MenuGems: a coming-soon page a first-time owner could run himself

Everthinkers, a Sydney startup, was building MenuGems, an app for finding and rating restaurant dishes. Before the release it needed a coming-soon page to collect emails, built from the owner’s Sketch design, with sign-ups going into MailChimp. The owner had never used WordPress, and after handover he had to run the page alone.

First I built plain responsive HTML for approval, while design changes were still cheap. Then I turned it into a custom WordPress theme. The header, the footer and every section live in separate files, so each part of the page changes on its own. The code went into the owner’s GitHub and the tasks into his Trello, and I installed the theme and plugins on his WordPress site.

The sign-up form adds people to his MailChimp list and emails him about each new one. I tested it with a real entry and connected Google Analytics. Then I recorded videos for him on changing texts and pictures, showing or hiding sections, the MailChimp settings and Analytics. At the close I handed access back and reminded him to change the password and remove my access.

After handover a domain switch left the old domain in the form’s settings. I repaired the form and recorded one more video, so next time he can fix it himself. In January 2019 the owner had a working coming-soon page that he managed without a developer.