Website Launch – The Comfort & Mobility Shop
The website of The Comfort & Mobility Shop was launched in January 2009.
This website is powered by Joomla, an excellent Content Management System (CMS) that allows my client, who has no web design knowledge, to maintain, manage and update his website.
For anyone who wants to know more about Joomla, visit their site at www.joomla.org. I would whole heartily recommend using them as a CMS.
To see some screen shots of this website and get a brief description of the design process please visit my online web design portfolio page.
For a more detailed discussion of the design aspects and technical considerations please read below:
Layout & Structure.
My first priority on this projects was to find a suitable Content Management System (CMS). After much research I settled on Joomla. It ticked all the boxes and comes with an excellent reputation, and a well established support network.
Joomla’s open source nature also meant that I was able to utilise VirtueMart – a separate Joomla Component – for the shopping cart software. This reduces any integration and compatibility issues, and has the benefit that it works in a similar fashion to Joomla from the clients point-of-view.
Design.
The next stage was to adapt Joomla to look and feel like the existing shops, using the existing logo and branding. The web site also has to reflect the friendly, family feel of the business.
I used the ellipse from the logo to create a back-drop to the content of each page. This is a subtle way to create some extra branding and helps to make the content more visually interesting.
I’ve had to concede a few non-standard elements of code in the framework that Joomla uses in order to make it work on all the various platforms out there. It’s one of those pragmatic decision that crop up in the real world. However I can assure you that the basic XHTML and CSS are standards compliant.
Content.
The next step in the development process was to start adding the content itself. This fits into three broad categories for this website.
Firstly there is the general information about the business – “About Us”, “Contact Us”, etc – Uncategorised information pages.
Secondly there are products that the client does not wish to be sold online; those larger, more expensive and more complex items. These items need detailed information and large photographs to encourage and entice people to call, from which point the sale can be made. These pages are categorised to allow easy browsing and updating.
Thirdly there are products that are to be sold online which need to be added to the Shopping Cart component:
Adding the product information into VirtueMart shopping cart is very similar to Joomla, which in itself closely follows word processing software in terms of style and function. Products can be categorised, put on special offer, include photographs which can be viewed as a larger image, and much more.
Category pages include small photographs and a brief description followed by a link to the more detailed pages, or an “Add to Cart” button.
The VirtueMart shopping cart software also handles the order taking. It calculates the shipping costs, takes customer details, creates and account for them and then hands them over to the payment gateway when the all important credit card details need to be processed. This allows you to track orders and keep a record of customers so you can reward loyalty. It also means that once an account has been created they only have to log in next time.
If you would like to have a look at this website you can find them at www.comfortandmobilityshop.co.uk.
Please let me know if you have any thoughts on this site.
DA
