Case Studies

Websites and other projects developed and/or maintained by Chris Hope

I have worked on many web projects since 1996, as part of Webenz from 1997 to 2003 and then as an independent contract programmer since that time. I would estimate that I have worked on around 200 web sites in some capacity; at some stage I'm going to sit down and try to compile a list of every site I have worked on to see if I can figure this number out. This section details some of the projects I have worked on.

Post sort order: Post Date (Newest First) | Post Date (Oldest First) | Alphabetical | Date Updated

Running Calendar Past, Present and Future

Posted June 29th, 2012 in Case Studies

I posted up "Running Calendar Past, Present and Future" on my New Zealand Running Calendar website which looks at the design evolution of that particular website.

Posted January 17th, 2012 in Case Studies

One of the websites I own is the New Zealand Running Calendar. I launched the 4th version of its template / theme yesterday and document the changes here with a couple of screenshots from the new version and the previous version, and talk about some of the changes.

Posted September 8th, 2011 in Case Studies and Javascript

I made some updates to my New Zealand Running Calendar website last night to move from using the Facebox jQuery plugin to use Colorbox instead. I used Colorbox recently on another project and found it much easier to work with - I've typically had to hack Facebox to make it work right - and for a couple of reasons decided to add it to the running calendar website.

Posted April 1st, 2011 in Case Studies and SilverStripe

When I'm not programming or writing web content I like to get out and run marathons, hence setting up the New Zealand Running Calendar to help people find running events in New Zealand. I met Gaz Brown from GetRunning through the running calendar and moved his existing static-ish website over to SilverStripe. GetRunning specialise in marathon training and marathon tours.

Posted November 17th, 2010 in Case Studies

We launched version 5 of the Personalised Plates website a week ago in the early morning of November 10th 2010. The site had a complete redesign and the backend was changed from a custom built PHP/MySQL to SilverStripe.

Posted November 12th, 2010 in Case Studies

I've been working on some changes to my New Zealand Running Calendar website over the last few days and just made the changes go live tonight. The running calendar lists running events in New Zealand and has a search function; I moved the search function from the left side to the top under the main navigation to free up horizontal space in the main content area.

Posted April 18th, 2010 in Case Studies and SilverStripe

I finally pushed my New Zealand Running Calendar website live this morning directly before going off to run the Run Auckland 10K on the Te Atatu Peninsula (which I ran in 43:31). As with the Motor Home Road Trip website which we pushed live earlier this week there's still a lot of content to be added and once I have all the content loaded I'll be adding some more functionality.

Posted April 14th, 2010 in Case Studies and SilverStripe

It's still very much a work in progress but we pushed motorhomeroadtrip.com live yesterday. It uses SilverStripe as the framework/CMS and we're currently loading content into it and finishing everything off.

Posted March 26th, 2010 in Case Studies and SilverStripe

I've just completed some changes to the Alpha Omega Associates private detective agency website which included switching it over to SilverStripe and making a number of layout and content changes so thought I'd share it here.

Posted February 14th, 2010 in Case Studies and SilverStripe

I put my first SilverStripe website online a couple of nights ago; it's my parents' three page website with an introduction to their patchwork fabric website, contact details and a list of suppliers.

Posted October 4th, 2009 in Case Studies

At 2am this morning we finally launched version 2 of the healthy.co.nz website. This has been a long work in the making and replaces the old website which was initially created back in 1998 using the Intershop system and later moved to the e3 system I created at Webenz.

Posted September 4th, 2009 in Case Studies and Javascript

I've reskinned the Kidzstuff website again (this is the 4th different design I've used now) and am much happier with the result this time. (A screenshot of the version 3 design can be seen here and the versions 1 and 2 here). This new design utilises the jQuery Superfish Menus plug-in which is the main purpose of this post.

Posted August 26th, 2009 in Case Studies

My latest released project is Backup My Web, an automatic website and database backup service which backs up your website on a daily, weekly or monthly basis; a copy of your website is then sent to you on CD or DVD each week or month.

Posted April 24th, 2009 in Case Studies

I'm pleased to announce that I've finally relaunched my kidzstuff.co.nz website directory and blog for websites in New Zealand relating to children and their families.

Posted December 9th, 2008 in Case Studies

We launched a new set of products on the Personalised Plates website yesterday: Zodiac Star Sign plates so you can have your own star sign on your car plate along with the legend of your choice.

