Twig Garden Design

Visual Design
fiennes.org with Little Angel Design
URL
http://www.twig-design.co.uk
Year
2008

Twig Garden Design is an Edinburgh based garden design studio run by Jason Russell. The site is utilised as both a portfolio, an information resource and a client presentation tool.

Extendable databases

The site supports the concept of custom database structures that let you model directories of structured information with the meta-data about the items in the directory being configurable through the web.

The plant library is a searchable database of some of the plants that Jason utilises in planting plans for his gardens.

The choice as to which properties that are used, eg flower colour, plant type or growing needs, and the choices within each of these properties is configurable and extendable at any point through the CMS. This lets you browse lists of plants that exhibit these requirements, eg here is a list of plants that like Permanently moist soil.

Each object in the database (plants in this case) has its own detail page which supports all of the layout and functionality of the rest of the site letting your provide rich levels of information about the object.

In addition, the system automatically generates a list of what properties have been assigned to the object so that you can browse to lists of objects with similar properties.

For advanced users, the system is able to automatically build an advanced search page that queries the properties that the objects in this database could have and dynamically constructs a query system that lets you generate complex queries across multiple properties.

This interface automatically extends itself as more properties are added to the system without intervention from either the editor or fiennes.org.

This approach bridges the gap between an InForm like system and a bespoke database and has the advantage that you do not need to know how you want to structure your database before you start to build the site. The number of databases you are going to use, what objects you are going to store inside them and how you are going to classify the objects can be updated and extended over time as your requirements mature and your understanding of what is useful to your clients becomes stronger.

Client Pages

Twig has the facility to create logins for their clients and to create pages that are only viewable by the editors and a given login. This lets them utilise the CMS as a presentation tool to show clients their new garden designs, and it has the advantage that as it is online yet private that the client always sees the latest version of the design, but this information is not shared with the general public.

As the client pages are integrated into the public site, it is also possible to cross-reference the pages across to the plant library thereby letting clients read up on the proposed design without having to depart the site.