Background
When Harper Macleod joined forces with Shetland estate agency Dowle, Smith & Rutherford in 2015, it brought an established local business into the Harper Macleod brand. Its property website already had a loyal audience, so it was important to modernise the experience without losing what existing users valued.
Challenge
The first challenge was to create a modern Harper Macleod property website for Shetland that felt familiar to its existing audience and made it easy to find a home. But the project scope soon grew. Harper Macleod also needed a consistent approach for its regional estate agency websites, without the cost and complexity of starting from scratch each time. And with multiple sites to manage, the technology behind them needed to make life easier for its property teams too.
Solution
We started by redesigning the Shetland property portal, creating a responsive, user-friendly site with intuitive property search, interactive maps and image-led listings.
That work provided a flexible model that could then be adapted for estate agency sites covering the Highlands, Moray and Edinburgh. Reusing a proven approach made development quicker and more cost-effective, while giving customers a consistent experience across the regions.
Our work has continued well beyond those initial builds. We integrated the sites with Alto, Harper Macleod’s property management system, to streamline how property information is managed and published. We also provide ongoing technical support and development across the sites.