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Garrendenny Lane Interiors

Posted on | August 19, 2008 | Comments Off

Garrendenny Lane Interiors Website was launched in 2008. The site was developed over several stages, and took a year to reach its final form – consisting of a brochure website, blog, online shop and photo galleries. As the site has regular posts and updates, the site was built in a simple CMS, training was provided in how to manage the website and the online shop and the website is updated via the CMS by the owner, Lorna. Lorna keeps an excellent blog, and her enthusiasm and use of the blog to create a really excellent ‘electronic’ business front for her business is excellent.

Developing a website over stages can suit a client as perhaps at first, an online presence is needed to provide information, then this can be developed to include several other features and functions. The final stage of the building of the Garrendenny Lane Interiors Website involved the implementation of an e-commerce solution, and an online shop facility was developed. The website has three main strands to it – information, both text and photographs, blogging and selling products online. It also acts as the Garrendenny Lane Interiors shop front as the business is operated from home.

The first stage involved designing a logo, setting up up domain and hosting, and then creating a static website, presenting information about the newly opened Garrendenny Lane Interiors business.

Logo

Lorna asked me to design the logo for her website – I have to say I was not really comfortable doing this as print design is different to web design and it is a totally different way of working - I really do prefer designing web page interfaces. However, as my emphasis when designing websites is on good graphic design, and with lots of ideas and enthusiasm from Lorna I decided to give it a go. I have designed logos before, and often provide simple texting for a persons business name, if they do not already have a logo designed. After two attempts and help from Lornas business advisors, I designed the final logo, that is now used for all Lornas marketing material.

BLOG

The second stage involved setting up a blog, using the same design as the website in order to provide consitency of brand. A unique header was designed to reflect the more informal nature of the blog and to present relevant images and a lovely photo of Lorna the owner of Garrendenny Lane Interiors and author of the blog.

The third stage involved adding in features such as an easy to update online gallery to showcase the fabric and wallpaper available and a selection of the furniture for sale at Garrendenny Lane Interiors and other functional features such as a newsletter.

The fourth stage involved in setting up and installing a content management system (cms) for the client to update all aspects of the website themselves. Training in updating the site and using all the various features of the site was provided.

ONLINE SHOP

Setting up the Online Shop

The final stage involved the setting up of an online shop facility for Garrendenny interiors to sell some of the products in stock online. At first the intention was to sell about ten items, however, the online shop now sells several interiors products. The technology used to build the online shop is shopify. This is a relatively new technology, it is a small fee based hosted service, very much geared to the small business set up for selling products online. The service provides a very good secure method of managing online sales. From a web designers perspective, the shopfiy product is also able to be customised according to the design of the client. I set up shopify for Garrendenny Lane and I also redesigned the standard template designs that come with shopify in order to make the shop front have the exact same design as the website and the blog. I built the first few products, then I provided training and documentation for Garrendenny Interiors to update the products to the shop themselves. I provide ongoing support to the online shop as new new features are added to the shop. However, Lorna completely manages the online shop herself.

This is a great website. This is also a site I am very proud to have been part of the making but it is really nice to see that the site is definitely Lornas as she makes regular updates. The products that are stocked at Garrendenny Lane Interiors premises and those stocked on the online shop are a must buy for those who want to have access to purchasing the most amazing products for the home and gifts for family and friends. Lorna keeps regular posts to her blog, a must read for those interested in Interiors and reading about family life on a busy farm, events around her local area and just great writing. Check it out if you have time.

Site Url: http://www.gdlaneinteriors.ie/

Blog Url: http://www.gdlaneinteriors.ie/blog/

Online Shop Url: http://shop.gdlaneinteriors.ie/