I am a freelance web developer, website designer and web consultant based near Edinburgh in Scotland.
I have worked in web development for more than 14 years. Explore my portfolio here:
Using a database for consistency
Large tourist-friendly website
Mobile-friendly entry forms
Display, payment & barcode scanning
Payment buttons, payments and secure transactions
Cover photo design & logo design
Redesign for mobile access and responsiveness
A CMS website with a mobile-friendly layout
Photography, website page design & lightbox gallery
A one-stop web-shop, I can produce quality websites, databases, apps and photography
The idea of web apps is to reduce effort and errors, save important data automatically, and make a complicated system easy to use - and set up.
So, for example, a user-friendly website form is used to gather information from the customer - eg for a gift voucher purchase - and then that information is saved in the database automatically by the system (no filing required!). Once the data is saved, it can be re-used - for example, the next time the customer makes a purchase it will save them having to re-type everything. Alternatively the saved data can be used to send the customer a confirmation or a reminder email.
The customer's purchase information can be used to automatically send them to a payment system such as Paypal or Worldpay, and once they've paid, send them back to your website. All without any intervention from you, the seller/merchant. So you can make money while you sleep!
For the website owner, most web apps have a management interface where you log in and add products, prices, dates etc to 'prime' the website, and view reports, eg orders by month. But the beauty is, once the information is there, it can be re-used in a display 'template' without you having to re-type the same details endlessly.
Generally, web apps are web forms or dynamic pages which link to a database and display information depending on what the customer asks for. Some examples are: a timetable by month, a staff list, product sales pages or a booking app. See more in my 'Portfolio' above.
The technical bit: I use scripting languages including Coldfusion/Railo/Lucee or ASP (VBscript) along with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript/jQuery. For existing website systems written in PHP or other web languages, I can modify or adapt the app to your current needs. I mostly use MySQL databases but also have experience with Microsoft Access and SQL Server. For payments, I can integrate a shopping/sales page with a payment system such as PayPal or WorldPay.
Good website content (text and images) is about making it easy for the user to find what they want quickly. I have many years' experience of writing good copy and optimising website structures to make them easy to navigate - it is this approach that improved a previous employer's website from 1* (worst) to 4* (best in the UK) in the space of 2 years.
Writing copy that is good for the user is also good for Google rankings. Nobody can guarantee (by ethical means) a specific google ranking for a specific keyword, but a well-structured, well-designed website with well-written text will go a long way towards pushing you up the ranks and will improve your website's Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
I am an experienced photographer with a good eye for what will work on a website. If you need custom photography, then it may be more cost-effective to get it done as part of your website design.
I also work with a local company who specialise in 360° panoramic photography which we can integrate into your site using mobile-friendly HTML5.
A Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress can be useful if you have a website where the content needs to be updated regularly, or if you want to add articles frequently, eg by running a blog.
Using your web browser (eg Chrome), a CMS allows you to update website pages, images or sections yourself using an online form which looks like a familiar word processor. So you don't have to learn any complicated web scripting!
If, however, your website is more of a 'brochure' and will not need updated often, a regular website which I can maintain for you as required will perhaps be a more cost-effective option.
Using a responsive, standards-based HTML5 and CSS3 page template along with appropriate JavaScript and jQuery to add functionality, I can design you a website that will not only impress your customers, it will also find you new customers.
More and more people are surfing the web from mobile devices - phones, phablets and tablets - and Google is now giving a ranking boost to mobile-friendly websites, so a responsive design that works well on all devices is a must!
With more than 50% of views to most websites now coming from mobile devices (phones, phablets and tablets), it's more important than ever that your website works well on all devices. A responsive website uses a well-designed template with images and sections that re-size and re-flow depending on the screen size you're using to view it.
Recent changes in Google's system mean that responsive websites which work equally well on mobiles, tablets and desktops have an advantage in Google's Search Engine results, ie they are search engine optimised (SEO).
Using a responsive template (like this one) I can build you a website that will make both your customers and Google happy.
I'm not currently taking on any new clients. Sorry.