Scraps Away

Our customer approached us knowing he would need a bespoke built website for his online scrap metal yard directory. As this was a brand new venture, he also needed a logo.

As well as listing and providing a profile page for each of the scrap metal yards throughout the UK, the system also had to show prices paid for various metals offered by each individual scrap yard, along with the ability for their customers to report actual prices quoted and rate the scrap yard for a number of criteria.

Scrap yards needed the ability to sign up for an account providing them with a unique login enabling them to update their contact details and metal prices.

Historical prices for each metal needed to be show in each profile, along with contact details and opening hours. Up to date trading prices for each of the metals traded on the London Metal Exchange also need to be displayed along with historical price information, and some more detailed information about each metal price.

As well as listing the scrap yards in a specific geographic location, there was also a requirement to offer an advanced search facility giving visitors to search for scrap yards by distance, rating, metal type and service.

Finally, the key requirement of the website was to be able to track and record every click-through to each individual scrap yard. This then provides our customer with enough data to determine the success of the website, and secondly to show each of his potential customers, the scrap yard owners themselves, how many customers the website has been responsible for passing them.

From a very loose brief, we initially came up with a number of logo concepts which were quickly whittled down to the logo now used on the website. The logo incorporates the trading location (UK), a representation of the universal recycling icon, and uses green as the primary colour, which comes from the ‘green’ credentials associated with recycling.

We then concentrated on the overall design which needed to be extremely intuitive, informative and of course, fully responsive across all mobile device types. We therefore build the design around the quick location search facility which then displayed the results on a map centred on the visitors chosen post code or town.

We developed a system to record and report each click through from the search results map to an individual scrap yard, which each scrap yard can see in their personalised members area, where they are also able to update data such as their contact details and current metal prices.

Separately we developed a system which scraped the latest trading prices from the London Metal exchange, and incorporated a fluid line chart graph displaying the historical metal prices, along with a specific information page for each metal type which will assist in the general search engine optimisation of the site.

We also built a system for customers of each scrap yard to be able to rate them using a quick star rating system based on a standard set of criteria; Service, Prices offered, Their knowledge of the industry, How helpful they were and how happy they would be to recommend them. In order to leave a review or an update on the metal price they were offered, customers can quickly and easily login using their Facebook or Twitter accounts.