Whowhere.online — a city portal for Ukrainians in Czechia

Create a useful everyday starting point for Ukrainians in Czechia: finding a doctor, school, service, event or a clear answer to a practical question. Plzeň was the first city, but the structure needed to support launches in further cities without rebuilding the product.

A separate task was to align two audiences: users need quick access to verified information in their own language, while local businesses need a clear profile, directory visibility and a path to enquiries.

I designed Whowhere.online as a city-based digital product with three connected layers: a directory of places and organisations, an events calendar and editorial articles. The city and people’s real needs are at the centre.

Plzeň has its own homepage with search, topic-based journeys and a map. The directory supports categories, attributes, service languages, list and map views. Events can be browsed by date and filters. Articles cover practical topics: documents, work, housing, health, transport, finance and family.

The portal runs on a fully custom WordPress theme. I built a data model using custom post types, taxonomies and ACF instead of an off-the-shelf directory plugin. Places, events, articles, jobs and property can develop separately while coming together on city and topic pages.

Search, faceted filters, city navigation, OpenStreetMap maps, moderation, user accounts and business submission workflows follow the product’s own logic. The technical layer includes a custom SEO system, canonical URLs, sitemap, Schema.org, llms.txt and a structure ready to expand to Prague, Brno and other cities.

Whowhere.online launched in public beta for Plzeň as a city platform. The main user journeys work on desktop and mobile: search, directory browsing, filters, map, events calendar, topic-based articles and business submissions.

The main outcome at this stage is a product and technical system ready for content, monetisation and expansion to further cities without rebuilding its foundation. Organic traffic, return visits and commercial conversion figures will be added after collecting 60–90 days of data following the official launch.

I use the same principle — sound local architecture first, then development guided by data — when building and promoting websites for businesses in Czechia. Contact me to discuss a project.