02Local tradesConcept project
MW Plumbing
A local trade, presented like a craft.
- Year
- 2026
- Typical timeline
- 3 weeks
- Sector
- Local trades
- Live site
- Visit the site (opens in a new tab)
- Work completed
- Art directionWeb designCopywritingWeb developmentConversion design
MW Plumbing does not exist, but the problem it was built around does. Most local trades sites look like a listing in a directory, and they are judged like one — on price, in seconds. This one is built for the Norwich homeowner who would rather pay for someone they trust.
The brief
A brief we set ourselves: an independent plumbing and heating firm serving Norwich and the villages around it, competing with national franchises on trust rather than on price.
01Challenge
The problem worth solving
When a boiler fails, people do not browse. They open three sites, look for a phone number and a reason to believe, and ring the first one that offers both. Most trades sites bury both under stock photography and a wall of services — and the ones that do surface a number look exactly like each other.
Objectives
- 01Make a small local firm read as established and certain
- 02Put a quote and a call within one tap of every visitor
- 03Keep the enquiry short enough to finish on a phone, mid-emergency
- 04Name the areas served, so the right neighbours know it is for them
02Strategy
The approach we took
We sold the trade the way a good tradesperson sells it in person: evidence first, then the ask. The hero leads with experience and offers two ways forward side by side — book a service or request a quote, or call directly — with the accreditations immediately beneath. Further down, the enquiry asks for four things only, WhatsApp sits beside the phone number for anyone who would rather message, and the coverage area names real neighbourhoods rather than “Norfolk and surrounding areas”.
03Design
How it looks, and why
Warm, quiet and deliberately unlike a trade site. A serif display face set large, a monospaced label for the practical details, an off-white page and a single photograph of copper pipework doing what the copy promises. Black is kept for the buttons and the enquiry section, so there is never any doubt about where to press.
Display
9664402416
Palette
- Black#111111
- Off-white#F9F8F6
- Charcoal#1A1A1A
- Grey#4B4B4B
Grid — 12 col / 8px
04Development
How it was built
A single, fast page. The hero photograph is its largest element and paints in 2.4 seconds on a throttled connection, with no layout shift at all. Calling and messaging are one tap from any phone, and the enquiry form is four fields long, with the service picked from a short list rather than typed out.
Key features
- 01Book a service, request a quote or call — side by side in the hero
- 02Experience in the headline, accreditations directly beneath
- 03A four-field enquiry form with the service chosen from a list
- 04WhatsApp beside the phone number, for anyone who would rather message
- 05Coverage named neighbourhood by neighbourhood: Eaton, Cringleford, Thorpe St Andrew
05Results
What was built
A firm that does not exist has no call volumes to report. What it has is the page itself: a quote or a call one tap from the hero, an enquiry short enough to finish in a hurry, and a first screen that looks made by people who care about their work. Every figure below can be checked on the live site.
Concept project — MW Plumbing is fictional, but its website is live, and the figures below are measured from it rather than modelled. Performance was recorded over a throttled connection (4 Mbps, 70 ms latency) with a 4× CPU slowdown. Check them on the live site (opens in a new tab)
- 4 Fields between a visitor and a quote
- 2 One-tap ways to reach the firm call · WhatsApp
- 2.4s Largest contentful paint throttled
- 0 Cumulative layout shift
A local trade, sold the way the best tradespeople sell themselves: calmly, with evidence, and with the number where you need it.
