Peppercorn Blog

House On The Rock
August 12th, 2010

Recently launched House on the Rock, developed by Peppercorn, is a new website for a Christian fellowship organisation based in London.  The site allows users to see up coming events and latest news as well as more information on the community.

The graphic design of the site was kept simple using light, pale colours to show a refreshing clean site that allows easy navigation for the user.  The client can update the whole site using a content management system that was custom developed by our web designers.

The site was coded using PHP/MySQL.  Click here to check it out.

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SEO Site Checkup
May 18th, 2010

We came accross this site recently which runs a great check on your site and how well it’s SEO’d.  Check out http://www.seositecheckup.com and enter your website address.  The analysis will give you page information, meta information, page notes and objects as well as other recommendations to improve your websites search engine performance.

SEO is a complicated game but this site is a great place to start.  There are some great explanations as to what each part of the site is and what you can do to improve it.

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Captcha Code
April 23rd, 2010

With SPAM mail causing such a problem to most email users, web designers can add a small piece of code to web forms they develop that stop form scripts being used to send SPAM mail.

We’ve all seen the small graphics with letters and numbers that we have to read and enter into the form before we can send it.  This is called a “CAPTCHA” code and if the letters and numbers entered, do not match the code, the form will not submit.

Computer programmes and robots can not read these images so there is no way to by-pass the code and send out unsolicited emails using scripts from your page.

There are many types of Captcha codes available on the Internet now so web designers have a large variety to choose from.  This is a simple and effective way to stop SPAM being sent from your pages.

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School of Thought
April 1st, 2010

Peppercorn is proud to announce the launch of a new site “School of Thought”.

This website allowed us to get very creative indeed as the target audience is young people and students.  The site had to be vibrant, colourful and make an impact on the homepage loading. Our web designers had to work hard to make it happen.

Luke worked on the graphic design of the site and researched similarly styled sites already on the Internet.  After discussing with the client what they wanted from the design Luke began sketching and playing with some ideas, colours and themes and the outcome is exactly what the client wanted:

The homepage has a video linked in from YouTube which the client can change or update any time using the content management sytem.

Gerald coded the site using PHP/MySQL and included a content management system allowing the client to update the website content whenever they like.

Check it out at: www.sotdoc.com

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Rent to Buy
March 12th, 2010

Peppercorn has recently completed and made live a new site for www.renttobuy.co.uk.  The site allows users to add their own properties to the site in order to receive leads and enquiries from potential tennants.  Renters are able to browse the site and search for properties in their area.

As the web designers for this project we had to ensure the homepage was clear and easy to understand for all users.  4 properties on the homepage allow the client to list important properties and also show users within seconds of arriving at the site what the site offers.

Navigating deeper into the site and searching for property, displays clear results that will allow the user to review and look at more details of properties that interest them.

Finally, if the user wishes, they can make an enquiry about the property.

The site has been developed using PHP/MySQL and has a complete Content Management Sytem allowing the client to update the content and view members details at any time.

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Ecommerce Site – Bespoke or Off-The-Shelf?
February 8th, 2010

Web designers have many options when developing an ecommerce site.  The main decision to make is whether to use an off-the-shelf product or develop a bespoke ecommerce site.  There are advantages and disadvanteges to both but as with so much in life, it comes down to budget!

The first option is to use an off-the-shelf product like OScommerce which allows you to setup an ecommerce site quickly and relatively easily.  Development costs for these sites are usually lower as much of the code is already written and all you have to do is plug in various parts of the site to make it functional.  The back end system is good and caters for just about every thing you need.  The main disadvantage to this is that the graphic design can be restrictive and it can be difficult to deveop an eye catching design using the off-the-shelf products due to their limitations.  However, the cost reduction in this may make it a price worth paying.

The alternative is to have a completely bespoke site that is designed from the ground up.  While more expensive, the freedom this gives you is huge in that your web designers will be able to create a graphic design without any limitations.  This will allow a much more creative and eye catching design that will stand out from the rest.

You will also keep all control of functionality and should you need to add any functionality that is not included in an off-the-shelf product, it will not be a problem.   In the long run, this could be a wiser investment.

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Internet Explorer – More Flaws
January 25th, 2010

Experts looking at Internet Explorer’s vulnerabilities and have found more.

Core Security Technologies found four or five potentially exploitable secutiry failures in IE that could give a hacker remote access to a user’s PC. Individually, none of the vulnerabilities could be used to break into PC’s running IE, but if networked they could.

It has already brought the flaw to Microsoft’s attention and intends to run a demo of the hack at a Black-Hat security conference in Washington early next month.

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Google Website Optimizer
January 15th, 2010

Google has a tool that will allow web designers to try different designs, versions or content of their website to gain a solid idea of what is most effective.  Website designers can create different designs for pages and add them to Google Website Optimizer which will automatically distribute users to the differently designed pages.  Google will then offer statistics on which pages were successful and how many ‘goals’ converted.

Secondly, once you have established which design layout works the best, you can experiment with various text content and images in the same way to see which variation gains the most of what you want to achieve.  This will really help web designers isolate the message for the sites they create and help you realise what your users want from your site.

This is valuable information for website designers as it gives real data as to what works and what doesn’t. Click here to see for yourself.

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Google to Leave China?
January 13th, 2010

Google said today it was considering ending operations in China after a “sophisticated and targeted” attack originating from the country.

Google says it is no longer willing to censor its Chinese search engine – google.cn.   This would result in closing the site, and its Chinese offices.

Click here for the full story.

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Peppercorn to Prototype Websites
December 22nd, 2009

Peppercorn is now using a new prototyping tool to develop front-end and CMS areas of websites it is developing.  By developing sites in a usable, clickable format for our clients to view, feedback, amend and approve we are sure this will make the development process easier for us as web designers and our clients as they will be able to see exactly what is to be delivered in a working model before its coded.

Peppercorn always strives to ensure customer satisfaction and is always looking for new ways to improve our service.  Any feedback is appreciated!

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