Say Hello has always striven to support local businesses, and I have a personal interest in helping to promote the region to both locals and visitors from further afield. So when I was approached by the Bern-based design company Unikum about another project – this time for a hotel and restaurant on the shores of Lake Thun – I was particularly pleased to be involved. Neuhaus zum See in Unterseen is well known in the region and amongst visitors arriving on lake cruises as a highlight of the lakeshore near Interlaken.
Design consultancy
During the first phase of the project, I helped Unikum to deliver the best possible design and concept outcomes by sharing my experience of hotels in the region and across Switzerland. Once the client’s requirements had been met, I helped Unikum to refine the site’s usability, with a particular focus on accessibility issues.
Keeping editorial work simple
The client wanted a relatively simple website that would be easy to manage in terms of content, so the focus when building the site was on simplicity. I used the simpler navigation management tool that has been part of WordPress for many years to create the relatively extensive mega menu, then developed the content management system for the site by building a small handful of custom blocks.
WordPress’ Block Editor is powerful but can be unnecessarily complicated for smaller projects, and the client was happy for me to provide a stripped-back editor interface. By using custom blocks, with fixed input fields and simple media selectors for images and video, I removed the complexity of the full Block Editor and enabled the client to work quickly and easily: maintaining the elegant design whilst avoiding the need for making complex choices during editorial work.
Ongoing maintenance
In order to support this local business and help them save time spent on managing and updating the website, we agreed a WordPress maintenance contract. This allows me to take over the administrative work for the client, enabling them to focus on their core business.
