Behind the Build: The Our World Travel Logs Redesign
- Sep 25
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 20
When Catherine Riney of Our World Travel Logs reached out, she wasn’t simply asking for a website redesign. She needed a digital home, a space where her eco-friendly travel log booklets could sit alongside her eco-travel stories blog, inspiring readers with sustainable journeys while making it easy to purchase her logs with confidence.
The project launched in early 2024 with a full rebuild in the classic Wix Editor. The goal was to bring her mission to life online: a site that felt cohesive, engaging, and guided visitors smoothly from discovery to story to shop.
From Vision to Reality
The original site required a complete overhaul, an updated landing page, improved navigation, and enhanced SEO.
Homepage redesign: Highlights from key sections make it easy to explore sustainable travel tips, blog articles, and her signature eco-friendly travel logs.
Stronger storytelling: Clearer layouts and visuals helped explain the unique value of her booklets.
SEO foundation: Content structure and copy were optimized to improve visibility in eco-travel and sustainability searches.
Connected Through the Our World Travel Homepage
The homepage served as the hub, seamlessly introducing her logs, bookstore, and stories in a single, cohesive flow. Each section invited visitors to continue their journey, whether through reading, shopping, or a combination of both.
If this project were rebuilt today in Wix Studio, the integration could go even further. With advanced responsive controls, smoother animations, and dynamic layouts, the homepage could become a more interactive experience, blending storytelling and shopping into one seamless journey.
Showcasing the Travel Logs
Catherine’s eco-friendly travel logs were the heart of the brand. Instead of sending visitors straight to Etsy, I designed product pages that introduced the logs in context, highlighting their purpose, showing previews, and incorporating Etsy reviews for credibility.
I designed a product page that:
Introduced each log in context, showing how it could be used
Incorporated Etsy reviews for trust and credibility
Linked to Etsy for the final purchase only after the story was told
Only then did the flow link out to Etsy for purchase, ensuring readers engaged with her story first before leaving the site.
Expanding into a Bookstore
In addition to her own products, Catherine wanted to recommend and sell sustainable travel books. A simple third-party embed would have looked disconnected, so I built a custom-coded integration to maintain the brand's design consistency.
Key highlights:
Created a branded widget so each book looked like part of her site, not an add-on
Maintained a consistent visual style across logs, blog, and bookstore
Added a secondary income stream while supporting her eco-travel mission
Positioned Catherine as a trusted guide by curating recommended reads
Sharing Eco Travel Stories
The third pillar of the site was Catherine’s eco-travel stories blog. Here, she shared reflections, tips, and narratives about sustainable travel.
Key highlights:
Built intro sections at the top with short descriptions for each theme (Adventure, Sustainable, Country, Modes).
Anchored those categories to dedicated blog sections, helping visitors jump directly to content that interested them most.
Organized posts visually with image-driven cards, creating a magazine-style feel.
Added a contributor invitation and subscription form so Catherine could grow her community and invite new writers.
Balanced the blog content with her travel logs and bookstore links, ensuring readers naturally encountered her products while exploring stories.
This wasn’t just content marketing — it deepened the site’s purpose. Visitors could connect with Catherine’s voice, explore her ideas, and then naturally encounter her travel logs or recommended books along the way.
Takeaway
This project underscored the importance of designing for balance: Catherine’s stories and products worked best when they supported each other, rather than one overshadowing the other. By combining eco-storytelling, a curated bookstore, and her signature travel logs, Our World Travel Logs evolved into more than just a shop; it became a platform that carried Catherine’s sustainable mission forward.
A Note on the Final Build
After the redesign was completed, the client took over the site independently and added additional changes. As a result, the live version now looks different from my original design in the images. Even with adjustments made after the handoff, the groundwork for SEO, clear storytelling, and the integrated shop experience was preserved.
An Aside:
The Wix Editor vs. Wix Studio project: This website was redesigned using the older Wix Editor, which had limitations in design flexibility.
While it allowed for a polished redesign, the newer Wix Studio would have provided advanced options, such as animations, flexible layouts, and design capabilities more closely aligned with those of Figma. Migrating directly wasn’t possible without a full rebuild, but the contrast highlights how much more fluid, responsive, and customizable projects can be today in Wix Studio. Read another article I wrote about: How Wix Editor Website and Figma Design Met and Had a Baby: Wix Studio!
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