User Profiles

There are two types of user: the producers who grow and sell local produce and the consumers who buy and use it. Each user, when they register, gets their own profile page. On this page users can provide information about themselves or their company, add a profile picture and display all the content that they have uploaded. When some one uploads an article, recipe or community project, that content has links to their profile, increasing their exposure and presence on the site.

Producers get the added benefit of advertising their business online in a community full of users with similar interests, users who are looking for their local growers. Producers add their contact details, which in turns places them on the interactive producer map, showing where they are located in a visual and interactive way with links back to their profile.

Articles

Producers and consumers can submit articles that contribute to the site's content. They allow users to share their wealth of knowledge with one another or search for articles that they are interested in. Articles include how-to guides, topical matter and local produce. Each article increases the users exposure by having links back to their profile page.

Recipes

Recipes help get the best out of local produce by providing a variety of different way to use them. Users can upload their own recipes to the site, which includes listing the ingredients, writing the step-by-step method and adding an image to entice others to try it.

Community Projects

What better way to get involved in the local area then through community projects. Users can create projects that they would like others help with and be part of, or join ones that they are interested in. These projects can really help to create strong community bonds; by users working together they can make new friends, find new interests and help to improve the area that they live in. The types of projects that users can get involved with include volunteering, and sharing produce. Not only can users create projects, they can also list events, which can include shows and regular farmers markets. All of the community projects appear on an interactive map.

Ratings

To give a quick overview of what people think of the user generated content and producers, they can post a rating out of 10, which calculates and assigns an average score. This helps to promote and inform users of high quality content and producers.

Comments and Reviews

Comments and reviews allow users to share their opinions and ideas on any of the content user generated content in the site. Comments allow registered users to share their opinions on articles, provide alternative takes on recipes and ask questions to do with community projects. Users can provide reviews of the local producers that they buy from, allowing others to find out valuable, detailed information on what kind of service and quality that they have to offer.

Search Facilities

To find local producers, articles, recipes and community projects, users can use the search facility for each of the sections with options to refine their search. Although users can browse the sub-categories and maps (where available) for each section, if they are looking for specific content then they can simply search the site for keywords.

News and Newsletters

It is important to let users know of the latest happenings at I Grow Local and the local produce community, so there is a news page that users can view, with the latest story appearing on the home page, and also a subscription service is available for users to sign up to for the e-newsletter.

Help Pages

To help make the user experience as easy as possible, frequently asked questions and a user guide are available to refer to, so if someone gets stuck they can refer to these to find a solution.