website design
Woodstock, VT
A charming, picturesque town in southern Vermont with a rich rural heritage.
Chartered in 1761, Woodstock embodies the quintessential Vermont town. Through the mid-1800s, the town’s economy flourished as a farming and manufacturing hub, with the Ottauquechee River powering local textile and woolen mills. As production later shifted out of state, the town quickly became a tourist destination with the arrival of the railroad in the late 1800s. Today, Woodstock remains a favorite getaway in southern Vermont, attracting tourists near and far thanks to its historic charm, rustic covered bridges, community of local artisans, outdoor recreation opportunities, boutique shopping, and farm-to-table cuisine.
Project Details
- SERVICES USED
- TECHNOLOGIES USED
- WordPress
- Gravity Forms
- The Events Calendar with the Community Events Add-On
- Filter Bar Plugin
- WPFront Notification Bar Plugin
- Duplicate Post Plugin
- KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- Migration to a User-Friendly, Block-Based CMS
- Dynamic & Intuitive Events Experience
- Audience-Centric User Journeys & Clean Navigation
The Challenge
Our team’s biggest challenge centered on replacing Woodstock, Vermont’s nearly eight-year-old website that had become a technical and administrative frustration. Developed in 2017, the original site was built on Drupal, a platform that caused difficulty with content management and editing due to its complexity. Site administrators even lacked basic SEO control, unable to use proper heading structures when writing content due to the limitations of existing page templates. This in turn created a costly dependence on the original site developers to make any meaningful site changes. Functional performance was another major hurdle, with numerous user experience barriers across the site. The sitemap and navigation buried information, forcing users to click through multiple times to reach their desired pages, while local business directories had no basic filtering capabilities. The events calendar was also impossibly slow, and past events remained live in search results, causing confusion amongst users.
Our Approach
To remedy these pain points, we created a modern and mobile-friendly website for the Woodstock, Vermont team using WordPress as the CMS. Content management is now easy and internally controlled, reducing the need for developer intervention and additional costs. The new design not only reflects Woodstock’s charm and community values, but also has a simplified navigation and strategic journeys for the three main user groups: visitors, prospective homebuyers, and locals. Now, visitors can easily use the site to help plan trips, current and prospective town residents can quickly find information about upcoming events, and local business owners can efficiently manage their on-site business listings. Other feature enhancements for the site include improved local business directories with filters and statuses, streamlined community event form submissions, pop-up banners, and newsletter signups. Together, these improvements ensure a seamless digital experience that now serves the unique needs of the entire Woodstock community.
Homepage Layout & Design
Serves as a seasonal, high-impact front door and digital hub that guides users through specific journeys via immersive storytelling.
- High-Impact Hero Section
- Simplified Main Menu & Navigation
- Featured Block to Guide User Journeys
- Community Spotlight on Local Businesses
- Local Travel Guides & Blog Highlight
Events Calendar Page
Allows users to easily discover upcoming regional activities and operates as a collaborative platform for local businesses to promote their events.
- Photo Grid of Upcoming Events With Key Information
- Flexible Viewing Options by Time Period
- Robust Filters by Event Category
- Community Submission Portal
- “Sticky” Featured Event Functionality
Hear From Woodstock, Vermont
Jess Kirby
We wanted to work with a Vermont-based firm to take on this project and Bytes.co delivered. From the beginning stages of putting our ideas into action through the entire build and content migration process, Bytes.co and their entire team on the project were excellent communicators and collaborators. They were always quick to respond to ideas and questions that popped up, and ultimately delivered us a site that we are incredibly happy with and proud of. It was not an easy job but they were up for the challenge.
Dine & Drink Page
Connects users to Woodstock’s local food scene with a dynamic, filterable directory that provides business information and real-time open statuses.
- Real-Time “Open Now” Status Filter
- Granular Filtering for Cuisine, Amenities, Meal & Restaurant Type
- Dynamic Event Integration
- Direct Owner Updates for Easy Listing Management
