Business directory customised with virtual tours and smarter filters

The challenge

A partner agency came to us on behalf of an online business directory for a Caribbean island. The site ran on a ready-made CodeIgniter listing script, which provided the basics but did not match how the directory wanted to present its listings.

Listings showed empty price fields, opening hours appeared even where they were not relevant, there was no unique reference for each listing, and search filters displayed options and values that did not help visitors narrow their results. The directory also wanted to show virtual tours and give the site a more polished look. The agency supplied the changes as numbered lists and needed them turned around quickly.

What we did

• Cleaner listing details. Empty one-off or rental prices are now hidden, opening hours can be shown or hidden per listing, each listing has a unique ID, and the listing status display was removed from the public view.
• Virtual tours. We added a new field so listings can include a Matterport virtual tour.
• Search filters. We reworked the filters for price and attributes, hid zero-value options and added subcategory filtering so visitors can drill down more precisely.
• Galleries and branding. We set limits on listing galleries and updated the script's author links to the agency's own branding.
• Design refresh. We adjusted banner height, cover-image shading, menu shadow, fonts, colours and pop-ups to give the directory a cleaner, more consistent appearance.
• Mobile. We hid the map on mobile search results so listings come first on small screens.

Tech stack

PHP, CodeIgniter, MySQL, Matterport embeds