Group development team, and tasked with improving the user experience of the most used features of Chive products. This involved implementing significant changes to how the products currently functioned.
It also involved moving from a server side rendering model over to a frontend rendering model with a RESTful backend. The BAC team built out different prototypes and through multiple iterations arrived at the optimal solution. Website components were refactored and upgraded in small iterative steps, allowing continuous deployments and fast results which optimized the user experience, performance and stability throughout the whole process.
Server-Side Rendering
SPA + RESTful API
Ongoing Partnership
Upon successful completion of the initial project, Bay Area Coders was taken on as an ongoing partner in the design and implementation and iteration of current and new products for the brand. Currently, our UI/UX designers support the design process of several projects for the brand, and our front and backend teams support the implementation and management of the same.
San Francisco company consisting of exceptional remote engineers specializing in web and mobile design and development.
What changed
Improved UX across all portfolio products with iterative, continuous deployments
Successful migration from server-side rendering to modern SPA + RESTful architecture
Removed technical debt while adding new features and products
Established a long-term partnership for ongoing design, development, and product iteration
Optimized performance and stability through small, iterative upgrades
Expanded support across multiple CMG brands and product lines
Ready to work like this?
Whether you need to modernize your stack, augment your team, or build an ongoing partnership — we're ready to help.