The Fishin' Pig

The Problem

Two websites. Six locations. Zero unified experience.

The Fishin' Pig operates two separate websites — fishinpig.com built on Wix and fishinpigrva.com built on PopMenu — with no unified brand experience, inconsistent navigation, and broken online ordering on two of six locations.

Customers searching for their nearest Fishin' Pig encounter a fragmented brand that undersells what is genuinely a beloved regional restaurant. The existing sites bury weekly specials, make catering difficult to find, and offer no consistent path to ordering online.

Before — fishinpig.com

Before — fishinpigrva.com

• Two websites on two platforms with different visual identities
• Online ordering unavailable for Richmond with no explanation or alternative
• No communication about ordering availability — users left stranded
• Weekly specials and catering buried in navigation
• No unified location finder across both sites
• Inconsistent photography and brand voice
• Six separate Instagram accounts with no unified brand strategy

Research

Information Architecture

Three rounds of IA iteration led to a final navigation structure that unified both sites into one coherent experience — elevating the content users actually need and burying nothing critical.

Primary Navigation

• Home
• Menu
• Locations
• Catering
• Specials
• About

Utility Cluster

• Order Now
• Account
• Shop

Location Architecture

• Master Locations Page
• Individual Location Pages

• Locations given prominent nav placement

  The most common user need after ordering. Previously buried or inconsistent across both sites.

• Catering elevated to primary navigation

  Previously a buried link. Elevated to primary nav with a full dedicated page.

• Specials as a dedicated nav item

  Previously impossible to find. Tuesday Rib Night, Wednesday Kids Eat Free, Thursday Catfish Night all surfaced.

• Order Now as persistent utility button

  Always visible, never buried — a persistent CTA that follows the user through every page.

• Two-tier location structure

  Master page for discovery, individual pages for depth — serving two distinct user intents simultaneously.

Wireframes

Low fidelity wireframes for every homepage section before touching color, typography or photography. The homepage spans 11 sections — from a rotating story hero to a community-driven UGC gallery.

• 01

  Single Contextual CTA Per Slide

  Each hero slide has one specific action — View Menu, Our Story, Book Catering, Notify Me. Reduces cognitive load and improves conversion clarity.

• 02

  Nine Location Card States

  Standard, Unavailable and Coming Soon × Default, Hover and Selected. The unavailable state communicates ordering limitations without implying the location is closed.

• 03

  Horizontal Scroll on Mobile

  Specials, location cards and menu items use horizontal scroll with a card peek pattern rather than stacking vertically — preserving page length on mobile.

• 04

  Around the World Section

  Buried gallery content elevated to a prominent homepage section — reframed as a community moment with location tags and a mascot submission strip.

Design System

High Fidelity

01 / 05 — Homepage

The Complete Brand Story in a Single Scroll

The homepage tells the complete Fishin' Pig brand story — from the rotating hero to the community-driven Around the World section. The dark mahogany navigation establishes immediate brand authority. Alternating light and dark section rhythm creates visual interest while guiding the user through a deliberate content hierarchy.

02 / 05 — Master Locations

Discovery at a Glance

The master Locations page serves users who need to find their nearest Fishin' Pig quickly. An embedded map with six location cards — each in the appropriate state (Standard, Unavailable, or Coming Soon) — gives users an immediate, honest picture of what's available near them.

03 / 05 — Individual Location

Farmville — Depth for the Curious User

Individual location pages serve users who want to go deeper — see the space, check location-specific specials, and get directions. The Farmville page demonstrates the full template including the pitmaster profile, location gallery, and hours module.

04 / 05 — Coming Soon

Clarksville — Turning Absence into Opportunity

The Clarksville Coming Soon page transforms an opening announcement into a lead capture moment — a Notify Me form, a What to Expect section, and anticipation-building copy that turns the new location into an event rather than a footnote.

05 / 05 — Catering

Structured Around the Decision Journey

The catering page answers each question a prospective customer would have in sequence — What type of event → How does it work → What's the menu → Get a quote. Event type cards use the same photo-forward treatment as the Weekly Specials cards for visual consistency.

‹ ›

Results

Recommendations

• 01

  Professional Photography Shoot

  The single highest impact improvement available — food, exteriors, atmosphere and team portraits across all six locations in a single shoot day.

• 02

  Platform Consolidation

  Consolidate onto WordPress with a white label ordering integration such as ChowNow or PopMenu — solving unified brand, single CMS, and consistent ordering flow.

• 03

  Unified Instagram Strategy

  Consolidate six location accounts to one brand account managed centrally — enabling Instagram API integration for the Around the World section.

• 04

  Content Governance

  Branded social media templates, centrally managed content calendar, brand guidelines document and a DAM system for centralized asset storage.

• 05

  Clarksville Opening Campaign

  Pre-opening email sequence, social media countdown, and exclusive opening day offer for Notify Me subscribers — turning the launch into an event.

• 06

  SEO & Structured Data

  Schema.org LocalBusiness markup on all location pages — address, hours, phone and geo coordinates — directly improving Google Maps visibility and local rankings.

Reflection

• Design systems are worth the investment

  Building the token architecture before touching high fidelity felt slow at first. But every high fidelity decision became faster and more consistent because of it. Changing the primary brand color once updated everything simultaneously.

• Research changes everything

  The discovery that Fishin' Pig had two separate websites, six separate Instagram accounts and inconsistent brand pink across all of them fundamentally shaped every design decision. Without that research the redesign would have been surface level — prettier but not meaningfully better.

• Constraints are creative fuel

  Working without a professional photography budget, without white versions of the logos, without licensed fonts forced creative solutions — Screen blend mode for logo reversal, Barlow Condensed as a Google Fonts alternative, placeholder photography with a documented shoot recommendation.

• Content strategy is UX

  The decision to elevate the Around the World gallery, surface the weekly specials, and give catering a dedicated page weren't visual decisions — they were content strategy decisions. Where content lives determines whether users find it.

Final Thought