My main gig is travel websites, as everyone knows {cough *should know* cough}. Every now and again, I get inspired. This time it wasn’t so much inspiration as desperation. So, I’m sitting at home, minding my own geeky business and I get this call from my husband. He’s a little frosted. A lot frosted, actually, like a Sprinkles Cupcake. He says, “Honey? Our website here at the office is down. No one’s quite sure what to do, but the solution being presented by our web guy doesn’t sound right to me. Would you talk to my boss?”
And down the rabbit hole I fell, like Alice.
Sparing all the gory (think: Resident Evil) details, their previous site was gone and they needed a new one. With 87+ listings, virtual tours, custom design and lots and lots of photos.
And lo, and thusly, Coastline Properties was launched today after a three week hiatus, gallons of coffee, days of real office hours in a real office and a whole lotta code hacks.
I’m pretty proud of this one. Here are some highlights:
- 100% powered by Wordpress, the site has a customized dashboard to load listings and their details, including pricing. All the sorting is done on the backside.
- Batch upload of photos with auto-thumbnailing, slideshows and galleries – hours of time saved each week, with an updated professional look and modern feel.
- Custom coding for sorting properties from lowest price to highest price – not just the old “newest on top” listings, no-siree.
- Integration of virtual tours
- Custom Facebook App to link new listings to Fan Page
- Incorporation of Twitter RSS feeds for local newspapers (Caller Times & South Jetty)
- Comparative Market Analysis Forms
- Custom sidebars depending on pages
- Custom forms for inquiries
- Mortgage Calculator Integration
- Sliding featured posts
- Local area information with restaurant reviews, school information & home sales statistics and history
Different, but very interesting to work on. I liked moving away from travel for a minute – it recharged my batteries and gave me all kinds of inspiration for some new travel ideas!
