The Bow Tie Duck : Online Luxury Food Delivery

[julienmarie]

Hi,

I'd like to share the new version of my website, http://bowtieduck.com

It's an online delivery service of fine foods, in the Philippines.

Your thoughts are welcome !

Julien

[diogo]

Everything looks great! The site and the food

You're probably not the one to blame, but those facebook buttons —especially the one in the nav— kill some of the charm...

[Joss]

Very nice site and right up my street.

Might even give you a review....

http://www.foodloversdiary.com

(Though you are a little bit far away for most of my UK readers!)

If ever your need a food writer.....

[julienmarie]

@diogo : I'm the one to blame I'm experimenting different conversion models because the Philippines market is quite a difficult one for this segment. Thanks for your appreciation!

@Joss : A review would be wonderful! For food writing, why not We should discuss about it!

[MindFull]

Love the feel of everything. Well, almost everything: support dialog boxes bother me, but that's more a me thing than anything else. And where's the balut on the menu? J/K  Good job on the site, when I vacate next January, I'll order something and give you some feedback. Will the deliveries make it out to Olongapo?

[fmgujju]

Very nice site. Just wondering have you used PW as front-end?

I think your avatar is switched with "MindFull". just kidding? "MindFull's duck avatar doesn't have bow-tie!!! or hiding!!!

[Joss]

There you go, Julien

http://www.foodloversdiary.com/good-stuff/my-kind-of-food-the-bow-tie-duck-review/

[julienmarie]

@Joss : Thank you! it's awesome. you're quite a writer! Btw we are planning to get some Irish oysters

@fmgujju : Everything is PW. I think that PW is the only CMS that would allow me to do such a website in 5 days

[totoff]

that would allow me to do such a website in 5 days

could you kindly share your secrets with us? have you been working 24 hours/day?

[Joss]

Thanks, though to be fair, writing is part of my job, so it is probably cheating!

[julienmarie]

could you kindly share your secrets with us? have you been working 24 hours/day?

Hi totoff,

I guess it's not really a secret. I used to run a webagency and I'm used to crazy deadlines.

So, no i was not working 24/24 at all. I dont know if this method would work for everybody, but here is how I work :

- Give yourself a deadline

- Spend 1/8 of the time allocated to plan ahead the project, the data structure, the features.

- Use tools, libraries, frameworks you know by heart, and learn one new tool ( no more no less ) at each project. Small tool for a small project, bigger tool for bigger project.

- If you run into a bug, give yourself 10min and/or 5 tries max to find the reason of the bug (the reason, not the solution). If not found, don't get stuck, wait the next day.

- Don't optimize before going to prod. Wait 24h after going to prod to see bottlenecks, then add one day to fix performance issues ( same thing : only tools you know, learn one new every time )

- Use a good css/js library / framework.

- Rely carefully on third party plugins : try to stay the master of your markup.

- Work with repeatable design so your css will be repeatable and modularized.

- Be the one who design the site : so you can balance difficulty

- To do list, to do list. Plan the next day at the end of the day.

- If you have the budget, use QA services ( like http://crowdsourcedtesting.com/ )

- Know the market you're coding for. Don't kill yourself for under represented browsers.

- Use a laptop, so you can code anywhere ( when you have an idea, etc... ).

- Practice, practice, practice

[Joss]

Having been a creative for around 35 years, I have always worked on the two stage process.

1. Think of an idea

2. Get on with it.

If I do get stuck it is on number one as delaying on number two would get me fired.

One trick for not getting stuck on number one - when your client briefs you down the phone tell them immediately what your first thoughts are to get a reaction. 9/10 they will like your gut reaction and the one time they don't you have at least eliminated one route.

[OLSA]

This site is very, very good with nice design.

I saw that you integrated and segment.io service, content is compressed, response fast etc...

Congratulations!

[julienmarie]

@Olsa

Thanks!

[bernhard]

wonderful site!

i have a bug with chrome and the responsive design on that page: http://bowtieduck.com/products/imperial-caviar/