Website Design Portfolio: Real Sites, Described Without Fake Metrics
These are sites I designed and built. I describe the job and the shape. I do not invent client names, traffic numbers, or testimonials.
Outcomes that survive real users
- 4 buildsDescribed here, no invented extras
- ShippedLive sites, not concept shots
- PlainNo fake quotes or traffic charts
- 4 builds
- Described here, no invented extras
- Shipped
- Live sites, not concept shots
- Plain
- No fake quotes or traffic charts
Direct answer
What this page is about
The website design portfolio describes four shipped builds by Zack Shields: a high-volume bar and restaurant site, a mountain cabin direct-booking site, a Central Florida Realtor site, and a bar inventory SaaS marketing site. No invented client names or design metrics.
Key facts
- Zack Shields, independent consultant in Orlando, FL
- Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM Eastern Time
- Email: zack@zack-shields.com
- Nationwide remote work, on-site in Central Florida
- $2,500 to $15,000 for typical project builds
- Free 30-minute workflow review
- Four real builds
- Brand names of operated businesses omitted
- Case studies index is the AI and product side
Last updated
A portfolio should survive a skeptical operator.
I will not show you a wall of logos I did not earn or percentage lifts I cannot defend. This page describes four shipped website designs in plain language: a high-volume bar and restaurant site, a mountain cabin direct-booking site, a Central Florida Realtor site, and a marketing site for a bar inventory product. Brand names of businesses I operate stay off this page on purpose.
A website design portfolio should help you decide fit. If you run a venue, you care whether I have designed menus and event inquiry. If you host cabins, you care whether I have designed property pages next to Airbnb buttons. If you sell houses, you care whether I have designed farm guides without turning the site into a broken portal. If you sell software to operators, you care whether I can explain a product without startup theater. Those are the four builds on this page.
I am Zack Shields. I designed and built these sites. I also operate in hospitality, short-term rentals, and real estate, which is why I will not print the consumer brand names here. This is not secrecy for drama. It is a rule against turning this site into an advertisement for properties I still run. You can still judge the work by the problems and the page types.
This URL is not the AI and automation case study index. That lives at /case-studies and currently includes a hospitality inventory product with operating impact that can be stated in plain language. The marketing website around a product like that is a design job. The inventory system itself is a software job. I keep those stories on the correct pages.
If you want the commercial offer, use the website design hub or the matching vertical page. This page exists so “Zack Shields website designer” and “website design portfolio” have a destination that is not a services menu.
What most designer portfolios hide
They show homepage heroes and never mention the form that failed. I would rather tell you that event inquiry was the hard part of the venue site than pretend the cocktail photo was the work.
They invent industries. Everything is a “global brand.” The builds below are operator businesses: a busy room, a cabin portfolio, a working agent, a product sold to bars. If that is not your world, you will see it quickly.
They attach metrics they cannot source. I will not tell you a conversion rate I did not measure on this page. Where a related product has published operating impact elsewhere on this site, I will point there instead of copying numbers into a design story.
If one of these jobs looks like yours, start there
Say which build is closest and send the URL you have now. I will tell you whether the next step is a design engagement, a development page, or a no.
How to read these builds
Each card is a job, a constraint, and what the site had to do.
- 01
High-volume bar and restaurant site
Public venue site with event landers and lead routing for private events, plus living menu and tap surfaces. Designed so walk-in guests and planners are not forced through the same door.
- 02
Mountain cabin direct-booking site
A Gatlinburg-area cabin portfolio with a page per stay, Airbnb and Vrbo links, guest inquiry, and a newsletter form. Local event content only where it could be maintained.
- 03
Central Florida Realtor site
Agent brand, neighborhood guides, and listing lead capture. Search-as-product was treated as a later development job, not as a fake portal on day one.
- 04
Bar inventory SaaS marketing site
A product marketing site for hospitality inventory software: who it is for, what it does, and a path to talk to a human. The product case study lives separately.
