Lai Real Estate
Client
Sam Lai, Lai Real Estate, Ltd.
Details
Sam is a friend of mine who needed a web site for his real estate appraisal business in Seattle. We met several times to discuss style and requirements of the site. In addition to listing his services and rates, Sam wanted an online appraisal request form that would allow customers to submit requests directly from his site.
I designed the site from the ground up to be flexible, simple, and accessible using XHTML and CSS. PHP is used to do header, sidebar, and footer includes. I also created an accessible form and hooked it up to Swift Mailer to handle form processing. The form handles input and file uploads and then packages everything into a nice email sent directly to Sam.
Sam reports that his clients have been very happy with the site.
Skills Used
XHTML, CSS, PHP, graphic design, user-centered design, accessibility
What I Would Do Differently Today
When Sam and I originally discussed the project we talked about the possibility of creating a map for the Area section that displays the regions he covers. We never got around to doing it. Today I would use one of the free map APIs from either Google or Yahoo and overlay transparent polygons that show the service area.
I would also redo the site using WordPress to allow Sam to make edits to the site himself. All features of the current site could be supported. In addition, should Sam wish to begin posting articles related to the real estate industry, he could use the blogging feature in WordPress to do so.
