Apps. They’re everywhere. We have apps on our mobile devices and on our computers. Even TVs have apps now. So naturally, you might expect that there’s an app for everything these days. But not so.
Simply put, an app is software designed to accomplish a specific task for the end-user. Do a quick Google search and you’ll turn up all kinds of turnkey apps. But sometimes a “cookie cutter” solution just doesn’t cut it. So we like to tell our clients, “If there isn’t an app for that, we can build one.”
We call it customization. And it’s why we use WordPress to build most of our sites. Ask any of us, and we’ll tell you that WordPress is the ultimate web content management system — a simple-to-use, comprehensive platform for creating, managing, and publishing content onto Web pages. WordPress is notoriously friendly to customization, allowing us to tweak plug-ins (apps customized for WordPress) from its extensive database, or add our own, without undermining the very thing that makes it so great: simplicity.
Consider the WordPress website we built for Hammer Lighting & Grip, Inc., for example. Hammer is Indiana’s largest and most complete lighting and grip equipment rental company. Their inventory is massive and no client’s list of equipment needs is the same. So Hammer needed a tool on their site that allowed visitors to not only easily search their inventory, but also compile an organized list of their needs.
There wasn’t an app for that. So we built one.
From Hammer’s “Packages and Pricing” page, customers can browse an inventory of equipment and add everything they need to a master list. This list includes item descriptions, quantities, individual costs, and a grand total for their order. Finally, with a name, email address, and simple click of a button, customers can send their lists directly to Hammer to complete their requests.
Hammer wasn’t afraid to think big. If you’re thinking about new ideas for your company’s website, you should think big, too. And if there isn’t an app for it, let’s build one.