I develop websites and Progressive Web Apps in close collaboration with designers.
A Progressive Web App (PWA) is a website that works like an App on a mobile phone without all the overheads that an App has and can store data even in “flight mode”.
I’ve extensive experience in writing websites for various industries including Insurance, Online Retail, Church Donations, Members Directories, Properties and Travel. In addition, I can provide facilities to generate simple Excel spreadsheets, PDF (Portable Document Format) documents and QR (Quick Response) or classic barcodes.
Initial Client Meeting
The development process starts with a first client meeting (either directly with the client, or with a collaborative web designer). Ideally I’d meet in person, but it could also be achieved via Zoom (Microsoft Teams) or on the phone. We chat about what the client wants to achieve, and I ask questions pertinent to the website or PWA implementation. Additionally, I suggest other things that they maybe haven’t thought about.
Website design and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
I work with a number of web site designers to whom I would sub-contract any website design or SEO work, or I can work with designers directly.
Quotation
I then go away and produce a quote for the client – itemising what I consider to be essential items for the project, plus optional items which could be implemented in the future. The quote is in a written form and is normally emailed to the client – detailing what I would be providing for this job, and for how much.
Jobs are normally charged on a per-project basis, but could be charged on an hourly rate.
Implementation Meeting
The client (or web designer) and I then have an implementation meeting. Are there things that they no longer want to have created or has the quote raised other requirements they’d like to have?
Website / PWA Development
If the website contains a lot of work, I will ask for a financial commitment from the client. If the project is abandoned without any work taking place, I will refund monies. If development work has taken place, a proportion of the money will be refunded.
Inevitably, I will ask additional questions of the client – to ensure my understanding of what they want matches what I’m intending to provide to them.
Programmer Testing
Once I’m happy with the work I have done, I will perform Programmer Testing to ensure that the website functions work. The software will then be released to the client for user acceptance testing.
User Acceptance Testing
Once the website / PWA has been released to the client, it is their responsibility to perform User Acceptance Testing to ensure the software works in the way they expected it to.
If there are any problems I will amend the software accordingly. If a major change is required that was not originally quoted for, I will need to re-quote for this.
Support and Maintenance
I provide a free period of a month after software has been made live on a website for bug-fixes to be repaired. Beyond this time I can charge in 5 or 10-hour support blocks, or I charge per fix or additional enhancement.
Ways of working
I prefer meetings with the client to be face-to-face, but this is not always possible. If it’s not possible – e.g. the client is at the other end of the country, or on a different continent, then Zoom (or MS Teams) is preferred, in order that I can demonstrate by screen sharing how I intend the software to work, or how it is currently working, or the client can demonstrate something that they want to show me.
Most website work is carried out remotely using remote tools to log into the ISPs servers to access the website pages and the underlying database.
Website Development
I normally write my website pages using the programming language PHP (back-end language), the database mySQL (or MariaDB), and with Javascript and jQuery (front – end languages). Additionally I can write WordPress plugins.
If you have any other requirements that you’d like me to consider, please get in touch.