As you might be aware, we recently re-launched the 360innovate website. We thought that some of the geekier blog readers out there might be interested in the technologies we used to put the site together!
The 360innovate website marked a departure for us; it was the first website that we have built using Django, the Python based web framework. We’ve built many, many sites using PHP, so why did we decide to change that for this development?
Put simply, Django is a joy to work with. It combines superb flexibility with out-of-the-box features to provide a great platform to use as a base for bespoke web development. It espouses a DRY philosophy – “don’t repeat yourself” – which means that changes to the site can be quickly programmed and rolled out.
It also saves a great deal of time on back-end development, as it comes with an admin area that is totally customizable to the users’ needs. This means that more time and effort can be redirected to the front-end development – where the spit and polish provides a great end-user experience.
Speaking of the front-end, we once again used jQuery, jQuery UI, and a sprinkling of Flash to provide the interface for the site.
This combination of technologies wouldn’t necessarily be used for every project that we take on, but where it’s appropriate to do so, it allows us to provide a better site within the same budget.
So if you’re thinking about a bespoke web development project, please get in touch!