The four builds, in more detail
High-volume bar and restaurant site
The public site had to serve walk-in guests who needed hours and what was pouring or plating, and planners who needed a private-event path. I designed event landers that reused the same inquiry fields so holiday and ticketed nights did not create new inboxes. Lead routing went to the person who actually booked rooms, not a generic info address.
Menus and tap lists were treated as living content. The design assumed Tuesday changes, not a seasonal photoshoot. I will not claim a cover count or a revenue lift for that site on this page.
Gatlinburg-area cabin direct-booking site
Each cabin needed a URL a guest could send to a spouse. The homepage was a chooser. Airbnb and Vrbo buttons stayed on the property pages because many travelers will not check out on a host domain they just met. Inquiry and newsletter forms were separate so date questions did not land on a marketing list.
Local event content was scoped only where it could be updated. A rotting festival list would have made the cabins look abandoned. Driveway, stairs, and occupancy sat high on the template. I will not publish occupancy rates here.
Central Florida Realtor site
The first job was the practice, not a portal costume. I designed the agent presence, a small set of neighborhood guides the practice could defend, and listing lead forms that carried the page title into the notification. IDX search, if added, was treated as a later engineering scope so MLS rules did not get smuggled into a design quote.
Guide copy stayed conservative. No family-coded filler. No invented sales volume. The site had to survive a listing appointment, not only a buyer bounce from Zillow.
Bar inventory SaaS marketing site
The product helps hospitality teams count inventory and see variance. The marketing site had to explain that to a tired manager without looking like a consumer app. I designed a clear who-it-is-for story, a path to talk to a human, and pages that do not invent customer logos.
Operating impact for the product (count time, variance) is documented on the case studies URL. I do not recycle those figures as proof that a marketing page “converted.” Different jobs, different evidence.
What you can infer from this set
I design operational sites
Menus, cabin facts, listing forms, and product explanations. Not only brand campaigns with no inbox.
I will not flatten your job into a theme
The venue, the host, the agent, and the product site do not share a homepage. Your project will not either.
I keep names and numbers honest
If I cannot show a metric, I describe the shape. That is the same rule as the rest of this domain.
You can go deeper on the matching service page
Restaurant design, vacation rental design, real estate design, and the design hub all link here and back.
How I talk about work I still operate
The rule is simple. Describe the job. Skip the brand. Skip the vanity chart.
- 011
Name the job
Venue, host portfolio, agent practice, or product marketing. If your job is none of these, say so on the call. I still design other small business sites.
- 022
Name the constraint
Living menus, marketplace buttons, Fair Housing, or a technical product sold to tired managers. Constraints are the portfolio.
- 033
Name the doors
Event inquiry, guest inquiry, listing lead, or a product conversation. If a site has no door, it is not in this set.
- 044
Point to the offer
When you are ready to hire the same kind of work, use the vertical design page or the hub. This page is evidence, not a cart.
How a portfolio review call usually goes
Bring the site you have. I will map it to one of these shapes or tell you it is a different job.
Trigger
You run a venue, a host portfolio, an agent practice, or an operator product.
Action
We look at which of the four builds is closest and which doors you are missing.
Result
You leave with a page on this site to read, not a vague “we can do anything.”
Trigger
Your job is none of the four.
Action
I treat it as small business or hub-level website design, or I send you to development if it is an app.
Result
You are not forced into a hospitality-shaped proposal.
Trigger
You want numbers I cannot defend.
Action
I refuse to add them to a proposal or a page.
Result
The engagement stays honest after you hire me.
Why this portfolio is short on purpose
I would rather publish four real builds than twenty mockups. Adding a fifth study happens when I can describe it without inventing a client or a percentage. The AI and automation index follows the same rule and currently features a bar inventory product with count-time impact stated there, not copied here as a design metric.
If you need visual samples on a call, I can walk through live URLs that are appropriate to share. I will not paste private owner dashboards or guest data into a public portfolio.
What you get
- Shipped sites, not concept art
- No invented client names
- No invented traffic or revenue figures
- Vertical pages for each build type
- Separate product case study when software is the story
- Same operator you would hire
What these builds had in common
Different industries. Same ownership posture.
