Overview
Storage Locator is a price comparison website designed to allow customers to swiftly and effortlessly locate nearby storage units.
When Storage Locator first approached Unfold, the concept for the site was in its infancy and they needed a partner who could take their idea and transform it into a fully-fledged website. Moving through research, strategy, design and development we launched the first version of the site in under 12 weeks so they could begin building a user-base.
Ian
Izzy
Harry
Peter
Georgia
Jon
Ashley
Challenges
- Speed of delivery – As a new concept, Storage Locator needed a quality MVP built quickly so they could test the concept and validate their strategy.
- SEO – A comparison site of this nature is nothing without traffic, so a key consideration was how to make the site rank highly.
- The site needed to hold 600+ sites worth of data that was both easy to import and to update when necessary.
- The search function needed to allow users to quickly and easily locate storage both in a list and map based formats.
Outcomes
- We worked quickly and iteratively with the Storage Locator team to ensure we delivered an MVP on time, within 12 weeks.
- Considering SEO across all aspects of the site from design, through to structure and build, has resulted in a site that’s fully optimised for SEO.
- We created an easy tool for the Storage Locator team to independently import data through a CSV file, straight into the website, so updating their 600 (and growing!) list of locations is a breeze.
- We used a combination of custom functionality and the google maps API to create a responsive map that we could overlay our own data onto, to create a slick interactive map function.
Design
In order to ensure the UX was the best it could be, we worked closely with the Storage Locator team on a thorough design plan that involved extensive research and workshops. This allowed us to uncover their requirements and guide the strategy for the project.
Our lead designer, Izzy, worked through a process of wireframing and prototyping, before adding the visual identity and Storage Locator brand to the designs.
“Unfold have been the perfect partner for this project. We were delighted with how quickly the project progressed and how thorough and responsive the team has been throughout the process. Their ability to master both the initial research, planning and design phases as well as the complex technical elements of the project really stood out to us. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with Unfold to further improve the Storage Locator site.”
Emily Snape, Growth Director
Build
As part of the build we needed to create a map search function that was really slick from a UX point of view, but also easy for the Storage Locator team to use and update.
The search tool we built allows users to compare storage facilities nearby on an interactive map. By simply typing in your postcode or city, pins will appear on the map. Users can then click into each location to reveal more information on that storage location, including distance from the user and standard unit sizing with prices.
We took particular care to perfect the micro-interactions and animations on the search tool, ensuring the experience feels as easy and intuitive as possible for new and returning users alike.
Customers then get directed to the providers website to book the storage unit of their choice. All the usage data is tracked in a custom GTM/GA4 setup so Storage Locator know when they have passed an enquiry over to a storage provider.
Intuitive user experience We took particular care to perfect the micro-interactions and animations on the search tool, ensuring the experience feels as easy and intuitive as possible for new and returning users alike.
SEO
Unfold thought very carefully about the structure of the website and how we would ensure it ranked highly in Google search. We collaborated with Storage Locators SEO agency on both the copy and site structure, including the addition of an ‘advice’ section, relevant landing pages, footer structure and sitemap – ensuring the site would rank well for key search terms.
From a technical aspect we also made sure the site was built to the highest standards possible to ensure good SEO optimisation. This included writing clean, semantically correct code, optimising the site with advanced caching features, and setting up alt tags and sitemaps to make the site easy for Google to crawl.
Continuing our partnership
The site launched in Q1 2024 and since then we’ve been working with the Storage Locator team on a monthly basis to optimise and improve the site. Working together we’ve proactively created a joint, prioritised roadmap that we’ll roll out across the year. Stay tuned for more updates soon!
