who are kids party finder_

Kids Party Finder is the UK’s leading directory of Children’s Party suppliers, allowing parents to find the perfect supplier from Fire Engines to Disco’s and Face painting and Cake suppliers.  

The organisation covers the whole of the UK’, providing a platform for suppliers to promote their businesses in their local and desired areas.

The idea was born from founders Charlie and James, two parents who were both initially struggling to find Children entertainers in their local area.  They soon discovered they were not alone in their quest to find the perfect local party supplier and Kids Party Finder was born!

why wirebox_

Wirebox have been developing websites and applications for over 15 years. Our experience helps us advise clients on how best to use the latest technologies to build from the ground up or to improve existing systems.

Wirebox has worked with Kids Party Finder for a number of years supporting their previous platform.   The Directory platform required bespoke functionality, following the existing process that has worked for Kids Party Finder to date. The payment for the suppliers was to be managed on a recurring monthly basis, including the ability to offer incentives and promotions to bring additional suppliers onto the platform.

Wirebox’s experience in bespoke software development and payment system integrations made Wirebox the ideal partner for this project.

0ur approach_

Wirebox supported Kids Party Finder for a number of years prior to the new site launch, we knew the current system and what improvements were required for the new site to be a success.  The knowledge of the existing system provided Wirebox with a great understanding of the requirements, it aided us in many ways, but we still followed internal our process

• Step 1 – Discovery
  We held an initial workshop at our Watford office to go through what Kids Party Finder were looking to achieve and gather all the information we needed to start the project off.
• Step 2 – Analyse
  With all the information at hand, it is important to review and analyse the approach needed to deliver the project on time and budget.
• Step 3 – Define
  Working through prototyping to design building an optimal UX (User Experience).
• Step 4 – Development
  Building the site in latest web technologies, for the Kids Party Finder we utilised the Open Source framework Laravel.
• Step 5 – Testing
  Testing the site including multiple browser to backend and user testing.
• Step 6 – Delivery
  Pushing the site live and managing transition from the old to the new site.

Outcome_

The website was completely redesigned, from the front end to the supplies portal. It used the latest technology including a Headless CMS in WordPress and a Laravel Supplier portal.

WordPress Headless CMS

The content editing of the website is using WordPress whilst the frontend is rendered using Laravel. Using this method provided both Wirebox and Kids Party Finder greater control of how to render the frontend of the site, whilst providing faster content loading for Search Engine Optimisation. 

The site includes a supplier search page where users can filter to find exactly what supplies they need for their party

Laravel Supplier portal

The supplier portal was developed in the latest Laravel version and offered the latest technical benefits that Laravel provides. 

Features in the portal included

• Supplier creation pages
• Update of payment methods
• Editing of supplier pages with images, video and social media profiles
• Supplier News Reel
• Adding of locations for users to search for