Case Study - Nailed It Joinery

In my Case Study series I will be walking through my process with my clients, our meetings and how the website design developed throughout the project. This website project was my premium website design package - The Works - and was completed in around 6 weeks.

When Emma from Nailed It Joinery - a small joinery business based in Kinross, Scotland she owns with her partner Robbie - they were looking to expand and take their business to the next level. The business was busy, with lots of referred customers and new leads, but they were aiming to reach out to a new audience and up-level their brand to appear as professional online as the service they were providing offline. The aim was to take on some additional staff to allow them to free up some time for themselves allowing the business to grow and to serve more customers.

The initial enquiry came in through my Facebook page and as they had no previous knowledge of websites I was able to take them through all of their options initially by email and then in more detail at our first meeting. Following the initial enquiry I shared my questionnaire with Emma and Robbie so we would have somewhere to start our discussions from when we meet.

Our First Meeting

At our first discovery meeting we talked about the technical side of websites, such as hosting, domain, platform, as well as the ongoing costs involved and from this I was able to suggest that working with Squarespace would be the best option for them, as it would give them the freedom to keep updating the site themselves following handover.

At this meeting we also discussed the overall plan for the website, including exactly what they hoped to get from the site, and what the key objective was. Their aim was to show potential clients that they were professional, knowledgeable and provided the highest quality work, with the aim in booking more work through the site. We were also able to find ways that the website could practically work for them and same them time in business running which we planned to do by creating a client area on the site where they could direct clients who were making PayPal payments.

Key requirements:

• Convey that Nailed It Joinery is professional, knowledgeable and high quality

• Showcase the depth of services

• Allow potential customers to get in touch easily

• Create client area for payments (that works with PayPal)

They already had a logo, but no overall branding or style guide, so at this stage we discussed how to incorporate their style into the website design and what elements and colours were aligned with what they already had in their business.

Design - Draft Homepage

Now it was time to stop talking and for me to get started with the website designing! My first step here is sketching out page layouts, thinking about everything I have already discussed with my client and what they want from their website - you can see some of my scribbles below! During this phase I also asked Emma to start uploading the content for their website, which in this case was text and images, as well as the links for their social media accounts. To share information we use a Google Drive folder and the client is able to upload their information as and when it’s available.

Next I present the live mock-up to Emma and Robbie for their feedback. I like using the live site as a mock-up as I feel that it gives my clients a better understanding of what the site will be like, which sometimes can’t be achieved from a flat image. Particularly because I had discussed the website styling and requirements with the client is detail I was confident with diving straight in to the live mock up. If my client is more unsure about layout and what they think will serve their business best I will present them with two flat homepage layout mock-ups, which helps when you don’t have an idea of style in mind.

The Full Design

As this was ‘The Works’ website package I was able to offer some bespoke customised graphics and backgrounds for some of their pages. You will see on the image of their homepage below that this took the form of some small icons that represent the different skills they have on offer, as well as custom wood grain backgrounds. These small touches add a bit of extra detail to a website and can often set you apart from your competitors by making the overall user experience more memorable. It also subconsciously show your potential customers that you care about the details! After some discussion and tweaking of the homepage I continued to build out the full site ready for launch.

Handover

I was able to meet with Emma and Robbie again at handover and we went through the final stages of going live together, which entails setting up a Squarespace account and connecting their website address. As with all of my website projects, at handover I send an email with all of the details, graphics or log-ins that were required throughout the process, as well as a link to personalised tutorial videos that I have recorded on their site, walking them through making any updates they may need. (See an example of my general tutorial videos here, with The Works you get videos personalised to your site.)

Creating this site for Emma and Robbie was so much fun, and I was able to really feel their enthusiasm for building their business and taking to the next level. Being a part of that is always a great experience!

I just wanted to drop you a wee email to say I've managed to do my first update on the website and you’re right, it is really easy to use and easy to automatically update our Facebook page. We genuinely can't thank you enough. The website is absolutely fantastic.

Emma, Nailed It Joinery