Creating a website: Design and technical issues - Part 4

Future Directions & Continuity:

Now for the last post about the design particulars of Taste the World Online.

Blog:

In order to keep the website current, I created a blog for Anne using Blogger. To date I have written all the contents for the site, blog, and Facebook page, however when her schedule settles down a little she will be able to keep the website updated with content through Blogger. The blog will allow her to add recipes and party ideas directly from the Internet, without having to either modify the website or ask me to make frequent additions. What I will maintain are the box areas that feature announcements (like upcoming events). These areas are small, however, and maintenance will be minimal. The blog, however, will ensure that users can find current content associated with the site, so there should be no sense that the storefront might be abandoned. My other hope is that through blogging Anne can develop a following of users that will discover the store website through that forum.

Check out the blog here:
www.tastetheworldonline.blogspot.com/

Site expansion:
The website is small in scale right now due to a number of factors. First, the store is newly opened, so the number of products available is relatively small and the number of products I was provided for photography purposes was even smaller. Therefore some of the category pages have less products listed and some product pages have alternate views while others (that could) do not. The space on these pages will allow for future growth, as will the addition of additional linked pages in each category.
Second, I have left space for buttons and shopping carts associated with ecommerce. I have researched some options and will likely use Zen Cart, which is an open source program that can be customized to fit the look of your website. I have encouraged Anne to create a PayPal Merchant Account to handle the payment (although to date she has been preoccupied with opening the physical store and is not ready to engage in online ordering). After reading about the pros and cons of the PayPal system, I feel that she would benefit from their small commission fee, recognizable status, and the protections they offer for ecommerce. The payment functions seem easy to set up, and they are compatible with many third-party shopping cart applications, including Zen Cart. Adding this functionality will be the next logical step in expanding this site in the future.

For now, the Taste the World website strikes a balance between informational pages (i.e. how to present cheese, why bother with roasted coffee, etc.) and product pages that give descriptive information and prices. Anyone trying to scope out the physical store prior to actually heading down there should find all the information they need on this website. The design and information on the Web should assure potential customers that the physical location—which they can see pictures of on the site—will live up to their expectations of high-quality products and a pleasant ambiance. The future of the site is exciting, as it is designed to grow at the rate of the business, and areas for expansion are already engineered into the basic design.