Playing off the humor and fun of the former design, color and texture were used to give the same playful feel, but in a polished design. Having lots of imagery was crucial to show the customers all the aspects of their potential new boards. The bold and colorful designs of the boards themselves also helped to complement the new brand colors. A key aspect was to present each board in an easy-to-read layout that emphasized images and video.

Process

1. I start each process by researching the competitors in that specific industry. It helps give insight into what others are doing and how I can improve and adapt to my client's needs.
2. The next step is to set up wireframes in place of content to help visualize the site's flow. I typically set up three and go back to the client to present the three mockups. It gives options and the ability to mix and match parts that they may like from one design to the other.
3. The final step before I can start building is to review the options with the client. This stage has back and forth with any edits they may want. Once they’re happy, I can start the development.

After having their former website crash and disrupting service during their peak season, Larry wanted something more reliable. The solution was to migrate them to AWS and give the front end a modern look. PayPal is their online payment method, so integration was needed for the e-commerce aspect of the site. Along with a cart system for adding skateboard components to an order was also necessary.

Hosting

AWS is a great hosting option and gave me a chance to learn a lot of backend technologies within that ecosystem. It provides a reliable, scalable, and cost-effective way to host.

Platform

I chose Jekyll, a static website generator, to be the platform the site runs on. It made it easy to update any details through Github.

E-Commerce

PayPal was the method of payment, so I had to use their REST API across the site. This was by far the most challenging aspect of the development process.