A collection of almost-case studies for web devs and designers. Written by Shelley Heath.

1. AL
MOST
PORT
Shelley
Heath
case
studies
for
web
devs
and
designers

2. ONCE UPON A
TIME YOU
CLICKED ON
THIS
PORTFOLIO
PDF.
Only to find out that
things weren't quite all
they appeared. That
unsuspecting click opened
a door to work that never
was - an almost
portfolio...
Almost, because these
three pieces are only
inspired by real-life
projects of web design
agencies (my actual past
case studies are tied up
tighter in NDAs than a
princess in her cursed
tower).
Yet the fact remains - I
speak in the voice of the
agency for which I write
- Bold and brash. Quirky
with wit. Worldly and
refined. I get to know
their target market
(personally). And, most
critically of all, I spin
a narrative around the
end client - the business
owner who’s launched
against all odds, the
charity fundraiser
website that changed
lives.

3. INDUSTRY
Hospitality
“Both online and offline, business is booming. But without
offering online ordering, we could have joined the many
restaurants that fell to Coronavirus”
A RECIPE FOR YEAR-ON-
YEAR GROWTH AND A
FACEBOOK FOLLOWING
THAT HAS RISEN 5 FOLD
C i t y C e n t r e G a s t r o R e s t a u r a n t
TECHNOLOGIES
Online Ordering
Virtual Team Training
LOCATION
City Centre, UK
SPRING 2020.
ENTRÉE,
CORONAVIRUS
With each passing day there is
increasing coverage given to
reporting on the outbreak of
COVID in China.
Yet for the team turning up to work
for this UK city-centre restaurant,
this March morning was like any
other. Firing up the cookers they
expected to be cleaning down
once service was done and dusted
after another busy night at full
capacity.
After almost 12 months in business,
this restaurant was dead set to
avoid becoming a member of the
ill-fated 60% of restaurants that
fail before a single year in
business.
Then, lockdown.

4. “We huddled over the largest table
in our empty restaurant, brain-
storming as to how we might
survive”
AS A NEW
BUSINESS,
THERE WERE
FEW
RESERVES.
EVEN FEWER
OPTIONS.
This gastro pub had to pivot. Go
online. Re-think dishes to make
them delivery-suitable. The obvious
choice was to go with the
undisputed leader in UK food
delivery - Just Eat. And yet, it just
wasn’t that simple.
Problems? There are plenty.
The loss of branding. The lack of
control over customer experience.
The handing over of 14% (plus VAT).
Then there’s the competition -
kitchens serving up fast food,
placed right above and below this
niche restaurant.
No, it wouldn’t work.
This restaurant wanted to go their
own way - online ordering via their
website.

5. March - April 2020
TAKE YOUR PICK.
A M e n u o f C h a l l e n g e s .
G E T T I N G C U S T O M E R S T H R O U G H T H O S E
D I G I T A L D O O R S
The kitchen team had fresh ideas for social
engagement - at home 5 minute recipes via Facebook
Live, a special 3-course menu for launch, weekly
requests for food heaven and food hell. They needed
the marketing expertise to bring these ideas to
fruition.
G E T T I N G T H E O R D E R S I N T O T H E
K I T C H E N
Switching to a takeaway only outlet demanded
minimal upset in customer-to-kitchen communication.
The website had to send every order directly to the
kitchen printer.
G E T T I N G T O G O L I V E D A Y , Q U I C K L Y
The lockdown was to last 12 weeks. This restaurant
didn’t want to miss even 2.

6. The Recipe
1 x WordPress Ordering Plugin
2 x Venue Printers
1 x Marketing Partner
3 x Front of House Staff
4 x Kitchen Staff
1 x Web Dev
1. Install and customise the WordPress restaurant ordering
Plugin
We set about planning a quick launch. The solution came in
the form of an industry-trusted WordPress plugin - rapidly
rolled out (yet tested and re-tested), with all parts of the user
journey being branded.
2. Link Plugin with venue printers
The WordPress plugin we chose was compatible with the
printers throughout the restaurant - delivering every order to
both kitchen and front-of-house.
3. Collaborate with a marketing partner
Over 10 years we’ve built up quite the black book of
marketing professionals. We hooked our client up with our
trusted social media marketing contact, who put together a
PPC campaign to grow their followers 5 fold, while managing
the social strategy and bringing their own ideas for content
to the table.
INGREDIENTS
METHOD

