Web Design Portfolio: Community Organisations, Ecommerce websites, WordPress Membership Sites

Australian Vegan Business Directory | Web Design

Vegans supporting vegans in business

The Australian Vegan Business Directory is a labour of love for Blue Kelpie. Committed to creating a space where cruelty free ethics meets a supportive business networking environment that connects the Australian vegan community with local and online vegan businesses.

The Brief

The Australian Vegan Business Directory was first built in 2016 with more than 150 businesses listed but with the release of WordPress 5.0 in late 2018 the performance of the site could be improved greatly. The decision was made to embark upon a rebuild and redesign process to improve the performance of the site and bring it into line with a more contemporary rebranding.

The site required membership functionality with the ability for users to add and manage their own business listings. Search results needed to be filterable by type of service provided along with maps to create a proximity search allowing end users to find local businesses. A secondary directory connects end users with ‘online only’ businesses, again with filters for types of services provided.

Search Engine Optimisation is required to provide each business within the directory with valuable ‘link juice’ and the implementation of analytic data to demonstrate the effectiveness of the website in generating traffic to customer’s own websites.

Objectives

  • Membership Functionality
  • Members able to add and manage their own content
  • Clean and vibrant design to engage users
  • Map feature with a proximity search
  • Directory for businesses who only trade online
  • SEO value for all business listings

Design

Following a rebrand of the Australian Vegan Business Directory we set out to deliver a design that was bright, clean and ultimately fun and playful. With a large part of the target audience in a younger, more fashionable demographic we sought to engage with bolder colours and striking images. With the wide variations in business logos the directory itself is kept minimal to allow each to stand out and to reduce contrast with other design elements.

Membership and directory style sites require close attention to detail to ensure a strong relationship between form and function. The design of the Australian Vegan Business Directory ensures that all necessary content is easily found whilst maintaining a clean, minimal layout of elements. This ensures the site is easily navigable and all functions are easily found by all users.

Australian Vegan Business Directory, web design, device view

WordPress Development

With a number of moving parts with the design and function this site came together with relative ease and grace. The design is consistent with the brand across all pages and has seen an increase in site visits and social media interaction. The first two months of the site being live have seen 80 businesses sign up and averaging more than 100 unique site visits per week. User interaction has seen a lower bounce rate and a high rate of content engagement.

With more features to be added to the site in coming months we anticipate more traffic and a greater demand on the server. This presents an opportunity to continue to refine the performance of this site and ensure we keep meeting the demands of the end users for a site that delivers local and online vegan businesses to their customer base.

Australian Vegan Business Directory, web design, placement

The Outcome

With a number of moving parts with the design and function this site came together with relative ease and grace. The design is consistent with the brand across all pages and has seen an increase in site visits and social media interaction. The first two months of the site being live have seen 80 businesses sign up and averaging more than 100 unique site visits per week. User interaction has seen a lower bounce rate and a high rate of content engagement.

With more features to be added to the site in coming months we anticipate more traffic and a greater demand on the server. This presents an opportunity to continue to refine the performance of this site and ensure we keep meeting the demands of the end users for a site that delivers local and online vegan businesses to their customer base.

Testimonial

My EnviroBren business has featured on both the old and new Australian Vegan Business Directory websites and I love everything about the new AVBD site. Very satisfied with the ease and speed that customers can reach mine and many other great vegan businesses.

The new site looks colourful, professional and very functional. Customers can quickly and easily search through the vegan categories to find what they’re looking for.
New vegan businesses can list their brand and details effortlessly.

I highly recommend the new Australian Vegan Business Directory.

Brenda Wilkinson
EnviroBren

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