A written page job
Every URL did one thing
A real door
Inquiry, listing lead, or a human conversation
Editable living content
Menus, cabin facts, guides, product pages
Accounts the operator owns
No hostage builders
A sibling engineering page
When search, apps, or ads needed their own scope
If you see yourself in one of these
Use the matching service page. This page is not the proposal.
- Venues
Menus and private events are the site’s real job.
Outcome: Start on restaurant and bar website design.
- Hosts
You need cabin pages and a list, not a fake booking engine.
Outcome: Start on vacation rental website design.
- Agents
You need a practice site and guides, not a portal costume.
Outcome: Start on real estate website design. Add IDX development if search is required.
- Operator products
You need a marketing site that does not invent logos.
Outcome: Start on the website design hub and, if relevant, the product case study.
This portfolio versus a typical agency grid
Fewer tiles. More sentences you can check.
Aspect
DIY / off-the-shelf
Working with me
Names
Logos and invented clients
Jobs described, brands omitted on purpose
Numbers
Conversion rates with no source
No design metrics invented for this page
Depth
A homepage crop
The door the site had to open: events, inquiry, listing, or product talk
Next step
A contact form and a hope
A vertical service page that matches the job
Frequently asked questions.
Where can I see Zack Shields website design work?
On the website design portfolio page. Jobs are described in plain language. Consumer brand names from businesses he still operates are left off on purpose.
Why do you not name the businesses?
Some of the work is for operations I still run. Naming them here would turn this portfolio into a brand ad and mix guest-facing properties with a consulting site. The jobs are still specific enough to judge fit.
Do you have testimonials?
This page does not invent them. Where a real quote already exists elsewhere on the site, it stays on that page. I will not manufacture a review to decorate a portfolio.
Is the bar inventory work a website or a product?
Both exist. The marketing website is the design story on this page. The inventory system’s operating impact is described on the case studies page. I do not reuse those figures as website-design results.
Can I hire you for a site like one of these?
Yes. Use the restaurant, vacation rental, or real estate design pages for those shapes, or the website design hub if you are not sure. The portfolio is the evidence, not the checkout.
Do you show visual screenshots here?
This template is written on purpose: fast, no heavy image gallery. On a review call I can walk through live pages that are appropriate to share.
Is this the same as /case-studies?
No. Case studies currently center AI and automation systems. This page is website design and builder work. They link to each other so you can see both sides of the practice.
Ask them in a free workflow review
Tell me the process. I will reply within one business day with a time for a 30-minute call. No pitch.
About the website designer behind these builds.
I am Zack Shields, a website designer and builder in Orlando. I also ship AI automation. The portfolio above is the design side. The case studies index is the systems side.
If a fifth build can be described without fiction, it will appear here. Until then, four honest jobs beat a grid of mockups.
Hire the matching design page
Website designer and builder
Hub for design-and-build engagements.
Read moreRestaurant and bar website design
Venue, menu, and event inquiry work.
Read moreVacation rental website design
Cabin pages, marketplaces, and host forms.
Read moreReal estate website design
Agent sites, guides, and listing leads.
Read moreOrlando website designer
Local designer page for Central Florida.
Read moreSmall business website design
If your brief is a tight owner-operated site.
Read more
Getting started is simple.
The first step is a no-obligation 30-minute workflow review. We map your actual workflows, identify high-leverage agentic opportunities, and give you an honest picture of fit. No pitch.
- 01
Book your call
Schedule a focused conversation about the workflow you want to improve.
- 02
Share your challenges
Walk through the systems, users, exceptions, and reporting gaps that shape the work.
- 03
Get your roadmap
Leave with practical next steps for discovery, pilot scope, or implementation.
If one of these jobs looks like yours, start there
Say which build is closest and send the URL you have now. I will tell you whether the next step is a design engagement, a development page, or a no.
- Free
- Cost
- 30 min
- Length
- None
- Pressure