7. DELIVERY ORDERS
(FIRST 3 MONTHS)
105%
OF USUAL BUSINESS
SOCIAL FOLLOWERS
+ 500%
YEAR-ON-YEAR
GROWTH
+ 20%
BUSINESSES SAVED
1
“I cannot state strongly enough how the quickness in
delivering this project has played a key role in rising to the
challenges of all this pandemic has brought”
THE BITTER SWEET
DESSERT
M a y 2 0 2 1 .
HELPING ENSURE THE
SURVIVAL OF THIS
RESTAURANT, WHILE
PROTECTING PROFIT
MARGIN AND BRAND
IMAGE, IS AMONG
OUR PROUDEST
ACHIEVEMENTS.
We all look back over the past 18
months with hindsight. What started
as a single lockdown led to
another, then another. We now
know that a tenth of Britain’s
restaurants have been lost, that’s
1,412 UK restaurants - each with a
story of its own, with suddenly
jobless staff and business owners
wondering just what’s next for
them.

8. “We thought a beautiful website was enough. We
now know that this is about more than aesthetics".
A data-driven
makeover which
quadrupled
conversions and
feeds a marketing
machine
Luxury interior design firm
LEAD TIME
7 Months
WEBSITE GOAL
Generate enquiries
DEMOGRAPHIC
Affluent homeowners
SERVICES
Web Design | UX Design |
User Research
THE CLIENT
+
THEIR BRIEF.
Known for their fresh take on
traditional country homes, this
interior design firm has earned
award after award for styling the
country homes of the well-heeled.
While the interiors designed by our
client are lauded for their charm
and beauty, their own online home
was failing in its role to convert
visitors into consultations booked.
PPC marketing budgets were going
to waste. Social media marketing
campaigns were falling flat. Visitors
not getting past the first page of
their visit. It was our job to find out
why, then create the solution to
resolve...

9. The existing design wasn't ours. But
it was beautiful. It was image heavy,
showcasing past projects and breath-
taking homes.
It was simple - a one page site.
Yet bounce rate was high - 75%.
The question was why. The average
visitor of this site is time short, this
we knew, but little else.
THE
CHALLENGE
High Bounce Rate. But why?

10. Honing in on that
bounce rate
First there was the easy
and obvious - the site
was too slow. Every
millisecond of load time
past the acceptable XX
seconds, and visitors
would drop off.
Next, for the more
difficult to pin down -
we began with a
heatmap tool. One
month later, we dived
into the data, which
showed us that the
majority of visitors
didn’t scroll too far past
the fold.
Issue 30 | 234
User interviews uncover
something interesting
Heat maps and speed tests only
took us so far. It was time to
understand our user. And for that,
user interviews were needed.
Using a third-party provider, we
connected with this target market
to understand motivations and
explore their thoughts as they
interacted with the website.
The critical factor was trust - our
research revealed that this
audience, by and large, had to feel
that they were ready to move to
consultation phase. They had to
feel they knew the people behind
the brand (a brand that was proven
in their eyes - through designs,
awards and reputation).
The
Proc
ess

11. Two designs. Test after test
after test. The first - A - a full-
width photo gallery, with a
video sitting neatly underneath.
This video walked the visitor
thought the process of
commissioning the interior
design firm - introducing the
owner and the team who
supported her.
The second version - B - a more
simplistic design - the video,
this time full-width and full
screen auto-plays. The outcome
of this test showed us that the
full screen video was
undoubtedly the route to take.
A/B
TESTING

12. T H E S O L U T I O N
An innovative team page -
Reinforcing the new design is a
recreated team page. There are
personality-focused bios and
photos, along with short reel-style
videos for each team member at
work. Visitors now see a glimpse
into the everyday of the senior
designer, project manager, interior
decorator and PA. People who were
faceless before.
Complete control of content - This
is an interior design firm with a
savvy in-house marketing team - a
team who now have control of their
text, images, individual page
layouts and more.
Feeding the funnel - Finally, we
wanted a final chance to provide
value for the visitors who leave the
site without converting. The
solution? A downloadable guide to
planning a country renovation -
something which accounts for a
large part of the client’s target
market.
A beautiful mobile
experience - This target
market is busy - made up
of executives, the C Suite,
business owners. They
browse on the move, from
hotels, before the next
meeting. 75% of visits are on
mobile. The solution is
made-for-them - mobile-
first, fast, smooth.
Duke | 102

