Our development strategy followed a four-phase process:

1. Discovery & Strategy

We conducted stakeholder interviews, studied user personas (including newly diagnosed coeliacs, parents, and health-conscious eaters), and mapped out the competitive landscape. This helped us define the feature set, tone, and priorities of the platform—particularly the importance of transparency in labelling and ease of use.

2. UX/UI Design

We designed a clean, responsive interface with accessibility in mind. Key design features included:

• A traffic light system to signal gluten safety levels (green = certified safe, amber = unverified, red = avoid)

• Category-based filters to compare brands across breads, pastas, snacks, and more

• Provider profiles with badges, certifications, and user reviews

• A resource hub with downloadable guides and FAQs

• Community integration, including forums and user-submitted ratings

3. Development

We built the site using React.js to maintain fast load times and a smooth UX. Custom components were created for product carousels, comparison tables, filters, and user dashboards. All content and user data were managed via a secure back-end CMS using Velo’s development framework.

Performance optimisation and SEO were critical in our build process, ensuring the site could rank well and load quickly even with rich content and images.

4. Testing & Launch

We conducted cross-browser and device testing, followed by accessibility checks to meet WCAG standards. Once validated, we launched the platform with tracking integrations and a phased marketing release.