Posted December 4th, 2008 in Case Studies

We launched what is effectively the 4th version of the Personalised Plates website yesterday with a slightly different flow for people searching for plates, and more emphasis on the different plate styles available.

Posted October 4th, 2008 in Case Studies

I have a website directory for children's oriented websites in New Zealand at www.kidzstuff.co.nz which I set up 18 months ago after purchasing the expired domain which had some decent inbound links. This post has a brief overview of the site and the design changes I made a couple of days ago.

Posted October 2nd, 2008 in Case Studies

After a considerable amount of work we finally launched the product zoom function on the JK Kids website yesterday. This allows the user to mouse over the thumbnail image of a product and view a zoomed in image next to it. This post looks at the function along with some screenshots.

Posted August 7th, 2008 in Case Studies

After a considerable amount of work we finally re-launched the JK Kids Gear website (Australian version here) on August 5th 2008. The design was by Ogilvy Metro and proved to be a challenge to implement but the end result looks great and we've had plenty of compliments about it already.

Posted July 12th, 2008 in Case Studies (Updated August 7th, 2008)

After 3 months of on and off work on the new Just Kids website we'll finally be ready to launch it next week. I decided this would be a good opportunity to have a look at the existing website and some of the usability issues with it which we have overcome with the new version of the website.

Just Kids (or JK) is a New Zealand based retail chain of kids clothing stores for children with stores in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, and an online presence with both New Zealand and Australian ecommerce stores.

Posted June 22nd, 2008 in Case Studies

The Cyetec Smart Alarms website advertises their smart alarm products which feature wireless video and audio communication to your mobile phone. The design for the website was provided to me as a Photoshop file, which I then turned into an HTML/CSS template and did the coding using the Zend Framework (PHP) with MySQL as the database backend.

Posted April 22nd, 2008 in Case Studies

I went to the Hitwise New Zealand Online Performance Awards on Wednesday last week along with Mike James from Healthy Online. We knew ahead of time that we were going to win an award, but I was surprised when they were reading out the awards that another site I work with, Personalised Plates, also won an award.

Posted March 2nd, 2008 in Case Studies

Earlier this week I launched a "reskinned" version of my Linux CD Mall website. The functionality is largely the same, but the navigation has been moved and improved and I prefer the new layout a lot more to how it was previously. This post contains screenshots and some information about the changes.

Posted July 16th, 2004 in Case Studies (Updated August 10th, 2004)

Te Arai Olive Estate is a premium olive oil producer in Mangawhai, on the east coast of Northland, New Zealand. They produce olives and olive oil; Motutira is their premium extra virgin olive oil and can be ordered online using their online ordering page.

Posted June 25th, 2004 in Case Studies (Updated June 22nd, 2008)

Outdoor Action is a New Zealand based retailer of outdoor items. Their ecommerce website was created using the open source osCommerce system which uses PHP and MySQL. The implementation of osCommerce was customised considerably to apply a nice design created by Nicola Wright.

Posted June 25th, 2004 in Case Studies

Print Counsel is an Auckland, New Zealand based print company. Their website is an information site advertising who they are and the services offered. There is an online ordering section which allows existing customers to login and place orders.

Posted February 13th, 2004 in Case Studies (Updated February 24th, 2004)

Country Best is an ecommerce shopping cart website in New Zealand which sells designer handmade baby clothing. It was designed by Nicola Wright and the shopping cart functions developed by me, Chris Hope, using PHP and MySQL.

Posted January 5th, 2004 in Case Studies (Updated February 24th, 2004)

The Flaxmill Bay website advertises a beachfront property development in Coromandel, New Zealand. It was designed by Iley Hewlet and assembled by me, Chris Hope, using XHTML and CSS layout.

Posted December 2nd, 2003 in Case Studies (Updated November 18th, 2010)

The Webenz e3 Commerce System is an easy to use and flexible ecommerce solution programmed using PHP and MySQL developed by me, Chris Hope, while working at Webenz. It is no longer developed and unlikely to still be in use on any websites.

Posted December 2nd, 2003 in Case Studies (Updated December 4th, 2008)

The Personlised Plates website is maintained by me, Chris Hope, and was developed using PHP and MySQL. It is updated on a daily basis with data from the Personalised Plates Microsoft SQL Server database.

Posted December 1st, 2003 in Case Studies (Updated March 19th, 2007)

Minerva Mail is a web based email marketing broadcasting solution developed to offer customised email marketing solutions to businesses. It was developed by me, Chris Hope, while at Webenz using PHP and MySQL.