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Background
Perched Pelican offers a portable hammock chair mounting system that is quick to use and environmentally friendly. The Pelican (an acronym for Portable Easy Light Innovative Comfortable American-made Natural) Perch is held up from a tree or pole strong enough to withstand a human's weight by a specific knot that can be taken down and re-tied anywhere desired. Their website offers multiple different perches with different weight-holding capabilities for different purposes.
Perched Pelican needed a fully functional website crafted from the ground up that would allow them to display their product as well as provide customers with the ability to order and ship the product to their desired location. SYDCON immediately began custom programming their website, tailoring our work specifically to the client's unique outlined goals.
Objectives Perched Pelican wanted to share their original design concept to enable others the ability to enjoy their hammocks wherever they wanted. SYDCON appreciated the trust involved in Perched Pelican's decision to choose us for the development of the website that would represent their business in total. The following objectives were to be accomplished by project's end:
- Provide a unique visual design representative of the business owner and their product
- Program that design to allow for easy information gathering and product purchasing
- Develop a database to hold a catalogue of the different perches available for purchase along with description and weight limit
- Allow for administrative capability over backend content such as viewing orders and transactions and adding/editing product via a custom-programmed Content Management System (CMS)
- Develop a custom shopping cart to allow the different Pelican Perches to be chosen from and purchased
- Gather the contact information for Perched Pelican and display it on the website
Methodology
When building a website from the ground up, SYDCON uses PHP scripting languages because it spans multiple platforms with its wide range of use. We use PHP in most of our development projects, so our programmers have delved into PHP in its entirety and are able to use it effectively. Our design team is also able to craft a unique website because of their creative talents and open communication with clients throughout the design process where they run multiple blueprints past the client and choose whichever is liked best.
Based on what we gathered from our consulting meetings prior to the development tasks, we created a proposal specifically for Perched Pelican and outlined its contents in a meeting. The proposal was agreed to and signed, after which we immediately began the development of Perched Pelican's website.
A designer and two expert programmers composed this project's development team and adhered to the following steps in SYDCON's design and development methodology:
- Kept Perched Pelican's goals for their website in mind during the project
- Created multiple visual blueprints for the client and continued work on the blueprint preferred by the client
- Began the design concepts according to the chosen blueprint
- Site upkeep and additions made possible through the development of a Content Management System
- Created a database where pictures of the numerous perches and their information were stored
- Developed the visual template into a working website complete with all desired database content
- Programmed E-Commerce interface to Paypal Pro
- Tested the finished website product with Perched Pelican
Technical Approach
User interaction with the website and its respective content was made possible through the use of PHP, CSS, HTML, and jQuery scripting languages. Because we prefer to use PHP in all developmental situations, our programmers have developed an acute expertise pertaining to PHP. A MySQL backend drives the content of the website while giving the site administrator total control over any additions or edits they deem necessary. We interfaced our custom-developed shopping cart with the Paypal Pro API that approves or declines customer transactions.
Results
Perched Pelican is now a live online business.
- Perched Pelican enjoys the success of their website with each purchase made online
- Videos have been added to the website by the site administrator that aid in setup and takedown. Additional product has been added as well
- The website has made the vision of the business owner an actuality by providing the business with a hub for customers to order the Pelican Perch
We have continued to work with Perched Pelican and their website as needed.
The success of our work with Perched Pelican can be attributed to:
- The ability of Perched Pelican to articulate specifically what is was that was needed regarding their specific goals for the project
- The time spent by Perched Pelican to remain an active part of the process during site construction
- The strength of the development methodology and the ability of those employed at SYDCON