Work / WP Jeweller
A new jeweller wanted an online store that matched her product quality. The brief was specific: clean, not corporate; functional, not overbuilt. No page-builder clutter. No generic theme adjustments. She knew what she wanted, which made the job easier.
The constraint was that she had not yet committed to a visual direction. That is a reasonable place to start. Rather than present three mockups in a PDF, we ran a five-way live design comparison.
"We ran a five-way design comparison so the client picked from real, working options, not pitch decks."
The bake-off approachFive distinct Astro prototypes, each a complete visual direction, deployed and shareable before any production code was written. The client browsed each one in her own browser. She picked one. That was the direction. No compromise, no committee, no revision cycles caused by a direction the client was never fully sure about.
The five design directions are shown below. Direction C was selected.
Five live Astro prototypes. Client selected Direction C. Production started the next day.
Full WooCommerce build on the selected direction. Custom theme, no page builder. Branded transactional emails for order confirmation, shipping, and returns. A coming-soon gate while the store was being stocked. PayFast integration for local payment processing.
The product photography was already good. The job was to frame it correctly, which meant large product images, minimal chrome, and a checkout that did not feel like it came from a different era than the rest of the site.
The client manages inventory from her phone. A Python Telegram bot, built on python-telegram-bot, handles stock queries, product additions, and order status checks from within the Telegram app she already uses daily. No back-end login required for routine tasks.
Gemini Vision provides automatic alt text for product photos uploaded via the bot. This improves accessibility and SEO without adding a step to her workflow.
Live store. Owner manages inventory from her phone. Auto-generated alt text via Gemini Vision. A 45-point technical audit passed at launch with no outstanding issues.