Magic Snacks
August 2008
Magic Snacks is one of those long-time clients we're so fortunate to have (and we love their products too!). Based right here in Portland, they're the creators of 100% organic dog treats by the same name.
We designed of their first website back in 2004 (view a screenshot of their old site). Times (and web design) sure have changed! Knowing this, they turned to us in Spring 2008 to discuss a brand new site. They were looking for, more than anything, a new shopping cart solution that made it easier on their customers and that was stable 100% of the time. And of course, a whole new design was part of the endeavor.
Our goal was to really focus on the product. We accomplished this by creating a layout that gave the user a great view of the product while emphasizing its organic nature through the use of browns throughout the site (the red is one of their company colors and had to remain for brand consistency). Not too long into the design phase we realized that we needed solid photography. So that's what we provided - in-house photography of their products. Anything else would've left a lot to be desired.
To meet the objective of a more stable cart, we started from scratch, which we had to do as the previous cart was a proprietary solution by another provider. We still used a third-party solution, but the cart and overall shopping experience is much more integrated into the site, making it easier for users to browse and purchase products.
The site also features a dog photo gallery made up of photos submitted to Magic Snacks by their customers. In addition, the site also provides a list of retailers of Magic Snacks. That retailer list is updatable by Magic Snacks staff through a CMS (content management system). You guessed it, ExpressionEngine.
What We Delivered
- Site architecture
- Website creative direction, design, layout
- Website development (XHTML / CSS)
- ExpressionEngine development
- Shopping cart customization + development
- Search engine optimization
- Web hosting
