Custom Applications
Every website is different and sometimes a pre-made solution won’t solve your problem. We create customized applications for clients with needs ranging from simple to complex. Here are a few examples of solutions we’ve created:
- A yearly community event needed an inexpensive and simple way to track volunteers by day, time and activity.
- A winery needed an order form that worked with their merchant account for online payments.
- A business wanted a drop-down contact form accessed from the header of each page.
- A non-profit wanted a secure place to keep documents needed by instructors.
- A life coach needed a secure login area so clients could access resources and reports prepared just for them.
- An instructor wanted to keep track of who had downloaded assignments.
- A non-profit needed a Google Map customized with scenic viewpoints, campgrounds and lodgings.
- A tourism booster needed a database to display rental properties, with special features for premium listings.
- A non-profit needed a complex donation form integrated with their merchant account and with the ability to export for the database for import into their accounting software.
Forms
If you spend any time online at all you have experience with forms. They are the ultimate way of collecting information or making it simple for visitors to ask you questions. Forms come in a multitude of types and styles and and we’ll help you create a form that will appeal to your customers. There are several things you need to consider about your form:
Form Data
What happens with the form data? Should it:
- be emailed to you, or perhaps to a team of people?
- be saved in a database for display on your site or for download as an Excel file?
- be used to register the user to an email list or an event?
- go to a payment gateway like PayPal to complete the purchase or payment of an item or service?
Validation
Before the form is submitted, the information should be validated. Certain fields may be required, others may need to be in a certain format (dates, case numbers), and email fields should conform to the myname@company.com format.
You may require other kinds of validation. Perhaps if one option is checked, then the user must select from a list of suboptions. Or one field may depend on another. If “call me” is selected the form should check that the phone number was provided.
Spam
With forms comes spam. We can’t eliminate all spam, but we can cut it back to manageable levels. There are different kinds of Captchas (an image with letters/numbers where you enter what you see) and also a few invisible solutions. All of our form handlers automatically check the form fields for common spam terms.
Have a current form that gets spammed? We can revamp the code to take care of that. Drop me a line for a quote.
Custom applications attract customers and keep them coming back
Custom Database Design
Databases applications create a way for you to collect information on your website and then use that information in some way. You could:
- Create a members database and map member locations like this.
- Collect job applicant information and resumes and automatically alert managers when new applicants are received.
- Display events in a calendar format: monthly, weekly or whatever format works for you
- Download collected information to Excel to use in your own office applications.
If you can image it, we can make it happen. Contact us today to find out more.
Membership Sites
Adding a members-only area to your website rewards customers for being your customer. Basic sites may just show previous orders or special resources or content. More advanced membership sites can have full social media-like functions including groups, chat, and a timeline.
We’ve worked with membership sites that:
- allowed customers to see the process of their car repairs,
- let customers access to special pricing for an eCommerce site,
- provides specialized classes with private information,
- let members update information that appeared on a Google Map and directory page.