Demon Plates

Demon Plates specialise in allowing customers to design and purchase custom UK car registration plates. With the website being their only source of income, it was necessary to design and implement a functionality that would make them stand out from the competition. The functionality we implemented turned Demon Plates into an extremely popular website for designing and purchasing custom registration plates. Since the new plate builder was implemented, turnover has increased dramatically; analysis of the sales figures for 2007 before and after the implementation of the new plate builder show a turnover increase of around 80%.

Using Ajax, customers are able to enter any text onto a number plate; change or remove logos; add slogans, borders, badges; even change the style of the text that’s used on the plate. All this is done dynamically, without reloading the page constantly, leaving the customer feeling like they’re using a desktop application, as opposed to the usual click and reload interface that so many other websites employ. From a design point of view, all of the functionality is accessible from a single page that remains compact and fits within the confines of a browser window, reducing or in most cases completely removing the need to scroll.

Using Dynamic HTML to change the contents of the page is what gives the customer the feeling that they are using a native desktop application. Selecting tabs, much like one would do in any type of preferences or settings dialog, allows the customer to access a wide variety of options that allow them to customise the product to their liking. Even the price of the final product is updated dynamically each time an option or customisation is selected or deselected, allowing the user to view the total without any unexpected charges appearing on the checkout page, a common cause of drop outs. Through the use of these tabs, plenty of options can be made available to customers, without having to scroll through option after option. It’s easy to simply select the category you want to edit and without moving from where you are, you have access to a wide array of features and options.

Of course, using DHTML to change the layout and content of the page without reloading would be pointless if it wasn’t done with style! Demon Plates employs some very smooth animation effects, typically only found on Flash Websites, highlighting that, with Javascript and HTML technology, it’s possible to create visually appealing, functional, fast and useful websites with “flashy” effects, that don’t require visitors to install a third party plug-in.

To summarise, Demon Plates employs some of the latest techniques to give customers the feeling that they’re using a fast, smooth, easy to use, desktop application that gives them full control over what they need to achieve. Via animation, Ajax and great visual design, the website looks great and it works well.