Welcome to the online home of Howard Richardson,
UK web programmer
Let me help you realise your website, online database or web application!
I work one-on-one with clients, which means you're guaranteed my personal attention and a constant point of contact for your project. I work from home which means I have fewer expenses, don't have to charge VAT and don't have office rental or payrolls — in a nutshell, I'm better value!
I have over ten years industry experience and a degree in Computer Science, so you can be sure your job is in safe hands. Below you can see some of the types of work I commonly do. You'll find more on my hiring me page.
Custom-built web apps
Building a web application is so much more than just programming.
You need to understand visual design, workflow, web standards, server administration, security threats and above all… people!
I offer clients the whole package and can build you an on-spec application that will exceed your expectations and keep working beautifully into the future.
I have many years experience in key web technologies such as PHP, MySQL, AJAX with JQuery, Smarty templating and Apache. Additionally on request, I can work with common libraries or rapid development frameworks such as CakePHP.
About hiring me »
Updates and improvements
Tweaks, bug fixes, updates? I can help improve what you already have.
Many times you'll just want something small added to your existing site, like a new graphical element or an additional feature.
I am always happy to work with your existing set-up and expand or improve it according to your needs. Just ask me for a free quote!
About hiring me »
Contao Open Source CMS
Hands-down the best Open-Source Content Management System I've seen.
In a nutshell a CMS lets anyone update their own website articles, news stories and calendars, as well as manage subscriptions or site membership, regardless of their technical ability.
I've tested out twelve or thirteen different CMS products over the years, so I'm confident in advising my clients about them now. Forget Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal or any of the numerous other contenders — Contao is the best compromise between flexibility, usability and security, hands-down.
So far I've made seven sites using Contao and I'm looking forward to making many more. And how has the client feedback been? Unanimously positive!
About hiring me »
Recent projects
Lawbore™
City University's award-winning Lawbore™ sites have so much going on they're impossible to pidgeon-hole!
My task was to build the software for a law portal which would house a large directory of law links, student course noticeboards and links to electronic journals — all with a richly animated, interactive style and live RSS feeds.
Later we added visual carousels of new library books linked directly with the electronic catalogue, Twitter feeds, student classified ads, a busy law events calendar, a sub-site for professional qualifications and yet more. Lawbore™ never stops evolving!
http://lawbore.net and http://lawborepro.net
Project type: Custom-built from scratch in PHP & MySQL. Makes use of JQuery and Smarty.
CLIG
The City Legal Information Group asked me to completely rework their approach to using the Internet...
... from a single technician managing everything by hand on his own PC, to a collaborative content-managed system that allowed the group to work together, regardless of technical knowledge.
I gave them a fresh visual look, a new website and an online database to manage their members details and newsletters. Equally importantly I was always on hand to help them manage the transition from the old way to the new, offering support and training wherever they needed it.
Project type: Contao CMS with custom extensions and bespoke visual theme.
Learnmore
Learnmore is a place for multimedia learning materials, like videos, presentations, talking slideshows and articles.
It's built on Mediawiki — the software which runs Wikipedia — but instead of the plain-looking encyclopaedic look, it's been given an appealing animated, hand-illustrated front-end.
It's chock-a-block with useful information and interactive presentations, and several of its pages are the top Google search result in their area.
Project-type: Mediawiki installation with additional navigational pages animated with JQuery.