Fun and Games for Pure360

Over the last month or so I’ve been working on a couple of fun elements for email solutions provider Pure360′s new global website – www.pure360.com.

The first is the “Choose a Plan” tool. Pure360′s solutions come in a number of plans, so the tool asks a number of questions in order to predict what plan might suit them best. This not only showcases some of Pure360′s advances features, but is also helpful as a pre-sales and lead generation tool.

To make things more fun we’ve made the tool look like a fruit machine, right down to the spinning wheels. We thought about adding sound, but we were a little concerned it might cause some red faces. In terms of technology, it’s all been done in JavaScript using the ever-useful JQuery framework, so it even runs on iOS devices such as iPhones and iPads.

The tool’s been really well received, and has already resulted in new customers for Pure360. You can see it for yourself at http://www.pure360.com/email-marketing-plans.

The second is a “Spot the Difference” game, where winners attempt to spot five differences to be entered into a prize draw to win Olympic tickets.

It’s a pretty simple game, again, made using JavaScript for the benefit of those without Flash. Sure, there are ways to cheat, but the main purpose is lead-generation, so we didn’t need to make it ultra-secure. Take a look at http://www.pure360.com/spot-the-difference.

Polishing Promat’s Websites

As you’ll see if you look down the list of posts, I’ve worked with Promat for a number of years now, first working on the original Promat DURASTEEL website, building a website for Promat DURAWALL, then re-developing the Promat Spray, Promat UK and Promat Ireland websites.

Over the past few years we’ve developed a set of standard templates that we’ve used across those sites in order to build brand identity and give users a consistent experience. The templates are based on the website of their parent company, Promat International, which we’ve gently tweaked to improve user experience. (Promat is somewhat unusual in that although there are strict guidelines for printed materials, there are no group standards for the web.)

After using the same templates for a number of years, we felt that they were starting to get a little ‘tired’ and we wanted to refresh the website’s design, making it easier to view and navigate. We felt that we couldn’t deviate too far from the Promat International templates, so we spent some time looking for inspiration at the other Promat’s websites and also Promat’s flagship Fire Protection Handbook publication.

Amongst other changes we:

  • ‘De-cluttered’ the sites, removing excess text and menu items.
  • Standardised the appearance of ‘lists’ such as products, applications, news, case studies and search results, making them easier to browse.
  • Added new features, such as a search box on each page, links to Social Media content, and on the UK homepage, links to individual applications and a showcase for case studies.
  • Made lots of other minor changes to text styles, making pages clearer and formatting more consistent.

We’ve gradually been applying the changes and still have a number still to do, but we’re really happy with the results so far, as are the clients, and judging by the visitor numbers, so are the customers.

I’ve Updated the Website

As it’s nearly two years since I started the company, I decided that I should invest some time in updating the company website.What you’re looking at is the new improved version.

The major change was to switch to the WordPress content management system. I’ve used it on a number of projects recently, and I love the simplicity and the flexibility that it brings. There are also lots of free plugins, including the brilliant wpTouch, which is a lovely way to create a mobile-friendly version of the site.

I’ve also taken the opportunity to update the content of the site, including adding new content to the portfolio section such as the Brighton Digital Media Festival website. WordPress makes it much easier to add new content, so I’ll be trying to keep the site up to date.

Website Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Once again, I’d love to tell you who this project was for, and show you some screen shots, but the client would prefer that both they, and their website, remain out of the public eye.

What I can tell you is that the client was a major field sales agency, who promote the products of a number of global blue-chip brands to resellers and systems integrators.

One of the things that they do on a fairly regular basis is offer heavily discounted hardware to their contacts, which they have to hold onto for a set period of time, the idea being that they’ll get familiar with the product, and hopefully recommend it and order full-price units.

These promotions can be surprisingly hard to manage and keep track of, often requiring multiple levels of approval within the agency and the client. However, CRM systems are ideally an ideal solution to this kind of problem, and when we came into the picture, the client was in the process of setting up a Microsoft Dynamics solution hosted on Windows Azure to deal with the first of a series of promotions for a blue-chip IT hardware client.

Although the client had experience of building and hosting simple websites, they didn’t have experience with in-depth ASP.NET development, which is where we came in, although they had identified Microsoft’s Portal Development Toolkit as a likely solution.