13. 1 X P R O J E C T M A N A G E R
2 X W E B S I T E D E S I G N E R S
3 X Q A T E S T E R S
1 X M A R K E T I N G S P E C I A L I S T
T H E T E A M I T
T O O K . T H A N K
Y O U .
7 0
2 7
"We now receive one
high-quality enquiry
per week, and plan to
expand our business
because of it”
+10 weekly magnet downloads
+50% conversions
-20% bounce rate

14. “Not only do my product views
translate into sales x2 compared to
Etsy, but my blog has also been an
important tool to show my audience
how I do what I do”.
VINTAGE
FURNITURE
UPCYCLER
From Etsy to her own online home, how an
eCommerce solution doubled sales and grew a
social following
S E C T O R
A r t i s a n H o m e w a r e
L O C A T I O N
L o n d o n , U K
O U R R O L E
D e s i g n a n d D e v e l o p m e n t

15. THE
CLIENT
It began with a sorry-
looking vintage dresser
destined for the tip. With
elbow grease and a natural
talent for crafts, that dresser
became worthy of a feature-
piece in Good
Housekeeping.
A few pictures on Instagram,
hundreds of likes. Then came
the comments asking for a
website address. And so
she set up shop.
15 Etsy sales later, it was
time for the next step - a
website all of her own.

16. This stock is vivid - Georgian wardrobes with
teal and gold-flecked interiors, drinks cabinets
with arthouse parrots and tropical foliage. The
website design had to stand back to let these
products do the selling.
SMOOTH
PURCHASING
JOURNEY
THE BRIEF
UNOBTRUSIVE
DESIGN
These are one piece purchases
- statement furniture that is
never added to basket
alongside other products. A
clunky buying experience would
simply not do.
The typical purchaser of pieces
such as these wants to see how
each product became what it is
today. They also may have
several pre-purchase questions.
A UX TO
CONNECT
BUYER WITH
SELLER
A WEBSITE THAT FITS INTO A WIDER,
SOCIAL-FOCUSED MARKETING STRATEGY
Social media forms a heavy focus in our maker’s marketing
efforts, the new website had to support this approach.

17. THE
SOLUTION
IMAGE-HEAVY DESIGN OF
WHITESPACE AND CLEAN
TYPOGRAPHY
A m i n i m a l i s t d e s i g n w i t h f u l l - w i d t h
b a c k g r o u n d i m a g e s w a s t h e c l e a r c h o i c e t o
a l l o w t h e p r o d u c t s t o t a k e c e n t r e s t a g e .
A SMOOTH SHOPPING
EXPERIENCE
O n c e t h a t p r o d u c t p u r c h a s e b u t t o n i s
c l i c k e d , t h e b u y e r i s g e n t l y e n c o u r a g e d t o
h e a d s t r a i g h t t o c h e c k o u t v i a a n e l e g a n t
o v e r l a y , w i t h t h e o p t i o n t o ‘ G o o g l e P a y ’ o r
‘ A p p l e P a y ’ r i g h t t h e r e a n d t h e n .
ANSWERING BUYING QUESTIONS
IN REAL-TIME
A L i v e M e s s e n g e r d u r i n g w o r k i n g h o u r s
c o n n e c t s m a k e r , w i t h b u y e r . A p r o f i l e p h o t o
m a k e s i t c l e a r t h a t t h e y a r e t a l k i n g w i t h t h e
c r e a t o r .
PRODUCTS WHICH TELL ATALE
OF FURNITURE REIMAGINED
E a c h p r o d u c t p a g e f e a t u r e s a l a r g e p h o t o
c a r o u s e l p h o t o t h a t d o e s t h e s e p i e c e s
j u s t i c e , w i t h a o n e m i n u t e v i d e o r e e l w h i c h
i n v i t e s s e l l e r s b e h i n d t h e s c e n e s t o
a p p r e c i a t e t h e w o r k m a n s h i p b e h i n d t h e
t r a n s f o r m a t i o n s .

18. x 2
s a l e s p e r v i s i t v e r s u s e t s y
+ 4 0 %
c o m m i s s i o n e n q u i r i e s
+ 3 0 %
p r e - s a l e q u e s t i o n s
“It was intimidating taking the leap
from Etsy to my own online store.
Now, I wish I’d done it 12 months ago".

19. THE
END
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my
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on
PPH
Short
link:
bit.ly/shelleyheath
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