Shout Australia: hospitality website design for a guest experience platform

Shout Australia is the Australian edition of the guest experience platform for restaurants, hotels and nightlife, run from Sydney. Same eleven templates and the same design system as the US site, but Australian through and through: Sydney bylines and Surry Hills addresses, prices in AUD with GST, an Australian Diner Report, Spam Act 2003 and Privacy Act 1988 compliance, and a sun-bleached palette in place of the US black and white.

Project facts

• Client: Shout Pty Ltd (fictional)
• Sector: Hospitality technology (restaurants, hotels, nightlife)
• Markets: Australia, launched from Sydney
• Services: Market localisation · Copywriting · Brand adaptation · Hospitality SaaS website design · Accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA) · SEO foundations
• Templates: 11 page templates shared with every Shout edition
• Stack: Hand-built HTML, CSS and vanilla JavaScript; one strings file and one theme file per market

The brief

An Australian edition, not the US site with warmer weather

Australia shares English with the US edition but not its vocabulary, its tax line or its legal frame. The localisation swaps personalization for personalisation, quotes every consumer price in AUD including GST, and rebuilds the proof: a Sydney restaurant group, a 10,000-diner Australian survey and a Series C announced from Sydney. The southern-hemisphere calendar and the footer's acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians finish the job.

Designing for Australia

What actually changed between the US and this edition

• Story - US edition: US market launch, 27 markets · Australia: Australian launch from Sydney; 9,000+ venues across Australia
• Proof - US edition: US restaurant group testimonial · Australia: Danielle Okafor, Marlowe & Pine Group, Sydney; The Alder Hotels, Sydney
• Research - US edition: US dining trends report · Australia: The 2026 Australian Diner Report: 10,000 diners across all states and territories
• Prices - US edition: $240 deposit · Australia: $240 AUD (incl. GST); $30M and $312K AUD revenue figures
• Press - US edition: US funding announcement · Australia: Series C of $85 million AUD, announced from Sydney, 6 Oct 2026
• Legal - US edition: US privacy law · Australia: Privacy Act 1988 (Australian Privacy Principles), Spam Act 2003, GST, OAIC
• Entity - US edition: US company · Australia: Shout Pty Ltd, Level 4, 77 Chalmers Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
• Look - US edition: Black and white with vermilion · Australia: Sun-bleached paper, sage and amber; General Sans + DM Sans, 18px and 28px radii

Brand adaptation

The same Shout, with a local accent

The Australian edition trades the US black-and-white severity for a high-key, outdoorsy system: warm paper (#FBFAF6) as the page, deep green-black ink, sage panels and a single amber accent for actions. General Sans sets the headlines and DM Sans the body, both softer than the US pairing, and larger corner radii (18px, 28px) open the layout up. The vermilion accent becomes amber, with a darker amber for text and links so contrast holds.

Homepage and key journeys

The homepage opens on an inviting café interior, then the headline rises line by line over frosted-glass host-stand cards, now reading Deposit received · $240 AUD (incl. GST). The distinctive Australian flow is the proof band: Trusted by 9,000+ venues across Australia leads into the Sydney testimonial and the 2026 Australian Diner Report, whose chapters fill as you scroll.

Compliance, accessibility and trust

• Terms of Service under Shout Pty Ltd, with fees in Australian dollars, GST excluded, and compliance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Australian Privacy Principles) and the Spam Act 2003.
• Privacy policy with the OAIC complaint route and opt-in consent for marketing email and SMS.
• Footer: © 2026 Shout Pty Ltd, a fictional brand, Surry Hills address and an acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians.
• Passes automated WCAG 2.2 AA checks on every page at 360, 390, 768 and 1440 px: no contrast failures, no unreachable controls, no horizontal scrolling.
• A language switcher built from hreflang sits in the header on desktop and in the footer on phones.

One system, twelve markets

Every visible string lives in one file per market, and every colour and typeface in one theme file. This edition needed no new templates or components: a strings file, a theme, regional photography and local legal content made it a different brand experience. For a hospitality-tech company with international plans, a new market becomes a content project rather than a rebuild.

Deliverables

• Market profile: language, formats, legal and seasonality
• Full localised copy across 11 templates, header, footer and forms
• Brand adaptation: palette, type pairing and logo descriptor
• 22 regional photographs (Pexels, credited in credits.json)
• Local legal content
• Accessibility pass (WCAG 2.2 AA, automated) and QA at four screen widths
• Portfolio media: stills, full-page captures, scroll video, OG image, brand board