After the success of developing Voucher Tree’s web application, Plymouth Software worked closely with Branch Media (the people behind Voucher Tree) to build the complimentary app for Android smart phones and tablets.

Malooba’s iPhone app had already proved a success, and customers immediately started enquiring about an Android app.

Designed and Built for Android

It’s important that our apps adopt adopt the interface conventions that Android users expect. Trying to shoehorn an iPhone UI onto Android can lead to an unfamiliar and uncomfortable experience, so we designed Voucher Tree from the ground up as a first-class Android citizen.

We started by putting together prototypes that drew on some of the latest Android user-experience patterns to deliver vouchers in a compelling way.

After some experimentation, it was decided to use a dashboard-style interface, and display promoted vouchers in a scrollable view across the top-half of the dashboard. This also subtly mirrored the design of the Voucher Tree website, providing continuity to people using both platforms.

Chris and his team have been outstanding with the service and advice they have given us along the way. Technical ability & knowledge of what we required was exceptional, absolutely brilliant!!

Scott Lehnhoff
Managing Director, Voucher Apps Ltd.

From the dashboard, users of the Voucher Tree Android app can browse the full range of available vouchers (and filter them by category), as well as access a list of their saved favourite vouchers. Any voucher can be saved as a favourite by tapping the star icon on its overview page.

Designing the voucher overview page proved a challenge, due to the potentially high amount of information that might be displayed about a voucher. Whilst all vouchers carry a title, icon, and contact details, there are a number of attributes that are not applicable to every voucher. These include promo codes, expiry dates, website URLs and more.

Thanks to Android’s fluid interface layouts, we were able to put together a layout that adapted to cover all eventualities, whilst not overloading the user with information. Maps and external websites were made available through large call-to-action buttons along the bottom of the screen, well within reach of the user’s thumb when navigating the app single-handed.

Ongoing Development

Since launching, the Voucher Tree Android App has been downloaded to over 200 devices, and has received some great feedback.

I would recommend Plymouth Software to anybody and couldn’t give them enough praise!

Scott Lehnhoff
Managing Director, Voucher Apps Ltd.

As the app develops, we’ll be building more refined functionality that takes advantage of the Android platform, including location-aware searching and Android’s notifications.

Voucher Tree is available to install free from Android Market. After installing and trying out the app, please leave your feedback and comments and let us know what you’d like to see in the next release.

Working alongside graphic designers and iOS developers, Plymouth Software designed and built the custom Rails web application behind Voucher Tree, Cornwall’s first free voucher app.

The Voucher Tree website is available at voucher-tree.co.uk.

Plymouth Software was invited by Voucher Apps Ltd. and Malooba to discuss the design and development of Voucher Tree, a mobile and web-based app providing discount offers and vouchers for people living in and visiting Cornwall.

After our first chat, we identified the goals for the first release, and set about designing and building a custom Rails 3 web application. Using this web app, merchants can add and manage their own vouchers, branch locations, and so on, while customers can browse and print vouchers.

Chris at Plymouth Software has been absolutely outstanding from start to completion of the first stage of Developing our website.

Working alongside our iOS developer, Chris has been instrumental in the production of our mobile phone app.
Scott Lehnhoff
Managing Director, Voucher Apps Ltd.

The web application also needed to exchange information with the iPhone app, so we designed a JSON API for authorised third-party client apps to send and retrieve voucher data.

Plymouth Software also worked alongside Cornwall-based designers DCC Design and Red Snapper Design to build the application functionality around the theme and identity they created for Voucher Tree.

Voucher Tree’s iPhone app is powered by a JSON API developed by Plymouth Software. The iPhone app was designed and built by Malooba.

Our open and agile approach to development meant that everyone involved could easily access the latest version of the software, as it was developed. Voucher Apps were able to start using and testing parts of the the site within days, providing essential feedback to guide the project’s development.

Within a few weeks, the first release of Voucher Tree was ready and made available to merchants to upload their vouchers and offers. Malooba’s custom iPhone app has been approved by Apple, and is available to download today from the iTunes store, or from Voucher Tree website itself.

From our initial brief Chris got on with the job at hand and the production has been seamless!

I am so impressed by Plymouth Software’s work – we have endorsed them to produce an Android version of our app.
Scott Lehnhoff
Managing Director, Voucher Apps Ltd.

Voucher Tree has already received great feedback for merchants, and the company is now working with Plymouth Software on development of the Voucher Tree Android app.

For more information about Voucher Tree, please visit their site at voucher-tree.co.uk.

To have a chat about how Plymouth Software can help your business develop its web and mobile applications, please contact us on 01752 764877, take a look out our portfolio, or read some more of our case studies.

Marc2 Shoes Ltd. is an independent shop based in Jersey, Channel Islands. After several years managing their increasing customer list through a collection of spreadsheets with coloured labels. Unfortunately, as time went by, the information had become outdated and often invalid.

Finding the spreadsheets increasingly hard to manage, Marc2 were recommended to Plymouth Software to develop a web-based customer management database.

Plymouth Software was recommended to me by my I.T specialist and I am so happy with the results…I can thoroughly recommend Plymouth Software, and indeed I do!
Michelle O’Connell, Marc2 Shoes Ltd.

