Portfolio

Detailed below is a selection of notable projects that I have been responsible for delivery of during my time at Bounty.com. The project phases that were individual efforts (i.e. completed by me) was the requirement gathering, early prototypes, technical design (Drupal CMS, db), technical implementation (Drupal CMS, sql, php, JavaScript, jQuery, GMaps, HTML, CSS) and deployment. Supporting keyword research, wire-frames, marketing copy, UI design and testing, were completed in partnership with other team members.

Bounty.com – Service Search

Launch date: 10/08/2009

Service search

The Bounty.com “service search” is an application that lets users find out the nearest stockist of Bounty Packs – which are predominantly Asda and Boots stores. In addition to this, it also allows users to find their nearest GP, Hospital, A&E department and various other health and fitness related services. It achieves this using the NHS Choices API coupled with a Bounty Pack stockist API which was written to support this tool.

Features

• Latest version of Google Maps API
• Cross browser compliant – FF2, FF3, FF3.5, IE6, IE7, IE8, Safari, Chrome
• Drupal CMS driven pack stockist management
• Change type of search without the need for a page refresh
• Update pins around map centre
• On demand additional information
• Pan map upon selection of new service item
• Caching of AJAX calls
• Uses JSON as the data interchange format
• Uses jQuery to support the JavaScript
• Sprites are used wherever appropriate to reduce the page weight and smooth transitions
• For logged in members, automatically loading services and pack stockists around the registered address

Links

• Service Search
• View the javascript

Bounty.com – Baby Names

Launch date: 10/08/2009

Baby Names

Bounty.com has always had a popular Baby Names section driven by the unique set of data it collects from parents across the county (96% reach of UK mums). This data is able to give very accurate league tables about the most popular baby names across the county on a region by region basis. Prior to the launch of the new baby names section, this information was presented in a format that effectively mapped exactly that and was very successful as a result. What it did lack however, was the functionality and UI that would support it in being a genuinely useful tool for expectant parents looking to find a name for their bump-to-be.

Some SEO keyword research later and we began to understand exactly what people were looking for in their quest to find a suitable baby name. Phrases like:

• Names beginning with A
• Coolest names
• Top boys names
• Similar names to Josh

Were all returning sizable search volumes, and none of which we were ranking for. So, with this keyword research complete, UI wire-frames were put together that intended to deliver a usable interface for users to find exactly the information the keyword research was suggesting that they were looking for.

After around 6 weeks of development we had a new Baby Names section that implemented the above ideas. Now, was and is it successful? I’ll let you judge for yourself, here is a Google Analytics screenshot that covers the period from 2 weeks prior to launch, until several weeks after launch:

Graph to show step change in impressions

As you can see, the step-change in page impressions is significant. But what did this mean on the bottom line for the business? So if every page impression is worth around 2p in advertising space. This drove an additional 40,000 impressions a day = £800 or £25k a month, £300k a year..

Features of note

• Development in the Drupal CMS
• No (Drupal template, PHP or CSS) frameworks were used so that optimal performance could be achieved. This proved to be a smart move because since launch we sometimes enjoy over 100 concurrent users.
• Anonymous UGC ratings for each name (e.g. Logan) that give rise to UGC leaderboards (coolest names, unique names, best names etc.)
• WCAG Level 2 compliant
• The bare minimum number of Drupal modules were used to keep the footprint to a minimum
• Automatic monthly updates to the sections that are reliant on data collected offline (names by region, top names etc.)
• No JS and CSS overhead for Drupal administrator interfaces and modules.
• Bézier rankings of names
• Tuned caching control to achieve the best balance of freshness and performance