Examples of work
Introduction
Here are a few examples of work that Goznet Systems has been commissioned to produce. They cover a range of different customers, and should give a good feel for what we can do to help you or your organisation make the most of being "on the web".
Good websites are dynamic and change frequently, and most Goznet Systems sites are able to be edited by their respective customers. The images and descriptions on this page relate to the time at which they were added, and consequently in some cases may not reflect current reality!
Airbrush artist
The Urbanist is one of the world's leading airbrush artists – and reputedly the fastest working. With new representation bringing a greater focus to promotion, he needed to replace his two existing sites with one combined one. This was also spurred on by a change of approach in his selling of hand-painted t-shirts, hoodies and other items.
With an appearance on ITV's new Daybreak show as a deadline for the first phase of development, the website was another quick win for the Kourou content management platform. The site includes judicious use of Flash and Javascript-based animation on the home page, and heavy use of the square_thumb_gallery plug-in to show off The Urbanist's fantastic designs.
The second phase of the website's development included the addition of shopping pages, where customers can either buy ready-painted t-shirts and other garments or design their own personalised items. PayPal is used as the payment handling gateway.
Spanish apartments
Roda Golf Holiday Lets offers two self-catering apartments at the prestigious Roda Golf and Beach Resort near Murcia in southern Spain. Like anyone offering accommodation, the owners understood the importance of a web presence and for potential guests to be able to view availability and pricing, then book on-line.
It will be of little surprise that the website was built around the Kourou content management platform, with custom plug-ins managing the availability calendar, price list and booking form. The site is also the first to use our new square_thumb_gallery image viewing plug-in, making it incredibly easy to add stylish photo galleries to Kourou-powered sites. The website is deployed using the clients' own web-space, made possible by the intentionally lightweight and industry-standard resource requirements of Kourou.
Football freestyler
Billy Fincham is a top football freestyler, who needed a good-looking and streetwise website to promote his skills and attract bookings.
The website is implemented using the Kourou content management platform, with punchy graphics produced in Fireworks. The photo gallery uses the popular Lightbox2 system, whilst the video content is presented using FlowPlayer – highly cost-effective and time-saving tools for linking in rich media. Realising that the striking masthead graphical menu may be somewhat overwhelming on smaller devices such as netbooks and mobile phones, intelligence is built in to deliver a more compact layout when screen size dictates.
Social networking application
Relived Lite is a simple Facebook-based application produced as a fun promotional gizmo to raise awareness of a new web-based service called Relived. It allows people to share bite-sized memories with one or more of their Facebook friends, with the option of attaching a predefined image or one they have uploaded from their own computer.
The application was produced in PHP, and integrates with Facebook via the Graph and FBML APIs. Although quite simple, the application is proof that Goznet Systems can deliver in this rapidly growing sector of the web market.
Community-based initiative
Farnham foodbank is a new community-based initiative Goznet Systems was delighted to have the opportunity to become involved with on a "pro bono" basis. Foodbanks provide emergency food to people in times of crisis.
We worked with the Farnham foodbank core team along with key staff at the overseeing Trussell Trust to devise a design that would coordinate with the Trussell Trust and other foodbanks' websites whilst conveying the required information simply and clearly. Kourou was the perfect implementation platform for this, with its high degree of accessibility and ease of templating.
Local self-employed builder
Arthur Boustead is an established locally-based builder and joiner who wanted a simple website, both as an advertisement for those seeking his services and also as somewhere to refer potential clients making contact in more traditional manners in order to see the variety and standard of the work he can offer.
After a short face-to-face consultation, Goznet Systems produced a visual mock-up based upon existing business stationery and with an intentionally "retro" feel. Once photographs and descriptions of the projects Arthur had completed over the more recent of his 35 years trading were finalised, the website itself was created using the Kourou content management platform. As you can see, it's visually quite different from other Kourou sites, showing the flexibility of the system for delivering websites of all kinds.
Local gardening service
MAN with MOWER is a new start-up lawn-mowing and general gardening business, and like every organisation wanting to engage with people in the 21st century, a web presence from the word go was an essential for client credibility.
The site has only three pages, but gets the required information across in an attractive and contemporary manner, with plenty of opportunity for nice photographs (and indeed extra pages if need be) as the business and client base develop. Like most of Goznet Systems' sites, the Kourou content management platform is employed throughout, including use of the new simple_feedback plugin for the spammer-resistant contact form.
