User Interface Design, Application Build, and Marketing
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See Store Design and See Admin User Interface
E-commerce with Hosted Cart in PHP
This small local music store is one of the internet's biggest sellers of accompaniment and karaoke tracks. I rebuilt the front end design and code for search engine optimization, built a custom app in PHP to process orders submitted via email, and helped with Adwords marketing.
Front end design
While the original site had a somewhat unique navigation scheme that seemed to work well, it was only available from the homepage and was not laid out well. I moved all the elements of navigation into a three part menu on every page with an emphasis on search.
The layout adapts slightly to screen width. While we wanted a bit more horizontal room for additional content, the client's audience is generally older and has dated equipment with a high percentage of 800x600 screens. I made a simple script to change the page class based on window width, and adjusted the grid-based css to match.
While the placement of the add to cart button on the listings pages was good for allowing customers to quickly add items, it meant they often did not realize there are track pages with detailed information. I added css-driven popups on the list to show some more detail and prompt customers to click through.
The search function needed serious work. As a primary area for customers to find tracks among thousands of items, it was stuck on a simple keyword match. I built some basic logic to remove punctuation, try to look for key words, and assist and train the customer to use better searches.
Email-based Order Management Web App
My client uses Americart, a very outdated and inflexible cart and checkout system. We built an email parser to take all the email confirmations back into the client's database and set up a whole new inventory and shipping system.
