web design

Pilot has a number of web design partners. This gives our clients the flexibility to choose a web designer based on their portfolio of work, and budget (as this can vary a great deal).

While the Pilot team are not web desginers we do keep up with all the latest design techniques using HTML5, Javascript and CSS3. This ensures our websites are animated (without using Flash), and structurally conform to SEO best practice - so your website looks good, but will also rank well on search engines.

Pilot works with some of the best web designers in town. Contact us for an introduction.
 

web development

The terms web designer and web developer are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. Web design involves look and feel, as well as content creation.

Pilot is a web developer. A website is made up of many layers. Pilot's role is not to execute the aesthetic design layer, but the overall website development. This includes the functionality, usability, development, population, testing, and training.
 

website conceptual development

Pilot specialises in taking new business ideas and taking them online. This requires taking time to understand your business objectives and asking the right questions.

Together we work out on paper how the business will function in an online environment - for example with a new e-commerce business:

• where is the master inventory managed?
• do you have a retail presence? If so, how do you integrate inventory between shop and wharehouse?
• how will the stock codes work?
• how will shipping costs work? Do you want to integrate with a world wide shipper (like Fedex or UPS), or do you want to calculate shipping based on your own formula?

We bring a catalogue of past client examples and industry best practice to the table. Together we flesh out the mechanics and prepare a site map, data schematic, and finally a website functionality blueprint. These can go through many revisions before any code is written.

Using the functionality blueprint we brief the web designer to produce a selection of page templates. With the blueprint and the design templates you have a very good idea of what the site will look like and how it will function. With your approval we go ahead and build the site quickly and efficiently.

You can then use the functionality blueprint as part of the user acceptance test (UAT) before the site is launched.

If you have a new business you want to take online come and talk to Pilot.

a basic sitemap

functionality blueprint for the product detail page

CMS made simple

If you want to keep your website current and relevant, you must have a way to update it. A content management system (or CMS) is a database driven interface which will allow you to do this yourself.

From a CMS you can update your website content, you can also capture data to it from the website -  for example: enquiries, event sign ups, shopping cart purchases, and more.

By using a CMS to its full potential, you can put your website at the centre of your customer communications.

the mechanics

The screen grab below shows you an example of a product page on a website. The page shows a title, description, size, code, price, picture, etc.

The screen grab below shows you an example of the CMS used to build the site above. You can see the text content, and a few other fields used to indicate where the page fits on the site, and the display features of the page.

You can immediately see that it is not complicated. The CMS is customized to your particular needs and it is very easy to use. We do not over deliver a mass of features you will not need, bundled with a mass of legacy code - which is what you get with an off-the-shelf CMS like Drupal, Joomla or WordPress. We talk to you about what you want to achieve, and let you do it.

We also provide you with training, and an easy-to-read user manual.

the basics

Most websites need a combination of the following:

• homepage with links to key features
• basic background information about the company with information about the key personnel
• overview of products & services - including pictures, video, downloadable PDF's, etc.
• list of news releases, or newsletters
• list of upcoming events
• list of case studies or testimonials
• list of positions available
• contact details

These are all straight forward to do with our CMS. Very quickly you will be able to create, or update pages with this kind of content.

more advanced features

More advanced sites will include:

• link to shopping cart, and payment gateway
• multi-lingual content (and navigation)
• registration pages for newsletter, event sign-ups, enquiries, etc. - these can be linked to a contacts database
• online surveys, or questionnaires

All this is very easy to incorporate into your website, you just have to ask and we will include the modules required.

Basically our CMS can be configured to do pretty much anything, if you've seen some other website with something you want we can build it, but most sites need only the basics.

For more information about website development contact us at Pilot.