The Team
Phototropic Productions was created by Ben Vallack and his father Paul in 2001. The technical and creative aspects of production are carried out by Ben who works from home in Exeter.
Paul puts his background in fine art to use during the design stage and his excellent perspective as a technophobic web surfer during usability testing.
When you call us you will speak to Ben, and he's the guy who can build your website. This means you can discuss your website with the designer rather than a project manager as with larger companies.
‘ Ben has listened to everything we have suggested to him and put together a website of which we are proud. He has positioned my site at the top in Google searches and maintained it there. All contact with Ben is always dealt with rapidly and, after entering into our second year with Phototropic, we cannot fault the service. Everything is explained in a way that I can understand. Thanks Ben, long may you continue. ’
Testimonial by Jen Bryant from Jen Bryant Photography
Technology and skills
XHTML/CSS and Search Engine Optimization
We realized very early on in our move towards web design that the two most important things a website must be able to be is to be found on search engines and to be easily used by people with disabilities as well as those without. Fortunately accessibility and search engine optimization (SEO) go hand in hand as valid XHTML and CSS is key to success in both areas.
The benefits of hand written valid code
Over the years we have pushed ourselves to excel in hand writing valid XHTML and CSS. Many so called web design companies use what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) software applications to make your website. It may look ok to you but search engines and screen reading software and alternative devices will be presented with messy and unnecessary code.
This makes it harder for the search engines to see the content you are trying to promote. Visually impaired users and those who use the keyboard and not a mouse will find it harder to use your website as the tools they use won't be able to interpret your website's content properly.
PHP programming to make the website work
Most websites need some behind the scenes programming. This can be anything from a script to make a navigation menu show the user which page they are on, to a complete shopping cart system with admin panel and paypal integration. We have the skills to do this as well as create custom blogging applications, image galleries or content management systems (CMS).
We can host your site too
We have a top-end hosting service which we only offer to our clients. This means we know exactly what is running on the server and makes maintenance of your website a much simpler process.
Recent Work
The Devon Carpenter
We were recently commissioned to build a clean, simple and usable website for renowned Devon carpenter, Phil Szaniszlo. The website features a fully featured content management system with the ability to upload pictures to a gallery and control the form submissions.
Case Study
Jen Bryant Dartmoor Photography
| Features | Number 1 Google phrases | Technologies |
|---|---|---|
| Ajax (live) Shopping cart | Dartmoor Photography | XHTML/CSS |
| Live category selection | Dartmoor landscape photography | PHP |
| Clean, usable interface | Jen Bryant Photography | MySQL |
| Admin Panel | dartmoor landscapes | Javascript |
| PayPal integration | Jen Bryant | Ajax |
Jen Bryant commissioned us to build a complete online shopping experience to view and buy prints of her landscape photography. Google results were of high importance to the client and we achieved number one placement for all of her main key phrases. This was all done through legitimate techniques recommended by Google.
The project features an online admin panel which the client can use to completely control the content of the website. We integrated PayPal as the payment processing solution for the website.
 - Dartmoor.jpg)
