Website Revamp for a Historic Event House

The project involved website design and development for a historic estate in West Virginia. The new website highlights the grandeur of the estate, helping guests get a preview of the venue through videos, images, event listings, blogs, and a page dedicated to the chef. This website is configured to work on all major mobile platforms.

• Develop a new web application for the house
• Provide a platform to publish various events hosted in the house
• Incorporate user interactivity and dynamic functionalities to increase leads

The business website used by the client failed to capture the spaces, views, and comforts of the estate leaving prospective guests feeling less than impressed with the settings. The website had an outdated design and a traditional sidebar layout with few images and excessive text content. The website lacked the sophistication and finesse that the estate embodied.

We redesigned the website in collaboration with a digital marketing agency that provided creative direction and content. The revamped website features a new design, blog, and several static pages. Each time the website is launched, a new background image is displayed.

Inquiries can be sent using the contact page. The administrator can view all inquiries, sort them according to priority, and respond using the backend panel. Once the date and schedule is finalized, the administrator can post information about the event on the events page of the website. Additionally, guests who want to participate in the event are redirected to the Eventbrite website where they can register and pay for the event. Administrators can add content such as news, blog articles, and modify web content on pages.

The website is accessible on all popular mobile platforms. Based on the size and dimensions of the device, the website automatically loads a predesigned template. The website supports popular mobile platforms such as iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry.

• Mobile web feature implemented through third-party Drupal modules
• Separate themes configured for admin panel as well as backend
• Blog facility to enable registered users to submit blogs that are published after approval
• Report generation to retrieve request information submitted by users over a period of time with filters such as date of event, time, type, group, and entertainment options
• Social media integration with feeds displayed as a widget on the site
• Image and video gallery categorized as albums uploaded by administrator

We built the client’s website using Drupal, an open source content management framework, which was chosen after careful consideration by our developers.

In Drupal, we integrated three third-party modules—Mobile Tools, Browscap, and WURFL to implement mobile web feature. Using these modules we created separate themes for iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry so that when the website is launched, it will detect the device and load the corresponding theme. We used another Drupal module called CCK to implement the news and events pages. Contact form was built using a custom Drupal module to match our specific requirement.

• Drupal Modules
  • Mobile Tools
  • Browscap
  • WURFL
  • CCK
  • Views
  • XML Sitemap
  • Tagadelic
  • Pathauto
  • Modr8
  • CKEditor
  • Nodewords

• Apache
• MySQL
• PHP

The client was very satisfied with the new website. In contrast to the previous version, the revamped website effectively highlights the best features of the house resulting in a steady stream of bookings all year round. Registered users are regularly updated about upcoming events through news and blogs. With dynamic images, choice colors and a simplified layout, the website exemplifies the quality and sophistication that the historic house is known for.