The public directory, redesigned
These three pages show where the chamber directory should go. Everything is clickable at real size — try it on your phone too, the pages adapt. Business data is a mix of real Cold Lake members and illustrative photos/descriptions to show the enriched end-state.
The idea in one sentence
The members are the product — so every listing must flatter its business no matter how little data it has, and a visitor must get from "I need a plumber" to a phone call in two taps.
What was wrong (from this week's full test sweep)
Before — landing: every card prints the business name twice (once huge on a colored panel, once below), numbered companies get top billing, and every card says "Hours vary" — which tells the visitor nothing.
Before — business page: a mostly-empty banner, the same six tags printed twice, two separate "Contact" boxes, and a giant blank column.
What changes
- Names appear once. When a business has no photo or logo, it gets a clean initials tile in a color pulled from the chamber's palette — it reads as a design choice, not missing data.
- No filler text, ever. "Hours vary" is gone. If we don't know the hours, we simply don't mention hours. "Open now · until 10pm" appears only when it's true.
- Real names lead. "1324077 Alberta Ltd. (Mackenzie Lefebvre)" now shows as Mackenzie Lefebvre with the numbered company in small print underneath.
- Every number is real. Member counts and category counts come straight from the live data (the counting bug is already fixed and verified). No made-up "100% locally vetted" lines.
- The trust story is visible. "Verified member · since 2011" on every business page — the one thing Google Maps can't offer.
- Call, Directions, Website are one tap from everywhere, and on phones they sit in a fixed bar at the bottom of the business page, right under your thumb.
- All categories are always shown — they're the main navigation, not chips with a "+4 more" hiding a third of them.
- Featured placement looks premium — big photo cards at the top. That's sellable chamber inventory.
- Search engines can read everything. Every card and category is a real link, business pages carry the structured data Google expects, and web addresses stay clean and word-based.
How it fills in over time
Today most Cold Lake listings have no photo or description. The AI enrichment work already in flight fills those in (descriptions, hours, photos, Google reviews) — and this design is built to look good at both ends: the initials-tile cards you see on the category page are the honest "today" state; the A&W page is the enriched end-state. Nothing waits on the content: the design ships, the data catches up, the pages get richer on their own.
Build sequence (after the current fix wave lands)
- 1 — Cards + landing: new card design, compact photo hero, full category grid, A-to-Z jump strip.
- 2 — Business page: new header, about/photos/reviews sections, single contact card, mobile action bar.
- 3 — Category pages: intro copy per category (search-engine landing pages), related categories.
- 4 — Search + polish: smarter search box, results page, speed pass.
Each step is its own small, tested release. The theme system means every chamber gets this in their own colors and fonts automatically.
Photography in these mocks: Unsplash, each image fetch-verified. Fonts: Fraunces + Inter. Demo theme: Cold Lake lake-teal. Built by the directory-vision pod, 2026-07-06.