Mobile masseuse
My Body In Mind was created for a mobile masseuse who had a domain registered but had found the prospect of getting a website on to it to be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. Therefore it was a breath of fresh air to the client for Goznet Systems to be able to come in and get a cost-effective but stylish site up and running within days of the initial consultation.
This is yet another Kourou site, with yet another highly distinctive design. With many content management systems, the designer is heavily steered down certain visual avenues, but Kourou allows complete flexibility from the word go. The website also includes use of Google's mapping API with overlays.
Manufacturing company
When it was time to refresh our website, Goznet Systems was an easy choice. I'd already seen many examples of David's work, and knew he would deliver a professional and technically accurate website for us. His initial assessment and quotation shocked us - not because of the price, but rather how many errors our existing site had. David worked with good communication and understanding to deliver what we wanted. I'm really pleased with the new site, the ease of editing it and the potential it gives us for future developments as they become necessary. I'd recommend Goznet to anyone considering website creation or refreshing.
Sekisui Jushi BV is the European arm of one of the leading manufacturers of plastic strapping, used for packaging worldwide. Having had many problems with their previous website, they were keen to replace it with one that was compatible with the wide range of browsers now in use and that was easier to edit and update content. The latter requirement had been a particular issue in the past, with it very difficult to add new pages to their site's main structure.
The website was reimplemented using the third generation of Goznet Systems' innovative and flexible Kourou content management platform, running on the client's own webserver. For the moment, much of the actual content is the same as previously, but it is presented in a contemporary format with interactive menus that can be updated much more easily than previously. Whereas the previous site appeared as intended only when using Internet Explorer, Kourou additionally helps ensure compatibility with Firefox, Opera, Safari, Google Chrome and any other standards-compliant browsers likely to be encountered.
Animal sanctuary
Springflower Animal Sanctuary is a local charitable organisation dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and ultimately the rehoming of neglected and abandoned animals. Their previous website was produced as a generous gift, but since - for historical reasons - it was based on a fairly rigid template for an on-line florist did not offer the flexibility or editability required.
The new site employs the new generation of Goznet Systems' Kourou content management platform, demonstrating very effectively the minimal visual constraints the system places on websites that use it. The customer is able to edit all the content, add completely new pages and update their fundraising 'thermometer' without any specialist technical knowledge.
Photo and video sharing facility
Styles of wedding invitation come and go, but at the end of 2009 a key client needed a website to accompany invitations that went out on the wrapper of a bar of chocolate. The wrapper allowed very little space for information, but guests were issued an individual password that they could use on the website to view further and personalised information about the venues, gift list and all the other essentials. Subsequent to the wedding itself, the emphasis of the website shifted, with it now being a photo and video upload and sharing facility.
The website is produced in PHP5 with Ajax to provide a slick user experience, with uploading via a user-friendly Flash widget borrowed from the Kourou system. Photo resizing and normalisation is handled by ImageMagick, with FFmpeg handling converting video to the ubiquitous Flash format. The Shadowbox Javascript plug-in is used to make an attractive slide-show of the uploads, with JW Player seamlessly integrating video playback.
Entertainment agency
Goznet Systems have been great over the years as our business has grown, understanding our evolving requirements and delivering quality websites and web applications time after time.
Top Dog Promotions are a highly successful entertainment agency, with over twenty high quality acts on their books, ranging from rock bands to conjurers, DJs to sports entertainers including football freestylers. They also operate youth workshops with local authorities and other groups. Each promoted act or workshop has a page to itself, generally following a consistent template including photographs, multimedia clips and contact information.
Top Dog Promotions' artists home page
Top Dog Workshops – produced in conjunction with Mellowdesign
The public website is key to their operations, but it is backed up by an additional privately-accessed web application to manage the diaries of their exclusive acts. As is typical of a web application, it uses a high performance database to store information, and can be accessed as an administrator with full control or as an end user with a read-only view of the information relating to them. Since the company's clients are frequently "on the road", a WAP interface is also available for mobile use.
Example of the calendar system
Google Maps mash-up
Goznet Systems have proved to be very reliable and fast in making a wide range of amendments and improvements to our website. They managed some requirements with noticeable ease which other developers had seemed to struggle with.
