Brief: Work as part of a team to adapt an existing website into a searchable business directory aimed at students in major UK cities. User feedback is central to the site, and incentives should ensure a win-win situation for advertisers and visitors alike.
Detail: The site operates a new concept which is close to existing directory, consumer and auction sites, so it is important to consider these factors whilst still targeting the upwardly mobile student market. The site should operate a ratings system based upon user feedback to determine the score of entries and provide statistics and comments to advertising businesses. Users will obtain points for leaving feedback which in turn provides them with opportunities to win prizes. Additionally, all users are able to download vouchers to their mobile phones which they can use to gain money off at participating advertisers.
Where possible existing elements of the site's design are retained and enforced to ensure consistency and continuity. My main areas of work included the search and browse facilities, visitor feedback, business statistics and ranking, and several administrative pages.
Implementation: The existing PHP site was developed with a new MySQL infrastructure containing optimised data structures for the search facility. The search engine is a synonym-aware natural language processor with support for stemming and making suggestions for categories with no matches or misspelt words. Phrases such as 'cafes called coffee in s5 with good food' can be understood and correctly processed. A breadcrumb tool makes search refinement easy.
A highly configurable ranking algorithm allows businesses to be scored based upon star ratings awarded by visitors. Other administrative features allow for the approval of feedback, extending the search engine and gathering detailed business statistics, including rank, hits and the search queries used to find them.
Note: The original design and other sections of the work in creating the business directory were performed by web designers other than myself. My contribution is limited to that described here.
www.matthew77.com
