Heritage and eCommerce
A fresh brand and website design for a sports heritage brand
The Client
Plas y Brenin (PYB) is a heritage brand. It has played a pivotal role for over 60 years in developing the people who shape and teach in the outdoor sector. Set in the heart of Snowdonia, PYB is in a unique location. It offers the very best of training to trainers and outdoor enthusiasts. From mountaineers to kayakers.
The Project
I started by planning the user experience. I soon designed and developed the front-end of the website into WordPress. I also managed the development team who focussed on the back-end development.
A centre of excellence recognised across the globe
I gave the image-led design a heritage feel with sporty vibes to adhere to the brand guidelines. This repositioned PYB as an industry leader.
Below are segments from different pages. I recommend viewing their live website to get a true feel for what I created to reflect the brand’s personality.
Tackling complex pages
The PYB course page was challenging because of the basic API. We navigated non descriptive labels. They correspond to specific data we wanted to present on the page.
I built the entire website in WordPress except the internal systems housed the course pages. The client and I created a spreadsheet. It cross-references fields used in their internal systems with the new variables. The website’s content architecture used these variables. This allowed there to be a log of any future changes. Pretty beefy when there’s over 40 of them!
Always thinking of the client first
Early on in the discovery phase, I was able to identify a flaw in the future system architecture. They kept their data in Wales rather than the cloud. This would cause problems with the performance of the website. Unfortunately, the client and my colleagues didn’t understand and they overlooked my advice.
The website went live.
Four months later, they noticed and investigated the performance issue. My prediction came true. If they had acted upon my initial advice, it could have saved them a lot of time and money.