Urang Group are a large London based property management company, and in 2008 Goznet Systems took on some of the ongoing maintenance for their website. Amongst other more routine content updates, the company needed an updated interactive map of their 1500+ managed properties. Previously this had been implemented using Flash, but the relevant source files were not available for further modification, so an all-new map was produced using Google Maps in conjunction with an easily maintainable list of property locations and geographical coordinates for London outward postcodes.
The rich Google Maps application programming interface will help enable easy updating of the map in future, and allow inclusion of photographs and other information as required. The website as a whole continues to use static HTML for the time being, but where appropriate this has been enhanced by the in-situ use of server-side includes and PHP, and a more significant reworking of the site is being considered.
Entertainer
I needed the website in a hurry to key in with a press advertising campaign, and Goznet turned it around in just a couple of days - really good service for something looking so great!
Gareth Banks is a party DJ and karaoke specialist, and needed a website quickly constructed to accompany a newspaper advertising campaign. Despite being simple, the end result is both stylish and flexible, striking a healthy balance between form and function so as to appeal to a wide range of potential clients.
The website is mainly static PHP/XHTML, enhanced with Javascript-modified CSS. The website has been designed to degrade gracefully in the event that Javascript is not available; such visitors inevitably will not see the site quite as intended, but will not be prevented from accessing any of the content.
Document sharing area
Feed My People are a UK-based charitable organisation operating in countries around the world, aiming to empower disadvantaged people, particularly children, in war-affected and vulnerable communities. To smooth the processes involved with informing and receiving reports and other information from their local partners, they needed a secure web area where documents could be uploaded, published and downloaded. FTP, even SSH-secured, did not offer the flexibility and privacy required, where permission to access files and folders needed to be issued on a fine-tuned basis.
The area is implemented in PHP, and accessed over an SSL-secured connection. Although a conventional file-system is at the heart of the area, the required level of privacy is ensured by the use of Apache web server custom configuration in conjunction with security metadata, inspired by that used in the latest defence information systems.
DVD database web application
Goznet Systems are brilliant, quick and honest - the perfect combination to build a decent website!
Mokins.com's owner required a web application to keep track of his rapidly increasing collection of films on DVD, data previously held in a spreadsheet with minimal flexibility. The publicly accessible web application allows the films to be browsed by name, and searched either using simple full-text matching or more complex criteria. The owner is able to log in and edit or add films, full details for which can optionally be automatically retrieved from authoritative sources.
The facility was developed in PHP, and designed to be able to "plug in" to the customer's pre-existing website with minimal disruption. The MySQL database behind it all contains eight tables, and information from the database is fetched and displayed using AJAX for efficiency and smoothness of operation. Authoritative details are retrieved and processed using PHP's cURL functionality in combination with regular expressions. Other work completed for this website includes a number of Javascript based games.
Review website
Catalogue Shopping Review is a website where consumers can share their wisdom about products bought from stores like Argos. Such products are often exclusive or own-brand items about which next to no information can otherwise be found before spending out. The site is completely free to use and requires registration only in order to submit new reviews. Revenue is generated by well-targeted unobtrusive advertising.
Reviews and member information are stored in a MySQL database, accessed via a combination of PHP and AJAX for maximum responsiveness and ease of use. There is also a simplified read-only WAP interface, using WML, PHP and MySQL. Advertising uses the Google Adsense API.
Collaborative diary
Diary 4 is a commercial collaborative on-line diary, targeting groups of people (particularly, but certainly not exclusively, those involved in the performing arts) wishing to coordinate their time more efficiently. It allows group members to add events of various kinds to an easy-to-navigate shared diary or calendar, and can automatically notify members of upcoming events by email. Selected events can be published to a public page for the group, and also via a Flash widget that can easily be added to social networking sites like MySpace or to the group's own website.
The main user interface to the Diary 4 web application is produced in PHP with a MySQL database back-end. Scheduled tasks operate using Perl and cron under Linux, again integrating with the database.
Church website phased overhaul
Farnham Vineyard are part of the global Vineyard family of churches, and have had a website for several years. It was visually pretty respectable and was well-liked, but unfortunately had been created in a way that hindered the development needed to reflect an evolving congregation's needs. Consequently the first phase of the overhaul was to take the existing visual design and structure almost as they were, but completely replace the back-end engine. As a result, the site does not yet appear dramatically different to the previous version, but has the potential for expansion as well as improved usability and accessibility for visitors with disabilities. As with most Goznet Systems sites, the customer has full responsibility for and direct control over the text and images contained within the website's pages.