We worked closely with Marc2 to design and build a simple interface for maintaining their customer details. As well as providing fast searching, filtering and statistics for customer groups, Marc2 also required the capability to easily print groups of customer addresses for traditional postal mailings.

Chris understands the needs of computer dinosaurs like me and he devised a fantastic database which I can access and use with ease.
Michelle O’Connell, Marc2 Shoes Ltd.

The interface was designed to convey customer information in a concise manner, without the need to drill into results. For every record, the important customer details are given, allowing information to be gleaned at a glance. With the ability to filter customers, Marc2 can quickly find a single customer, or build a mailing list of customers matching various criteria.

For rapid development, and thorough testing, the application was built using Rails 3. Being web-based, Marc2 are now able to manage their customer details from any connected PC at any location.

Chris is always prompt with replies and solutions to any tweaks required on the system.
Michelle O’Connell, Marc2 Shoes Ltd.

For more information on Marc2 Shoes Ltd., please call 01534 870761.

To have a chat about how Plymouth Software can help your business develop with our custom web and mobile applications, please contact us on 01752 764877, or take browse our portfolio.

Lowdamoor Consulting is a small business supporting people changing careers. They provide a friendly, personal coaching service for interview techniques, and writing professional CVs.

In taking their first steps onto the web, Lowdamoor Consulting contacted Plymouth Software with a brief to build a simple website to promote their business. After discussing their goals, it was clear a single-page site would be the best approach.

I always felt that I needed a website but it took a briefing from you on options and costings to make me take the plunge. I am delighted with the site you produced and it is already paying dividends.
Julian Taylor, Lowdamoor Consulting

Lowdamoor Consulting primarily work with clients through face-to-face meetings. The website needed to support this by allowing customers to find out a little more about the business before getting in touch.

Very quickly, the decision was made to avoid multiple pages, and instead focus a single page on Lowdamoor Consulting’s service, giving customer testimonials, and – most importantly – a direct contact telephone number.

A couple of design revisions incorporating the company’s brand were produced, and the site copy refined to promote Lowdamoor Consulting’s friendly and personal service. Quotes from previous clients, identified as one of the most important parts of the site, sit alongside the main content, while the company contact details sit in the attention-grabbing headline banner.

Thank you for all the help and support you have given me and my business.
Julian Taylor, Lowdamoor Consulting

For more information about Lowdamoor Consulting, please visit their site at lowdamoor.co.uk, or call Julian Taylor on 01752 231302.

To have a chat about how Plymouth Software can help your business develop its web sites and applications, please contact us on 01752 764877, or take a look out our portfolio.

One of Plymouth Software’s first customers, Mark approached me for a complete revamp of his website promoting his landscape photography and calendars. As well as promoting his photography and painting portfolio, Mark also wanted to sell the his Vistas De Murcia calendars through the website.

After a chat about his aims for the site, it was clear that Mark needed something running quickly to maximise sales of the fresh-off-the-press 2011 calendar. We immediately got to work, sketching out a few design ideas and prototypes to get a feel for the site.

Phase 1 – Calendars

The new site needed to take a back seat, and focus the reader’s attention toward Mark’s stunning photography. After a couple of rounds of revisions, Mark and I settled on a very dark color scheme with off-white accents.

Initial sketches for markstocks.com

The charcoal background frames Mark’s bright and vibrant photography which makes up a continuous slideshow on the front page, instantly capturing the reader’s attention. A subtle purchase link sits within the slideshow bounds, whilst the rest of the site gradually reveals more about Mark and his work.

“One of the strengths I would recommend in Chris’ work is his ability to interpret the essential information from the client and create designs and solutions to match.”

The other two pages that made up this release, promoting Mark’s paintings and contact details, contain more general body text. To ease their contrast and differentiate them from the home page, they sit on an off-white background.

Phase 2 – Online Gallery and Sales

With phase 1 launched and Mark taking online orders for his 2011 calendar, the next step was to build a gallery for Mark’s complete archive of photos. Mark wanted to integrate a simple online ordering service such that customers could order several photos (at web or print resolution) and have them delivered via digital download.

Mark and I discussed the need to keep the ordering process simple; the process should be as fast as possible to complete. Photos would be delivered through a zip-file download, but would only be valid for one download. Payments were to be handled by PayPal Express, whilst Mark needed a way to manage and organise his growing collection of photos for sale.

A simple administration interface was built that allowed Mark to upload and tag his photos. The application also watermarks full-resolution previews automatically. Mark is able to rate each photo to dictate the order in which they will be displayed in the gallery, whilst premium photos are always promoted to the top of the list. The administration area also lets Mark see a list of received orders, and re-activate any used download links.

“I could not be happier with the design and function of the website throughout, but especially the new gallery section that far exceeds what I imagined would be possible for the promotion of my work.”

On the public side, I built the gallery using an infinite paging technique. As the reader scrolls down, the next row of available photos is displayed, allowing Mark’s portfolio to be viewed in its entirety on one page. I’ll be publishing technical details of developing the gallery on my development blog.

Just a few days after launch, Mark’s gallery is already attracting people to his photography. Mark is now promoting his new site throughout the Murcia region, and is planning phase 3 for launch in early 2011.

“The final result delivers on every level and looks fantastic.”

For more information about Mark and his work, visit markstocks.com. To find out more about applications Plymouth Software can build for your business, please get in touch or take a look around the portfolio.