Our first job was first to build a demo website based on the Portal Development Toolkit samples, and demonstrate that it could read and write data from their development system, without causing any problems. To our immense satisfaction (and the client’s), we were able to get this working within a few hours, though it was definitely a steep learning curve!

Armed with our proof-of-concept, the second task was to build the website for the first promotion. This was essentially a two-stage process (with some supporting pages), requiring visitors to validate themselves, then submit their request. The users were validated against records held in the CRM, then details of their request were logged, which enabled creating a number of records in the CRM, as well as sending an email for logging/auditing purposes.

Finally, once the solution was fully tested, we migrated it onto the client’s live production system, where it’s run flawlessly since. The deadline was extremely short, given the potential complexity of the task, dependencies on the client to do additional work at their end, but we got the solution running on-time, and it seems to be running very well so far. The client, and their client seem to be delighted, and the next promotion is currently being planned.

 

Flash based SCORM e-Learning

I would love to tell you who this project was for, and show you screenshots, but I’d have to kill you, probably. I had to sign not just one NDA, but five before I could start work on it, including that I couldn’t work on it in a public place. So it’s pretty hush hush.

What I can (probably) say, is that it was for a global consumer electronics manufacturer that you have definitely heard of. The project was a piece of e-learning content designed to educate retail staff around the world on how to sell the product.

The solution comprised 20+ screens of Flash-based content, including video, a soundtrack and a quiz, and was designed to meet the SCORM standard for e-learning so that it could be uploaded into the client’s in-house e-learning tools. It was based on a SDK supplied by the client and was authored in Flash, with content separated into XML files to allow localisation of content.

The design and layout of the slides was looked after by the ever-capable Oli Horsman at Olice. I added support for reading in content from the external XML files, the quiz and a customised player for the overall application. Once we had everything working to the client’s satisfaction, I packaged up the content and tested it, to make sure that it would work within the client’s e-learning tools.

I’m pleased to say that not only was the client delighted with the slides, but their technical teams were very happy with our implementation. The package passed testing first time, and went into production in time to support the product’s launch.

I just wish that I could show it to you, it looks great!

Brighton Digital Media Festival Website

I’m delighted to announce that our latest website for Pure360 and the Brighton Digital Media Festival has just gone live at http://www.brightondigitalmarketing.com/. The website includes details of the inaugural festival, to be held on 8th September 2011, and includes details of venues, speakers, sponsors, and of course, the essential after-party.

The site was a based on designs and content supplied by Pure360, with me producing the page templates and setting-up the site within Pure360′s MySource Matrix CMS. It was built to a tight deadline and budget, you can read more details on the portfolio page for the Brighton Digital Media Festival website.

Pick your flavour with Pure360

As part of Pure360‘s campaign for Internet World 2011 they decided to run a competition where you could design your own ice cream flavour, with the most interesting entry being rewarded with 4 litres of the stuff.

You can see the entry web page at http://www.pure360emailmarketing.co.uk/pickyourflavour. It’s a lovely bit of Flash (with a straight HTML alternative for iPhone/iPad users), designed in-house by Pure360, animated by the super-talented Oli at Olice Productions, with the final assembly and email form done by yours truly.

The competition has been well received, with a ton of entries, some of which even Heston Blumenthal might think a bit weird. I’m looking forward to seeing who the winner is, then popping along to Pure360′s stand for some free ice cream!

pick your flavour with Pure360

New Website for Promat Ireland

We’ve recently completed a new website for Promat Ireland, a leading provider of passive fire protection and high temperature insulation products.

The brief was to refresh the website, making the content and appearance consistent with Promat’s other English-language websites, such as the UK, DURASTEEL, DURAWALL and spray products websites that we’ve previously developed. We also took the opportunity to improve the search-engine friendliness of the site and the accessibility to partially sighted users.

The website was also migrated onto the web hosting platform and content management solution we’d previously built for Promat UK, bringing with it economies of scale and a single user interface for updating content. In fact, economies of scale meant that there was room in the budget for a new case studies module, enabling Promat to present their existing case studies in a more user-friendly manner.

The final part of the project included training and supporting Promat Ireland’s staff so that they could use the CMS effectively, along with refresher training for some of the UK team. Most of the delegates had only basic experience in producing web content, so we not only taught them to use the CMS, but gave them a solid grounding in web essentials, including some basic image editing and optimising website content for readability and search-engine indexing.