COVERPLAY, the first slip cover designed for play yards, came to JTCG with an amazing product and a Web site that really didn’t tell the story. Furthermore, it wasn’t very user friendly and certainly didn’t resonate with their target market…moms. At first, the client requested just a face lift their current Web design. After close review and some market research, JTCG requested to do a full re-brand in order to make the most of the new Web site and marketing strategy.

The first site was very cluttered and flooded with a blue spotted background that took focus off the actual product. As well, there was no company logo and no clear message as to what the product was and its benefits. JTCG tackled the project by starting with the COVERPLAY logo design. It seemed clear that the logo could be more fun, colorful, and friendly. Also, we wanted something that would really catch a potential customers eye when walking down the aisle at target, kmart, or sears, where the item is currently being sold. JTCG designed a logo with a soft look and feel, a pastel color palette, and a visual of a baby peeking his or her head over the top of the letters, much like a child would do in a play yard.

For the site, JTCG wanted to keep the overall look very clean… for the same reason that COVERPLAY makes the slip cover product… to keep a baby clean and germ free. We used flash sparingly, but always as a form of interactive function. For example, the virtual room was created using flash to enable potential customers to see how the product would look in their very own room. We enabled the user to choose patterns while changing the color of their wall and floor or even to upload a photo of their room and place the play yard with slipcover inside it. Also, we use nomenclature that is more friendly to the market. For example, we changed “Testimonials” to “Mommy Reviews” and rather than showing the testimonial, we show the child photo that the parents sent in associated with each review.

We are very pleased with the outcome of the site and now all we have to do is finish the instruction video. I’ll post here again when we get it done. Check out the site at http://www.coverplayard.com.

Jacob Tyler has designed and re-designed Web sites for over 9 years now. Most often, we are tasked to re-brand a company and create a new Web site and corporate identity. At this point, I would say we have done this for well over 50 companies and unfortunately we have never saved the original version of the logo and site. Thinking about it, this is a disservice to potential clients and a bigger disservice to our team because the sites we create for our clients are such a huge improvement based on the original version and we should really show off the difference. Well…here you go.

Digital Dimensions hired Jacob Tyler to re-design their Web site. After initial review, we suggested that their logo was not a good representation of the brand and requested (actually more like “forced”) permission to re-design their corporate identity prior to designing a new site. The result of the re-design can be seen now at www.ddicad.com

A couple of quick notes about the re-design and our methodology. DDI is a Solidworks (CAD software) reseller with stiff competition in California and Arizona. As well, they offer full service training and support for the Solidworks line of products. The problem with the initial Web site is that it lacked appropriate messaging that would quickly engage a site visitor. Thus, their “bounce” rate (meaning how many users went to the home page and left without clicking on any links) was very high. The site was difficult to navigate and some of the sections lacked a cohesive look and feel with the rest of the site.

JTCG re-designed the identity with an added tagline “Forward Engineering Solutions” to quickly communicate the breadth of their services. Along with the new logo and color scheme, JTCG created a Web 2.0 site with interactive functionality to create a “sticky” environment for visitors, including Web casts, Pod Casts, Blogs and more. From customer research, we had determined that site visitors wanted to feel that once the technology and software was purchased, that they would fully be supported and constantly updated with tips and tricks. Also, we determined that many potential customers really didn’t know what software was right for their needs. With that in mind, we created a section called “Solutions for You” that is database driven and asks the user very specific questions about their business and directs the user to the correct product choice. DDI edits the site daily with content and specifically requested that the site be built using the Joomla platform as they had experience using that content management system.

Please visit www.ddicad.com to see the new site. Come back here often as we are going to keep adding more before and after case studies.

If you have spent the better part of the last few years on the Internet, you may have already chanced upon the term PHP. You may have even encountered the definition: “a server-side scripting language”. But what exactly does it mean? And more importantly, what use can it be to you as an aspiring Web developer or Web designer?

Going back to the definition for a little while, PHP is indeed a server-side scripting language that is typically used in the creation of dynamic Web pages. It is a relatively easy to learn programming language that enables you to feature more dynamic content on your web sites.

PHP is different from other types of programming languages in that it is designed to work in conjunction with HTML. This compatibility is a distinct advantage of PHP and allows you to easily integrate it into web pages that have already been extensively rendered with HTML. This integration is in fact so seamless that you can quite readily switch between the two languages even within the same web document.

How it works is basically like this: web sites are typically designed with a combination of PHP and HTML in varying proportions depending on the designer’s intended purpose. When a visitor points his browser to the web page in question, the server will “read” and subsequently process the PHP instructions and later send the results of the process to the browser of the visitor.

This is pretty much similar to how other languages such as ASP or ColdFusion work. The main difference however is that PHP, unlike the aforementioned ASP or ColdFusion, PHP is both an Open Source and a cross-platform application. What this means is that PHP can be run under the Windows NT platform as well as many versions of the UNIX platform. In addition, PHP can be designed to function as an Apache module and even as a binary that can be run as a CGI.

PHP by its very nature is exceptionally light and fast to run but when designed to run as an Apache module it is even more so. The absence of any process creation overhead allows PHP to return results quickly compared with other programming languages plus it has the added benefit of not requiring the tuning of mod_perl in order to limit your server’s memory image to a manageably small size.

Beyond its usage as a means to control and alter the contents of your web pages, PHP can also serve to function as an HTTP header sender. It is typically used in this function to set cookies in web browsers, manage the site authentication processes, and to redirect users to other sites. PHP also works well with other programs and applications, enabling unparalleled connectivity with many different databases as well as ODBC, as well as offering seamless integration with many different external libraries; libraries that allow you to accomplish tasks such as publishing PDF documents and even parsing XML.

The way PHP fits within your web pages is extremely elegant in its simplicity; so simple in fact you will not need a special development environment or IDE at all. You merely have to place a at the end. PHP can also be configured to utilize ASP type <% %> tags as well as .). The PHP engine is charged with the task of processing everything that is contained within those tags.

If you have had an extensive or even only a little background in programming languages, you may have already noticed that PHP has a lot in common with the languages C and Perl, especially in its language syntax. Just like in C and Perl, you do not have to declare variables prior to you using them, and it is also quite easy to create arrays and hashes (associative arrays).

So much for its characteristics; now how can you use PHP?

One of the most often mentioned and widely used applications of PHP is for server side scripting. This has traditionally been the area in which PHP has been focused. The three components of PHP in this particular application are: a PHP parser (which can take the form of a CGI or server module), a web browser and a web server. The web server is run with a PHP installation connected and the program output of the PHP program is accessed with a web browser. The PHP page can then be viewed through the web server.

Command line scripting is another area where PHP is utilized and for this application you only need a PHP parser. Typical uses include rudimentary text processing and running scripts such as Cron or Task Scheduler.

Finally, although not the ideal solution for this particular scenario, PHP is also used in writing desktop applications that feature a graphical user interface.

Clearly the uses for PHP are both varied and endless and you should explore it in depth to find out how it can be of service to you.