Life is Good: Initial Design
Launching early 2012, this site will be the online arm of the Life is Good shop just opened in Morningside, Edinburgh.
As well as being an e-commerce site it will also be the hub for the many social events that are being held at the shop, and will make the most of social media and blogging.
More details soon!
Tilly & Rose
Based in Argyll, Tilly & Rose sell handcrafted gifts from independent artisans around the UK. They wanted a fun and approachable - but solid and professional - web site, geared towards selling products, making the most of the product photographs.
I built the site using Wordpress and the Shopp e-commerce solution, which gives the client full control over stock, orders, customer management, delivery and special offers. The site also features a customer login system and gift-wrapping options for customers, and a blog.
Pizza Fonte
Pizza Fonte is a new company, on a mission to bring authentic Italian pizza to Scotland. Needless to say, I highly approve of this venture, so it was a pleasure to work on this web site and online ordering system. I designed and built the web site, provided Realex e-commerce integration, and built a secure order management system with a real-time orders interface.
As with all of the sites I build, this one has customized content management, search engine optimization, and design standards-compliance.
Chop Chop Chinese Restaurants
It was a treat to work with the owners of my favourite restaurant in Edinburgh, the award-winning Chop Chop, which has been going from strength-to-strength over the past few years, not hindered by their appearance on Gordon Ramsay's F-word.
The redesign, launched in January 2011, is focussed on bringing the style up-to-date without compromising the restaurant's no-nonsense reputation.
The new site also makes it much easier for people to find what they're looking for, and consistency is ensured throughout with custom-built content management built with the Django Web Development Framework. Integral to the whole thing is a custom-made secure management system that allows owners and staff to manage loyalty members and points, and maintain reliable statistics.
Critique of Pure Reason
Visit critique-of-pure-reason.com
This was part of my project to develop my own blogging engine with the Django web framework. My intention is to constantly refine and build on this software until I have a system I can use for a wide variety of web sites.
Django is one of the best ways of developing highly secure, maintainable and efficient web applications. It's a step forward for me, but I will probably continue to use Wordpress and similar technologies for certain projects.
As for the subject matter of this site, I'm using it as a diary for one of my other interests, philosophy.
Capital Window Cleaners
Visit www.capitalwindowcleaners.com
Capital Window Cleaners, a great wee company who use the Reach-and-Wash pole system, wanted a quality web presence to help them in their quest for a paperless business.
As the site did not require a blog I decided to use a very lightweight and super-user-friendly content management system called GetSimple.
Inventive Management
Visit inventivemanagement.co.uk
I also run Inventive Management with my partner, blogger and queen of social media marketing Laura McGregor. I designed and built the web site, which launched in April 2010, using Wordpress as a blogging platform and content management system.
Logic Blog
This was my first attempt at developing a basic blog system with the Django web application framework, a project which I'm taking further with critique-of-pure-reason.com (see above).
This particular site is mainly for my own use. I'm using it as a fun place to complete logic exercises that I'm working through as part of my studies in philosophy.
Clementine Home & Gifts
Visit clementinehomeandgifts.co.uk
The owner of this Edinburgh shop approached me to completely redevelop her old rudimentary web site, with an emphasis on quality, to fit with the style and product range of the shop itself. I drew much of the inspiration for the design from visiting the shop, and from the owner's boundless enthusiasm about her business and its future in online sales.
The site features a custom Wordpress theme, a blog and a fully integrated shop with inventory management system. More than simply an online shop or a brochure site, it's integral to the design of the site that it will be kept fresh, with blogging, features and news, backed up with email newsletters.
The Canadian College of Advanced Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy
Design Concept
The new CCAHH will be launching in 2010 and I'm currently in the early stages of design, testing several different ideas. I'm taking a new approach with these, incorporating my photography from a 2008 trip to Vancouver Island, where the College is based.
The College itself has grown from Invision Your Life, whose web site I built late 2008, and I've developed an excellent working relationship with the client, hypnotherapist Jeannie Spencer.
The final site will feature content management, and a second phase scheduled for later in the year will feature a private section for students to download homework and supporting materials, and a discussion forum.
Musselburgh Old Course Golf Club
This site, for the "Club at The World's Oldest Golf Course," went live in March 2010 and takes the content from their old site and presents it in a modern, clean, easy-to-use design. The site was built with MODx CMS and this allows full content management, which I customized to fit the requirements. Customizations included an image gallery for every page, a news section (effectively a mini-blog), and Google Calendar integration for clubhouse, competition and training events.
Using MODx with "friendly URLs" helped in satisfying one of the club's big requirements in their effort to market to golfers worldwide, which was for good search engine optimization (SEO).
The Scottish Golf Heritage Festival
Launched in early 2010, this was a really interesting project for 1672 Golf Management Solutions, promoting their golf festival - taking place in July 2010 - to golfers worldwide. The two crucial parts of the site are the shop, selling merchandise from the MOCGC; and the event sign-up process. Building the sign-up process involved the creation of a multi-stage form for the registration of teams competing in the competition, and the optional booking of hotels and transfers.
To meet this quite complex requirement I created a clear step-by-step form, culminating in an integrated payment process implemented with FoxyCart. This is complemented in the customized MODx backend with automatic inventory updates and product management.
Pinnacle Telecom Group PLC
Visit pinnacletelecomgroup.co.uk
Launched in January 2010, this information-centred site is aimed at potential investors in the Pinnacle Telecom Group. Essential components were the integration of live share price data from the London Stock Exchange, scheduled publishing of regulatory news announcements, and the publication of company reports. Full customized content management is provided with MODx CMS.
The guiding design principles revolved around simplicity, clarity, openness and consistency.
Sunny Side Apartment
Visit sunny-side-apartment.com
When the owner of this holiday apartment in Side, Turkey, approached me, I knew that photographs had to be essential. Photographs are displayed in sliding galleries in various parts of the site, showing the surrounding area as well as the interior of the apartment.
But perhaps the star feature is the booking calendar, which allows people to view availability, select dates and send enquiries, all backed up with a more feature-rich calendar in the private availability management system, which I designed and built myself using the jQuery Javascript library, having found that there was no comparable existing service.
Invision Your Life
I originally built this web site and administration system to advertise, promote and manage a series of seminars that hypnotherapist Jeannie Spencer held in early 2009. Features included a registration form, PayPal integration and an online pre-seminar questionnaire.
Since the success of these seminars Jeannie has gone on to sell CDs, run birthing classes, and most recently hold monthly workshops. Jeannie's ambitions are boundless, so to cope with the demands of her developing and growing business we have decided to upgrade the site to include full content management, due to go live in summer 2010.